Personal stories in publicly available patient decision aids

ObjectiveTo characterize the use of personal stories in publicly available patient decision aids (PtDAs).MethodsDescriptive study guided by a structured coding taxonomy based on the International Patient Decision Aid Standards, Ottawa Decision Support Framework, Decisional Conflict Scale and qualitative content analysis. Personal story was defined as an illustrative, first-person narrative in any format. Sampling from the 2007 Cochrane A to Z Inventory was stratified by developer and one-third of PtDAs were randomly sampled.ResultsOf 200 publicly available PtDAs from 5 developers, 168 from 3 developers contained stories. A stratified sample of 56 PtDAs contained 260 stories. Thirty of 56 PtDAs presented an equal number of stories favouring or against the most intensive option. Thirty PtDAs described narrators’ satisfaction with outcome(s): 21 contained only stories portraying satisfaction; 9 contained stories portraying satisfaction and dissatisfaction.ConclusionPublicly available PtDAs vary in their use of stories. Most PtDAs balance the number of stories favouring and against the most intensive option presented; most PtDAs do not balance the number of stories portraying satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the outcome(s) of the decision.Practice implicationsResearch is needed to better understand the impact of stories on patient decision making and to inform the guidelines for their inclusion in PtDAs.