Australian women's prediagnostic decision-making styles, relating to treatment choices for early breast cancer treatment.
Women diagnosed with early breast cancer are now asked by their doctors to choose from a range of options for their preferred medical treatment plan. Little information is known about women's treatment decision-making and therefore nurses do not have evidence to guide this decision support. The aim of this descriptive survey was to investigate the prediagnostic decision-making behavior of a sample (N = 377) of Australian women, regarding their treatment choices for early breast cancer. The data were collected using the Pre-Decision Portfolio Questionnaire (PDPQ) by Pierce (1996), which includes the Michigan Assessment of Decision Styles (MADS). Of 366 participating women, 19.9% strongly agreed to all three items of the MADS factor Deferring Responsibility; 0.3% strongly agreed to all four factors of Avoidance; 32.7% strongly agreed on all four items of Information Seeking; and 63.4% strongly agreed to all five items of Deliberation. Women showed a variety of preferred decision styles, depending on age, education, occupation and employment status. Only 36% of women indicated it was critically important to "get the treatment over as soon as possible;" 55% to "participate in selecting treatment;" and 53% to "read a lot of information:" The understanding of factors that are important to women when they are making decisions for medical treatment is a mandatory step in designing customized evidence-based decision support, which can be delivered by nurses to help women during this distressing experience.
Budden
Lea M
LM
School of Nursing Sciences, James Cook University Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Lea.Budden@jcu.edu.au
Pierce
Penny F
PF
Hayes
Barbara A
BA
Buettner
Petra G
PG
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003657:Decision Making; D004522:Educational Status; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D016014:Linear Models; D008875:Middle Aged; D024802:Nurse's Role; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010358:Patient Participation / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology*; D011340:Problem Solving; D011793:Queensland; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014930:Women / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*