ArticlePloS one2012
"The ultimate decision is yours": exploring patients' attitudes about the overuse of medical interventions.
Article in PloS one, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- De-implementing low-value care in cancer care delivery: a systematic review.Implementation science : IS · 2022Pooled it
- Development of a Conceptual Map of Negative Consequences for Patients of Overuse of Medical Tests and Treatments.JAMA internal medicine · 2018Pooled it
- Why Most Australians Consider It Valuable to Find Harmless Abnormalities with Diagnostic Tests: A Mixed-Methods Study.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2026Article
- A mixed-methods study of multi-level factors influencing mammography overuse among an older ethnically diverse screening population: implications for de-implementation.Implementation science communications · 2021Article
- Prescriber perspectives on low-value prescribing: A qualitative study.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2021Article
- Development of a Patient-Oriented Intervention to Support Patient-Provider Conversations about Unnecessary Lower Back Pain Imaging.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Medical Maximizing-Minimizing Preferences in Relation to Low-Value Services for Older Women with Hormone Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer: A Qualitative Study.Annals of surgical oncology · 2021Article
- Defining and conceptualizing outcomes for de-implementation: key distinctions from implementation outcomes.Implementation science communications · 2020Article
- Patient-Centered Outcomes Related to Imaging Testing in US Primary Care.Journal of the American College of Radiology : JACR · 2019Article
- Promoting Health Equity through De-Implementation Research.Ethnicity & disease · 2019Article
- Communicating about overdiagnosis: Learning from community focus groups on osteoporosis.PloS one · 2017Article
- From evidence to best practice in laboratory medicine.The Clinical biochemist. Reviews · 2013Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Previous research has found that American patients strongly believe that more testing and more treatment lead to better outcomes and, to a lesser extent, that newer treatments are more effective. We conducted five focus groups with privately insured, healthy, middle-aged Americans (n = 43) to explore these apparent preferences. Contrary to previous research, an unexpected distinction emerged. Participants placed enormous value on testing and screening, reacting with hostility to guidelines recommending less of either. However, they were suspicious of overmedication. The wariness of pharmaceuticals and enthusiasm for testing and screening both appear to reflect participants' efforts to take responsibility for their health. But recommendations to test and screen less conflicted with their active, engaged, information-seeking roles. Nonetheless, given patients' concerns about overuse of pharmaceuticals, we maintain that they can learn to understand the connections between over-testing and over-treatment, and can actively choose to do less. We close with suggestions about how treatment guidelines can better communicate these connections to patients. Our findings cannot necessarily be generalized beyond privately-insured, healthy, middle-aged Americans. But because we found that, among these individuals, attitudes towards pharmaceuticals differ from attitudes towards testing and screening, we maintain that future research should also distinguish among and compare attitudes towards different types of medical interventions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.