A Decision Aid to Support Informed Choices for Patients Recently Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer

BACKGROUND: Decision aids provide balanced information about the benefits and risks of treatment options and improve the match between patient preferences and the treatment received. OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of a decision aid regarding the treatment options for patients with localized prostate cancer. METHODS: A 2-arm randomized controlled trial was used to compare booklet patient decision aid (intervention group n = 61) with standard information for localized prostate cancer (control group n = 61). The study was conducted at 3 hospitals between 2011 and 2013. The main outcome measures were knowledge, decisional conflict, satisfaction with the decision-making process, and coping. RESULTS: The respective mean Decisional Conflict Scale scores before and after the intervention were 53.0 ± 16.9 and 31.2 ± 10.2 in the intervention group and 49.1 ± 13.7 and 51.7 ± 13.3 in the control group (P < .001). Mean Knowledge scores were 38.6 ± 16.5 and 75.7 ± 19.0 in the intervention group and 42.0 ± 17.6 and 49.9 ± 16.0 in the control group (P < .001). Mean Satisfaction With Decision Scale scores were 81.1 ± 8.92 and 95.7 ± 6.89 in the intervention group and 82.5 ± 12.0 and 79.3 ± 10.3 in the control group (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Decision aid not only improved patient knowledge about localized prostate cancer and its treatment and their satisfaction with decision making but also decreased their decisional conflict. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Decision aid represents a rather innovative approach for a health insurance fund to develop and offer this format of information and decision support. This opens a new field of study for nurses to empower patients in the decision-making process and develop new roles in this area.