Validation of a decision regret scale.

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND:
As patients become more involved in health care decisions, there may be greater opportunity for decision regret. The authors could not find a validated, reliable tool for measuring regret after health care decisions.

METHODS:
A 5-item scale was administered to 4 patient groups making different health care decisions. Convergent validity was determined by examining the scale's correlation with satisfaction measures, decisional conflict, and health outcome measures.

RESULTS:
The scale showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.81 to 0.92). It correlated strongly with decision satisfaction (r = -0.40 to -0.60), decisional conflict (r = 0.31 to 0.52), and overall rated quality of life (r = -0.25 to -0.27). Groups differing on feelings about a decision also differed on rated regret:
F(2, 190) = 31.1, P < 0.001. Regret was greater among those who changed their decisions than those who did not, t(175) = 16.11, P < 0.001.

CONCLUSIONS:
The scale is a useful indicator of health care decision regret at a given point in time.

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Author information

Author/s: Brehaut, Jamie C (JC); O'Connor, Annette M (AM); Wood, Timothy J (TJ); Hack, Thomas F (TF); Siminoff, Laura (L); Gordon, Elisa (E); Feldman-Stewart, Deb (D);

Affiliation: Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Ottawa Health Research Institute, Ottawa Hospital, Civic Campus, Ottawa, ON, Canada. jbrehaut(-atsign-)ohri.ca

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Validation Studies

Journal: Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making (Med Decis Making), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: -2003 Jul-Aug; vol 23 (issue 4) : pp 281-92

Dates: Created 2003/08/20; Completed 2003/10/08; Revised 2007/11/15;

PMID: 12926578, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Abstracting and Indexing as Topic
Decision Making
Decision Support Techniques
Emotions
Humans

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