Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Primary care patients' preferred roles in health care decision-making may have changed with the increased availability of health information online. Through a mixed methods approach, this research explored primary care patients' preferred roles, their perceived health information literacy, and the trust that they had in their physician. We surveyed 141 patients in a primary care clinic in Toronto, Ontario and then interviewed 11 of these patients to better understand their preferred roles. Results showed that despite the increased availability of health information online, and even in this sample with high levels of perceived health information literacy and trust in the physician patients still preferred a shared decision-making role. A binary logistic regression showed that the only predictor of patients' preferred roles was their trust in the physician score. Several themes arose from qualitative interviews including online and human sources of health information, open, empathic, clear and coherent communication. Patients preferred physicians who were able to accurately diagnose their condition, explain their treatment plans and medications, and refer to colleagues when a condition was outside their scope. Most patients preferred to communicate in person and within the clinical appointment. These findings have implications for those planning patient engagement activities in order to ensure that the activities suit the needs of patients.