Decision aids associated with increase in informed decision making about prostate cancer screening

Both web-based and print-based decision aids appear to improve patients' informed decision making about prostate cancer screening up to 13 months later, but does not appear to affect actual screening rates, according to a study by Kathryn L. Taylor, Ph.D., of Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., and colleagues.

A total of 1,893 men participated in the study, with 628 men randomly given a print-decision aid, 625 men used a web-based interactive decision aid, and 626 men received usual care. Researchers measured the participants' prostate cancer knowledge, decisional conflict, decisional satisfaction and whether participants underwent prostate cancer screening.

According to the study results, at each follow-up both decision aids resulted in significantly improved prostate cancer knowledge and reduced decisional conflict compared with usual care. At one month, high satisfaction was reported by significantly more print (60.4 percent) than web participants (52.2 percent) and significantly more web and print than usual care participants. At 13 months, differences in the proportion of men reporting high satisfaction among print (55.7 percent) compared with usual care (49.8 percent) and web participants (50.4 percent) was not significant. Screening rates at 13 months did not differ significantly among groups.

"The DAs [decision aids] offer neutrality, shown by the fact that they did not influence the screening decision in either direction compared with UC [usual care] … these tools offer flexibility for patients and providers, given the availability of both print-based and we-based tools," the study concludes.

(JAMA Intern Med. Published online July 29, 2013. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.9253. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com.)

Editor's Note: This study was supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute, Department of Defense and other funding sources. Please see article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.