Quantifying patient preferences for symptomatic breast clinic referral: a decision analysis study

Objectives: Decision analysis study that incorporates patient preferences and probability estimates to investigate the impact of women’s preferences for referral or an alternative strategy of watchful waiting if faced with symptoms that could be due to breast cancer. Setting: Community-based study. Participants: Asymptomatic women aged 30-60 years. Interventions: Participants were presented with 11 health scenarios that represent the possible consequences of symptomatic breast problems. Participants were asked the risk of death that they were willing to take in order to avoid the health scenario using the standard gamble (SG) utility method. This process was repeated for all 11 health scenarios. Formal decision analysis for the preferred individual decision was then estimated for each participant. Primary outcome measure: The preferred diagnostic strategy, either watchful waiting or referral to a breast clinic. Sensitivity analysis was used to examine how each varied according to change...