ArticleMedicine, health care, and philosophy2014
Are physicians' estimations of future events value-impregnated? Cross-sectional study of double intentions when providing treatment that shortens a dying patient's life.
Article in Medicine, health care, and philosophy, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Is healthcare providers' value-neutrality depending on how controversial a medical intervention is? Analysis of 10 more or less controversial interventions.Clinical ethics · 2017Article
- Value-impregnated factual claims and slippery-slope arguments.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2017Article
- Empirical and philosophical analysis of physicians' judgments of medical indications.Clinical ethics · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The aim of the present study was to corroborate or undermine a previously presented conjecture that physicians' estimations of others' opinions are influenced by their own opinions. We used questionnaire based cross-sectional design and described a situation where an imminently dying patient was provided with alleviating drugs which also shortened life and, additionally, were intended to do so. We asked what would happen to physicians' own trust if they took the action described, and also what the physician estimated would happen to the general publics' trust in health services. Decrease of trust was used as surrogate for an undesirable action. The results are presented as proportions with a 95 % Confidence Interval (CI). Statistical analysis was based on inter-rater agreement (Weighted Kappa)-test as well as χ (2) test and Odds Ratio with 95 % CI. We found a moderate inter-rater agreement (Kappa = 0.552) between what would happen with the physicians' own trust in healthcare and their estimations of what would happen with the general population's trust. We identified a significant difference between being pro et contra the treatment with double intentions and the estimation of the general population's trust (χ(2) = 72, df = 2 and p < 0.001). Focusing on either decreasing or increasing own trust and being pro or contra the action we identified a strong association [OR 79 (CI 25-253)]. Although the inter-rater agreement in the present study was somewhat weaker compared to a study about the explicit use of the term 'physicians assisted suicide' we found that our hypothesis-physicians' estimations of others' opinions are influenced by their own opinions-was corroborated. This might have implications in research as well as in clinical decision-making. We suggest that Merton's ideal of disinterestedness should be highlighted.
Indexed as
Identifiers
24449290What OpenQuestion holds
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.