Deciding about hormone therapy: validation of a model.
OBJECTIVE
The purposes of this study were to (1) validate components of a decision process regarding adoption of hormone therapy and (2) compare the decision processes women used with respect to their evaluation of decision quality.


METHODS
A sample of women participating in a population-based study of midlife women's health participated in individual in-depth interviews.


RESULTS
Content analysis of 30 recorded interviews provided evidence that each component of the decision process (precontemplation, contemplation, commitment, critical evaluation, and continuance) was replicated. Few additional codes were identified, and these could be subsumed under the phases of the original decision model.


CONCLUSIONS
Women's self-reported statuses on a screening questionnaire corresponded to the stages of the decision model coded from their interviews. What women actually decided to do (use hormone therapy or something else) was not associated with their decision process. Satisfaction with the decision, uncertainty about the decision, and other factors related to the decision were independent of the decision phases.
Department of Family and Child Nursing, University of Washington, Seattle 98195-261, USA.
N F
NF
Woods
S
S
Falk
B
B
Saver
T R
TR
Taylor
N
N
Stevens
A
A
MacLaren
D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003657:Decision Making; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D015914:Estrogen Replacement Therapy / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013637:Tape Recording; D016387:Women's Health