Needs Assessment of Patient-Centered Care and Shared Decision Making for Quality Improvement in Pediatric Allergy Care Based on Physician Questionnaire and Literature Search

Purpose: Patient Centered Care (PCC) is an essential component of quality of health care, and Shared Decision Making (SDM) is a decision support method to achieve PCC. Aiming to improve the quality of care in pediatric allergy in Japan, we assessed the needs for PCC/SDM in this field.Methods: Both allergy practitioners and other practitioners were surveyed regarding the degree of PCC/SDM awareness, and values emphasized in the SDM-Q-Doc questionnaire. The numbers and percentages of references related to SDM in each disease area and within the pediatric allergy area in Igaku-Chuo-Zasshi (ICHUSHI) and PubMed were searched.Results: There were 60 respondents, 39 of whom were allergy practitioners (34 of whom were pediatricians). Between allergy practitioners and other practitioners, 12/39 (31%) and 5/21 (24%) had never heard of PCC and 12/39 (31%) and 4/21 (19%) had never heard of SDM, respectively. The percentage of references related to SDM in allergic diseases in ICHUSHI was 0.04% of total references for allergy. The percentage of SDM references for allergy in PubMed was 0.08%. The number of references related SDM in child allergic diseases in ICHUSHI was 1.Conclusion: PCC/SDM has not been well recognized or commonly discussed. To further improve the quality of pediatric allergy care in Japan, we need to add a PCC/SDM perspective in addition to safety and efficacy.