This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Unmet patient preferences may lead to poorer treatment outcomes

Individuals receiving psychological treatment who reported unmet preferences reported poorer treatment outcomes than those whose preferences were met.

“Surveys of patients suggest that many would like greater choice of treatment. Evidence to support claims that providing greater choice to patients increases service quality is limited. While some studies have shown that interventions which support people to make choices about treatment options lead to improved health, others have not,” the researchers wrote.

To assess patient preferences and how meeting them affects treatment outcomes, researchers conducted a cross-sectional survey of individuals receiving psychological treatment from 184 National Health Service (NHS) services in England and Wales. Survey respondents (n = 14,587) were asked about treatment preferences and the extent to which these were met by clinicians and rated how well treatment impacted their ability to cope.

Most respondents reported a preference for at least one aspect of their treatment (86%). Of these, 36.7% had at least one preference that was not met.

Most respondents reported they had their preference for appointment times, venue and type of treatment met. However, 40.5% of those with a gender preference had it met.

Respondents who reported unmet preferences reported poorer outcomes than those whose preferences were met, according to researchers.

“Data from this survey suggest that, in relation to the provision of psychological therapies for common mental health problems, efforts to meet patient preferences may have an influence on whether people feel that treatment helps them,” the researchers wrote. “Our results also imply that particular effort should be made to explore preferences relating to time of day and type of psychological therapy, as offering adequate choice to those with preferences may confer added benefit over those with no preferences. Out of the range of components that we examined, these were also the two where it may be easiest to offer people different options.” – by Amanda Oldt

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.