A prospective cohort study of shared decision making in lung cancer diagnostics: Impact of using a patient decision aid

•When patients are engaged in decision making they feel more confident about the decision made.•Patients who are engaged in shared decision making have less regret.•Patients feel better informed when participating in shared decision making.•Shared decision making facilitates that patients feel more engaged in medical decision making.•Shared decision making facilitates that patient’s values play a more central part in decision making. The objective of this study was to describe the impact on patient-reported outcomes of introducing Shared Decision Making (SDM) and a Patient Decision Aid (PtDA) in the initial process of lung cancer diagnostics. We conducted a prospective cohort study, where a control cohort was consulted according to usual clinical practice. After introducing SDM through a PtDA and training of the staff, the SDM cohort was enrolled in the study. All patients completed four questionnaires: the Decisional Conflict Scale (DCS) before and after the consultation, the CollaboRATE scale after the consultation, and the Decision Regret Scale (DRS). Patients exposed to SDM and a PtDA had significantly improved DCS scores after the consultation compared to the control group (a difference of 10.26, p = 0.0128) and significantly lower DRS scores (a difference of 8.98, p = 0.0197). Of the 82 control patients and 52 SDM patients 29% and 54%, respectively, gave the maximum score on the CollaboRATE scale (Pearson’s chi2 8.0946, p = 0.004). The use of SDM and a PtDA had significant positive impact on patient-reported outcomes. Our results may encourage the increased uptake of SDM in the initial process of lung cancer diagnostics.