Risk attitudes of anesthesiologists and surgeons in clinical decision making with expected years of life.
OBJECTIVE
To understand anesthesiologists' and surgeons' risk attitudes about expected years of life.


METHODS
Prospective study.


METHODS
Central operating rooms (ORs) in a university hospital.


METHODS
122 anesthesiologists and surgeons.


RESULTS
A 7-page survey questionnaire regarding the length of survival and the choice of treatments was sent to 122 physicians. Certainty equivalents and Arrow-Pratt coefficients of absolute risk aversion (APC) were calculated from the survey. Of 122 physicians, 93 responded (38 anesthesiologists and 55 surgeons; response rate 76. 2%). There was no significant difference in risk attitudes between the anesthesiologists and the surgeons. Their age was a statistically significant predictor of the risk attitudes: the older they were, the greater their APCs were (i.e., the more risk averse they were). There was no significant difference between gender in risk attitudes, nor was there any significant difference between the risk attitudes of becoming patients and those of working in the OR.


CONCLUSIONS
Physicians' risk attitudes cannot be predicted by their specialties or gender. However, the older they are, the more risk-averse they are.
Nakata
Y
Y
Department of Anesthesia, Teikyo University School of Medicine, Ichihara Hospital, Chiba, Japan.
Okuno-Fujiwara
M
M
Goto
T
T
Morita
S
S
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000776:Anesthesiology; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D013502:General Surgery; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008297:Male; D009873:Operating Rooms; D010361:Patients; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires