Do patients and physicians perceive PSA screening discussions the same?
160 Background: Shared decision making is recommended for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening. We are performing a prospective randomized trial of educational interventions to improve screening compliance at an urban academic medical center. We hypothesize that patient and provider characteristics providers will affect compliance. We report the first results for PSA screening. Methods: In a cluster-randomized trial of educational supports for providers, we are recruiting an age- and sex-stratified sample of 216 patients aged 30 to 89 years undergoing an annual physical examination, 18 patients of each of 12 primary care physicians at two affiliated hospitals. Screening guideline format (color-coding) and academic detailing were randomly assigned in a 2 x 2 design. Surveys occurred immediately post-encounter to record recollections of screening discussions, recommendations and plans. Results: We report on the first 44 of 108 planned male participants. Most were white (77%), had a college degree (83%), and currently married (59%). When providers reported a PSA discussion, 13% of patients disagreed, while 23% of patients disagreed when their provider reported a PSA discussion. Discrepancies also occurred on additional elements of informed decision-making (data not shown). Reports also disagreed on physician recommendations: 2 of 8 patients (25%) disagreed with the physician’s report of recommending screening and 6 of 12 patients (50%) disagreed with the physician’s report of not recommending it. Half of patients (49%) reported distress at getting PSA results, but only 5% reported “a lot” of distress. Over half (58%) reported that PSA testing protected against prostate cancer “a lot.” No physician reported recommending PSA testing to men under age 50 or over age 70, but 1 of 6 men under 50 and 3 of 3 men over 70 reported that their physician had recommended testing. Conclusions: In a highly educated population of men and physicians surveyed immediately after their encounter, reports of whether PSA screening had occurred, the information that had been discussed and the recommendation had important discrepancies. Important differences may exist between patients and physicians in perceptions of PSA screening discussions. Clinical trial information: NCT02430948.