National Survey of Medical Decision Making
Investigators from the Survey Research Center and the Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine at the University of Michigan are currently analyzing data from a nationwide survey to better understand how medical decisions are made. Specifically, the investigators are studying the extent to which patients have basic information about their options and the implications of those options prior to making health-related decisions. The investigators also are evaluating how patients perceive the decision-making process.
Data for the study, referred to as the National Survey of Medical Decision Making, was gathered via telephone interviews with 3,010 participants age 40 and older. Researchers asked participants about discussions they had had with health care providers within the past two years regarding nine common medical decisions: screening tests for colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancer; prescription medications for hypertension, high cholesterol, and depression; and surgical interventions for knee or hip replacement, cataracts, and lower back pain.
The survey is unique in its scope; previous studies on medical decisions in the US have focused strictly on one medical decision or on a specific geographic location, limiting the ability of researchers to generalize the resulting data to other sites or situations. Findings from the National Survey of Medical Decision Making will be published in the near future.