Funded by Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making
Funding Years: 2007 -2008
The National Survey of Medical Decisions (the DECISIONS study), co-led by CBDSM investigators Mick Couper (PI) and Brian Zikmund-Fisher (co-I), is a unique effort to collect nationally representative data about when and how middle-aged and older adults manage the medical decisions they face.
The DECISIONS study consisted of a random digit dial telephone survey of 3,010 adults over the age of 40 in the United States conducted between November 2006 and May 2007. Participants were asked a series of screening questions to identify which of 10 common medical decisions they may have discussed with their health care providers in the previous two years and then completed 2-3 question modules regarding specific decisions that were relevant to each individual.
Its initial screening module gathered highly generalizeable data regarding the prevalence of different types of common medical decisions in the experience of older Americans. Its dynamically-administered modules then requested detailed information regarding how and when patients discuss key medical decisions with their health care providers and whether variations in decision-making processes may have influenced patients’ medical care.
Funded by the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making (FIMDM), the DECISIONS project has been a highly collaborative project that has included investigators from Institute for Social Research and FIMDM, as well as CBDSM. In addition, FIMDM-affiliated researchers from around the country are analyzing DECISIONS data to inform their research. While the initial papers from the DECISIONS dataset will be by core investigators, the study team intends to make the dataset publicly available for more widespread use sometime in 2009.
Mick Couper (PI)