DID YOU GET WANT YOU WANTED?

DID YOU GET WHAT YOU NEEDED?

I was having a disagreement - a polite one - with a caring doctor about what men are told when they are diagnosed and how much help they get in deciding on their treatment options. So we agreed to a MiniPoll which ran in late August, early September 2010.

Thank you to the 160 men who responded to this MiniPoll. As has been said with previous polls, the results have no scientific basis and may well be biased for a number of reasons. There are also some curious apparent anomolies. All this poll does is present the answers supplied by the visitors and you may draw your own conclusions from them. I have passed them on to the good doctor with whom I was discussing the issue.

The first question asked Do you think the doctors you consulted gave you information on all the available and acceptable options for treating your disease as diagnosed? Less than half the men (48%) answered YES to this question. A slightly lower figure (43%) said that they thought the doctors had not given them information on all their options and 8% were unsure.

The second question asked Did the doctors you consulted recommend a specific treatment or were you asked to make your own choice based on their advice? A little over one third of the respondents (37%) said they were asked to make their own choice, while 43% said that the doctor recommended the specific treatment. One fifth of the men said that they had a specific recommendation but made their own choice

The third question asked Did the doctors you consulted tell you about the possible side effects and complications of each option? More than half the men (56%) answered in the affirmative, whilst 41% said they were not told of these and 3% were unsure.

The fourth question asked If the doctors you consulted told you about the possibility of side effects and complications did they tell you the odds of these occurring? More than half the men - 54% - said they were not given the odds of likely occurrence, while 39% said they were given this informaiton and 8% were unsure.

The fifth question stated Outcomes of options vary depending on the experience of the doctors. and asked Did the doctors you consulted tell you their own results rather than the theoretical outcomes for your options before you made your decision? Almost two thirds of the men said they were not given this information, while 30% said they were and 8% were not certain.

The final question gave six optional answers to the question How satisfied were you with how your wants and needs were met by your doctors as you chose your option after diagnosis? The answers revealed a high degree of satisfaction with 68% giving a positive response (19% Absolutely Satisfied; 24% Very Satisfied; 25% Somewhat Satisfied). Of the men who were not satisfied, the greatest proportion (17%) of respondents were Somewhat Dissatisifed, while 9% were Very Dissatisifed and a mere 6% Absolutley Dissatisfied.

If you would like to see the results of a previous MiniPoll about minor side effects of treatment go to - What Were You Told?