Assessing Patient Confidence and Satisfaction about the Shared Decision-making Meetings for Planning Cancer Chemotherapy

Background Patients increasingly express the desire to be involved in their treatment decisions, especially in critical situations, such as cancer chemotherapy that increase a doctor's responsibility toward fulfilling these needs. This process may require more than one meeting with the patient to meet their expectations and satisfaction levels. This study aimed to assess the satisfaction levels in cancer patients, who received chemotherapy, about their decision-making and if they were able to make this decision during the first meeting with their physicians. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017 on 106 cancer patients aged 18 years or above who were receiving chemotherapy at the day-care unit of King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The data were collected by a direct or telephonic interview using a structured questionnaire. The variables were studied across two groups of patients based on the patient's ability to make decision in the first meeting with their physician. Data were expressed as frequencies (percentage) and Pearson Chi-Square test was used to assess the categorical variables. Results Out of the 106 patients, 42 (39.6%) of them were male. Ninety-one (85.8%) patients took the decision by themselves. Regarding the decision-making 90 (84.9%) patients were able to make the decision from the first meeting. Sixty-eight (64.2%) patients felt more satisfied if they had an additional session. There was a significant association between patients with the ability to make the decision during the first meeting and patients who took the decision by themselves (P = 0.033), patients with consideration of changing their decision if they had more meetings (P = 0.005), patients with consideration of withholding from chemotherapy in their mind (P = 0.019) and patients with thought that chemotherapy is affecting their life (P = 0.044). Conclusion The majority of the patients felt that more than one meeting with their doctors would be helpful in improving their satisfaction level during the decision-making process, consideration of withholding from chemotherapy in mind and that chemotherapy is affecting their life style. Future protocol in which the patients will be encouraged to have a confidence role on their treatment decision is recommended.