title: Participation preferences of patients with acute and chronic conditions.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is little knowledge as to whether the chronicity of a disease affects patients' desire for participation.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To study whether participation preferences vary according to the type of disease. DESIGN, PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: Data of 1,393 patients from six trials with different medical conditions (hypertension, depression, breast cancer, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, minor traumas) were pooled and analysed, using multiple regression analysis controlling for socio-demographic variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Younger age, better education as well as female gender accounted for a small but statistically significantly greater desire to participate. Patients suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS) exhibited significantly higher participation preferences than the other diagnostic groups. There were no major differences between the other diagnostic groups. Age, gender, education and diagnosis explained only 14% of the variance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found no clear differences between chronic and acute conditions. However, patients suffering from MS, a chronic condition, were clearly different from all other diagnostic groups. The reasons for this difference remain unclear. The predictive value of socio-demography and type of illness is low.
authors.affiliation: Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie der TU München, München, Germany. j.hamann@lrz.tum.de
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hamann
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Neuner
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kasper
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vodermaier
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Loh
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Deinzer
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Heesen
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kissling
authors.forename: Raymonde
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Busch
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schmieder
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Spies
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Caspari
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Härter
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010358:Patient Participation / Q000523:psychology*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012044:Regression Analysis; D017678:Sex Distribution