• Atie van den Brink-Muinen, Peter Spreeuwenberg, and Mieke Rijken.
• NIVEL (Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research), The Netherlands. a.brink-muinen@planet.nl
• Patient Educ Couns. 2011 Jul 1; 84 (1): 111-7.

Objective(1) To describe the importance chronically ill and disabled patients attach to involvement in decision-making when various care types are considered, and (2) to analyse the degree to which these patients are involved in shared decision-making (SDM) regarding these care types, and whether their involvement reflects the importance they attach to SDM.MethodsThe study sample consisted of 812 chronically ill and disabled patients who experienced a situation of decision-making during the last year. Data were collected by a self-report survey in 2006 and were analysed by multilevel linear regression analyses.ResultsParticipants attached most importance to SDM when occupational healthcare issues were at stake, but perceived their actual involvement in these decisions as relatively low. Patients dealing with decision-making regarding medical care or home care experienced higher levels of involvement. The importance attached to SDM corresponds moderately with the actual role patients experience in the decision-making process.ConclusionThe type of care to decide upon impacts on the importance patients attach to SDM as well as on their actual involvement in decision-making.Practice ImplicationsWe suggest healthcare practitioners to pay attention to the preferred level of patient involvement each time a new care issue has to be decided upon.Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

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