OBJECTIVE:To assess the level of involvement patients want in decision making related to the acceptance or rejection of an invasive medical intervention and whether their preference for decision making is related to their preference for qualitative (verbal) or quantitative (numeric) information about the risks of the procedure. SETTING:A university-based Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. DESIGN:Cross-sectional study using structured interviews of consecutive patients seen for continuity care visits in a general medicine clinic. PATIENTS:Four hundred and sixty-seven consecutive patients with a mean age of 65.2 years (SD 10.70 years, range 31-88 years) and with a mean of 12.6 years (SD 2.96 years, range 0-24 years) of formal education. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:In the context of an invasive diagnostic or therapeutic intervention, patients were asked whether they preferred patient-based, physicianbased, or shared patient-physician decision making. Patients were asked to give the ratio of patient-to-physician decision making they preferred, and whether they preferred discussions using words, numbers, or both. Of 467 subjects, 318 (68%) preferred shared decision making; 100 (21.4%) preferred physician-based decision making; and 49 (10.5%) preferred patient-based decision making. In terms of risk disclosure, 436 (93.4%) preferred that their physician disclose risk information to them. Of these 436 patients, 42.7% preferred disclosure of information about the probability of adverse outcomes using qualitative (verbal) expressions of probability; 35.7% preferred disclosure in terms of quantitative (numeric) expressions of probability; and 9.8% preferred disclosure in both qualitative and quantitative terms. Younger patients (odds ratio [

Objective The goal of this study was to gain understanding about patients' perspectives on decision making in the context of invasive medical interventions and whether patients' decision-making preferences influenced the type of information they desired to be provided by physicians.Design Questionnaire study of consecutive patients in a universitybased general medicine clinic.Interventions Patients were presented with a randomized list of three types of information that physicians could provide (risk, benefit and physician's opinion on whether they should undergo the procedure). Patients were asked whether they preferred patientbased, physician-based, or shared decision making and then were asked to select which one or combination of these three information types was most important to them in their own decision making. Patients were also asked to self-report on how many invasive procedures they had undergone in their own lives.Participants A total of 202 consecutive patients (mean age ¼ 65.1 years, SD ¼ 12.3, range 28-88; mean education 13.3 years, SD 2.9, range 2-23). Main outcome measures Patient reports.Results Of the 202 patients, two patients reported no decisionmaking preference. These two patients were excluded from the analysis. Conclusions Although most patients want to share decision making with their physicians regarding invasive procedures, the majority of these patients report relying on the doctor's opinion on whether to undergo the procedure as the most important information in their own decision making.