Jill Kroll

An Educational Intervention as Decision Support for Menopausal Women

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a decision support intervention (DSI) to assist women to make and act on informed decisions that are consistent with their values in the area of menopause and hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Mode and intensity of intervention were tested in midlife women (N = 248), randomly assigned to one of three intervention formats: written information only, guided discussion, or personalized decision exercise. Data were collected over 12 months. Knowledge, decisional conflict, satisfaction with health care provider, and self-efficacy improved following intervention and were maintained for 12 months for all groups. Womens adherence to their own plans over 12 months was 59% (exercise), 76% (calcium intake), and 89% (HRT). Carefully written information is effective in promoting knowledge, adherence, and satisfaction among well-educated, interested women. It was concluded that women can understand complex information, including tradeoffs regarding treatment options. Women will adhere to their own plans, suggesting that consumer rather than provider plans may be the more appropriate gold standard for measuring adherence.

PATIENT DECISION SUPPORT INTERVENTION : INCREASED CONSISTENCY WITH DECISION ANALYTIC MODELS

BACKGROUND Patient Decision Support (PDS) tools assist patients in using medical evidence to make choices consistent that are with their values and in using evidence about consequences of medical alternatives. OBJECTIVE To evaluate a PDS intervention for perimenopausal hormone replacement therapy. We assessed the impact of the PDS on (1) consistency between the decision to take estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) or progesterone/estrogen replacement therapy (PERT) and the expected utility of treatment and (2) likelihood to take ERT and PERT pre- and postintervention. DESIGN Content of the PDS was standardized. Randomized trial of three intensities of intervention: (1) brochure; (2) lecture/discussion; and (3) active decision support. SUBJECTS Participants were perimenopausal community volunteers between the ages of 40 and 65 (n = 248). MEASURES (1) Consistent with values (correlation between expected utility (EU) and likelihood of taking hormones); and (2) Likelihood to take hormone replacement therapy. RESULTS (1) The brochure group was less consistent with the decision analytic model than the lecture/discussion and active decision support groups. (2) Influence on decisions: PDS tools increased the number of women certain about whether or not to take hormones. There were no differences among experimental groups. Of 99 women uncertain about ERT pre-PDS, 65% changed. Twenty-one (32%) decided against ERT and 44 (68%) decided for ERT. (3) More intensive interventions produced modest gains in a normative direction. CONCLUSIONS PDSs using any of 3 formats reduce uncertainty and assist women to make informed decisions. Increased consistency with decision analytic models appears to be driven by better estimates of likelihood of outcomes.

Menopausal women as decision makers in health care.

The findings of a preliminary analysis of data from a study now being conducted to design and evaluate an educational intervention to aid women in becoming more effective decision-makers regarding menopause, self-care strategies, and hormone replacement therapy (HRT), indicate that the lack of attention to the symptoms and health effects of menopause has resulted in frustration and dissatisfaction among women health care consumers. Women in the menopausal years are not informed adequately nor empowered to participate in decision making around issues related to their own health. They do not have the information they want and they do not know where to get it.

Do race and gender influence the use of invasive procedures

OBJECTIVE: To assess the influence of race and gender on the use of invasive procedures in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in community hospitals.DESIGN: Prospective, observational.SETTING: Five mid-Michigan community hospitals.PATIENTS: All patients (838) identified with AMI between January 1994 and April 1995 in 1 of these hospitals.MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: After adjusting for age, hospital of admission, insurance type, severity of AMI, and comorbidity, using white men as the reference group, the rate of being offered cardiac catheterization (CC) was 0.88 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.60 to 1.29) for white women; 0.79 (95% CI, 0.41 to 1.50) for black men; and 1.14 (95% CI, 0.53 to 2.45) for black women. Among patients who underwent CC, after also adjusting for coronary artery anatomy, the rate of being offered angioplasty, using white men as the reference group, was 1.22 (95% CI, 0.75 to 1.98) for white women; 0.61 (95% CI, 0.29 to 1.28; P=.192) for black men; and 0.40 (95% CI, 0.14 to 1.13) for black women. The adjusted rate of being offered bypass surgery was 0.47 (95% CI, 0.24 to 0.89) for white women; 0.36 (95% CI, 0.12 to 1.06) for black men; and 0.37 (95% CI, 0.11 to 1.28) for black women.CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that white women are less likely than white men to be offered bypass surgery after AMI. Although black men and women with AMI are less likely than white men to be offered percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty or coronary artery bypass grafting in both unadjusted and adjusted analyses, these findings did not reach statistical significance. Our study is limited in power due to the small number of blacks in the sample.