Article Figures & Data
Figures
Tables
Supplemental Appendix
Supplemental Appendix. The Questionnaire, Using the Example Given to Patients at Approximately 15% 5-year Risk of a Cardiovascular Event
Files in this Data Supplement:
- Supplemental data: Appendix - PDF file, 6 pages, 459 KB
The Article in Brief
Patients' Preferences for Ways to Communicate Benefits of Cardiovascular Medication
Felicity Goodyear-Smith , and colleagues
Background This study examined patient preferences for ways in which doctors communicate the benefits of taking medication to prevent cardiovascular disease.
What This Study Found Patients prefer a doctor give his or her opinion about the medication rather than explain the risks using numbers or pictures. Moreover, patients prefer visual depictions to words. Specifically, the study of 934 patients in Auckland, New Zealand, found 62 percent preferred to know what their doctor thinks about the medication, and 55 percent preferred pictorial presentations to numbers. Patients showed a strong preference for relative risk as a means of encouraging them to take preventive medication.
Implications
- Patients� willingness to take preventive cardiovascular medication depends more on the way in which treatment benefit is communicated than on their cardiovascular disease risk score or level of concern about a future cardiovascular episode.
- It is not possible to predict which mode of communication individual patients will prefer. As a result, the authors recommend clinicians use several methods and formats to communicate risk, matching information to the needs of individuals.