Personality Traits Associated with Treatment Choice with an Explicit Statistical Prediction After an Explanation in a Negative Context: A Study in Patients with Glaucoma

PURPOSE: Over 50% of patients with early-stage glaucoma discontinue topical therapy within the first 6 months of treatment initiation. This risk of discontinuation could be reduced by how the ophthalmologist explains the treatment plan. Ophthalmologists can explain the treatment plan to patients in either positive or negative contexts. Although explanations in a negative context can be selected depending on the medical situation, identification of patients who will choose the treatment with explicit statistical prediction after an explanation in a negative context is important; personality traits are related to these emotional decisions. Therefore, in the present study, we examined the personality traits associated with choice of treatment with explicit statistical prediction after an explanation in a negative context. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 147 patients with glaucoma were recruited for this study. The questionnaire booklets used contained positively framed or negatively framed versions of an “Asian disease problem” to enable examination of the influence of the way in which a problem is framed (framing effect) on the participants’ decision-making. The Japanese version of the Ten-Item Personality Inventory was used to estimate the personality traits of the participants. RESULTS: Low conscientiousness was identified as the only variable that was strongly predictive of the choice of treatment with explicit statistical prediction (β = −0.44, z = 2.19, p = 0.03). In addition, while the association was not statistically significant, low neuroticism was found to be weakly predictive of the choice of uncertain treatment (β = −0.37, z = 1.73, p = 0.08). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, we showed that low levels of conscientiousness predict the choice of treatment with explicit statistical prediction (ie, topical treatment) for glaucoma after an explanation in a negative context.