title: Quality of reporting of patient decision aids in recent randomized controlled trials: A descriptive synthesis and comparative analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Variable reporting of patient decision aids (PDAs) in published articles raises uncertainty about whether the intervention meets the definition of a PDA. We appraised the quality of reporting of PDA characteristics in randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
  
  
  METHODS
  RCTs eligible for the Cochrane review of PDAs and published June 2012 to April 2015 were included. Quality of PDA reporting was appraised using the International Patient Decision Aid Standards Instrument (v4.0). We descriptively synthesized and comparatively analysed qualifying and certification criteria reported in each publication against their presence in actual PDAs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventeen RCTs evaluating sixteen PDAs were included. Ten PDAs (58.8%) were reported using all qualifying criteria. Two (11.8%) were reported using all certification criteria. The median score for reporting qualifying criteria was 6 of 6 (range 4-6). The median score for reporting certification criteria was 2 of 10 (range 2-3) for screening and 1 of 6 (range 0-6) for treatment decisions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Reporting of PDAs in RCTs is suboptimal. Incomplete reporting poses challenges for clinicians and researchers needing to identify PDA content for clinical practice and/or future research.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Authors should report IPDASi (v4.0) criteria in published articles. Reporting guidelines for PDA evaluation studies are in development to improve reporting within the scientific literature.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
authors.forename: Krystina B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.affiliation: School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
authors.forename: Brianne
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.affiliation: Division of General Internal Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
authors.forename: Karen R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Sepucha
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK.
authors.forename: Richard G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Thomson
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada; Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada. Electronic address: dstacey@uottawa.ca.
authors.forename: Dawn
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stacey
mesh_terms: D002568:Certification; D003657:Decision Making; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D006801:Humans; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
keywords: Decision aid standards; Decision support techniques; Patient decision aids; Shared decision-making