Duration of military service is associated with decision quality in Veterans considering total knee replacement: case series.

Authors

• Matthew J Sabatino
• Clifford A Reilly
• Samuel T Kunkel
• Alexander J Titus
• Dipak B Ramkumar
• Philip P Goodney
• Said A Ibrahim
• Jonathan D Lurie
• Eric R Henderson

Publication/Presentation Date

1-1-2019

Abstract

PURPOSE: Due to the nature of military service, the patient-physician relationship in Veterans is unlike that seen in civilian life. The structure of the military is hypothesized to result in barriers to open patient-physician communication and patient participation in elective care decision-making. Decision quality is a measure of concordance between a chosen treatment and the aspects of medical care that matter most to an informed patient; high decision quality is synonymous with patient-centered care. While past research has examined how age and other demographic factors affect decision quality in Veterans, duration of military service, rank at discharge, and years since discharge have not been studied.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: We enrolled 25 Veterans with knee osteoarthritis at a VA hospital. Enrollees completed a survey with demographic, military service, and decision-making preference questions and the Hip-Knee Decision Quality Instrument (HK-DQI), which measures patients' knowledge about their disease process, concordance of their treatment decision, and the considered elements in their decision-making process.

RESULTS: The HK-DQI knowledge score had a significant, positive correlation with duration of military service (R

CONCLUSION: Decision quality in Veterans considering treatment for knee osteoarthritis appears to be correlated positively with duration of military service. These findings may present an opportunity for identification of Veterans at most risk of low decision quality and customization of shared decision-making methods for Veterans by characteristics of military service.

Volume

10

First Page

209

Last Page

215

ISSN

1179-271X

Published In/Presented At

Sabatino, M. J., Reilly, C. A., Kunkel, S. T., Titus, A. J., Ramkumar, D. B., Goodney, P. P., Ibrahim, S. A., Lurie, J. D., & Henderson, E. R. (2019). Duration of military service is associated with decision quality in Veterans considering total knee replacement: case series. Patient related outcome measures, 10, 209–215. https://doi.org/10.2147/PROM.S163691

Disciplines

Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Health and Medical Administration | Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods

PubMedID

31308773

Department(s)

Administration and Leadership

Document Type

Article