Shared decision making from the perspective of the cancer patient: participatory roles and evaluation of the process

In Spain there is no clear knowledge about the degree to which Shared Decision Making (SDM) is carried out in the normal practice of oncology. Our article analyses the preferred role and the perceived role of oncological patients and measures the SDM process from their perspective. Descriptive transversal study using a self-conducted questionnaire with patients with different types of cancer. To evaluate the role preferred and perceived by the patient we used The Control Preference Scales (CPS) and to measure SDM we used The nine-item Shared Decision Making Questionnaire (SDM-Q-9). Out of the 132 patients surveyed, only 118 provided analysable data. No evidence was found that sex, age, educational level or type of tumour affected the preferred role or the perceived role. Only 59.3% was in agreement with the role exercised. All of those who preferred a passive role achieved this (21.2%), while out of those who wanted a shared role (78.8%), this was achieved by only 48.39% while the remaining 51.61% played a passive role. None preferred or played an active role. The set of patients evaluated the SDM process with a score of 41.07±5.94, on a scale of 0 to 100, with the highest score of 61.39 ± 13.24 reached by urological patients. Our study found no evidence that, from the point of view of the oncological patient, the SDM model is being implemented in practice.