Making health decisions

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

New study looks at the factors influences the decisions we make about our health.
Suppose bird flu reaches the US and you have the choice of taking an experimental new vaccine. What influences the decision you come to? To explore this interesting issue, researchers at the University of Michigan and their collaborators gave an extensive online questionnaire to a group of 2,400 people asking them to think about the flu vaccine issue from different points of view. They were also asked to consider taking chemotherapy for a slow-growing cancer. The decision was to go for the treatment or to take their chances without it.

They were divided into four groups. One took the point of view of the patient themselves, another of a parent deciding for a child. The third played being a doctor and the fourth a medical director making a guideline for treating many patients. For the flu vaccine, the percentage figures opting for it were 48, 57, 63 and 73. The researchers think that seeing the big picture leads people to different decisions and there is a tendency to over-rate risks when only considering yourself. The practice of stepping into someone else's shoes may help you make a more balanced medical decision which gives weight to both benefit and risk. The researchers want to extend this work now into looking at end-of-life decisions.

Source
Journal of General Internal Medicine 31st May 2006