Abstract
Background: Patient beliefs, values, and preferences are crucial to decisions involving health care. In a large sample of persons at increased risk for stroke, we examined attitudes toward hypothetical major stroke. Methods and Results: Respondents were obtained from the Academic Medical Center Consortium (n = 621), the Cardiovascular Health Study (n = 321), and United Health Care (n = 319). Preferences were primarily assessed by using the time trade off (TTO). Although major stroke is generally considered an undesirable event (mean TTO = 0.30), responses were varied: although 45% of respondents considered major stroke to be a worse outcome than death, 15% were willing to trade off little or no survival to avoid a major stroke. Conclusions: Providers should speak directly with patients about beliefs, values, and preferences. Stroke-related interventions, even those with a high price or less than dramatic clinical benefits, are likely to be cost- effective if they prevent an outcome (major stroke) that is so undesirable.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 703-713 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | American Heart Journal |
Volume | 136 |
Issue number | 4 I |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1998 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was performed as part of the Stroke Prevention Patient Outcomes Research Team (PORT) and was funded through contract 282-91-0028 from the US Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine