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Information and Participation Preferences of Dental Patients

¹ Utrecht University, Department of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Heidelberglaan 2, Postbox 80140, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands;
² Academic Centre of Dentistry Amsterdam, Department of Social Dentistry, Louwesweg 1, 1066 EA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and
³ University of Amsterdam, Department of Psychological Methods, Amsterdam, The Netherlands;

^* corresponding author, b.c.schouten{at}fss.uu.nl

Dutch dentists have a moral and legal obligation to inform their patients and involve them in the decision-making process. It is unclear, though, to what extent patients prefer information and involvement in decision-making. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine levels of preference for information and participation in decision-making among emergency patients (n = 96) and regular patients (n = 245). It was hypothesized that female gender, higher education, younger age, and a monitoring coping style are positively associated with higher preferences for information and participation. The results demonstrated that emergency and regular patients have high preferences for information, but that their preferences for actual involvement are significantly lower. Only weak associations were found between the antecedent variables and patients’ preferences. It is concluded that, in the study of the etiology of patients’ preferences for information and participation, future research should incorporate factors such as dental anxiety and seriousness of the dental condition.

KEY WORDS: decision-making • need for information • informed consent • patient autonomy • social dentistry

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