Adams, Ann, Buckingham, Christopher D., Arber, Sara, McKinlay, John, Marceau, Lisa and Link, Carol (2006) The influence of patient's age on clinical decision-making about coronary heart disease in the USA and the UK. Ageing and Society, Vol.26 (No.2). pp. 303-321. doi:10.1017/S0144686X05004265 ISSN 0144-686X.

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Abstract

This paper examines UK and US primary care doctors' decision-making about older (aged 75 years) and midlife (aged 55 years) patients presenting with coronary heart disease (CHD). Using an analytic approach based on conceptualising clinical decision-making as a classification process, it explores the ways in which doctors' cognitive processes contribute to ageism in health-care at three key decision points during consultations. In each country, 56 randomly selected doctors were shown videotaped vignettes of actors portraying patients with CHD. The patients' ages (55 or 75 years), gender, ethnicity and social class were varied systematically. During the interviews, doctors gave free-recall accounts of their decision-making. The results do not establish that there was substantial ageism in the doctors' decisions, but rather suggest that diagnostic processes pay insufficient attention to the significance of older patients' age and its association with the likelihood of co-morbidity and atypical disease presentations. The doctors also demonstrated more limited use of ‘knowledge structures’ when diagnosing older than midlife patients. With respect to interventions, differences in the national health-care systems rather than patients' age accounted for the differences in doctors' decisions. US doctors were significantly more concerned about the potential for adverse outcomes if important diagnoses were untreated, while UK general practitioners cited greater difficulty in accessing diagnostic tests.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	R Medicine > RC Internal medicine
Divisions:	Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Coronary heart disease -- Treatment, Coronary heart disease -- Diagnosis, Age factors in disease, Primary care (Medicine) -- Great Britain -- Decision making, Primary care (Medicine) -- United States -- Decision making
Journal or Publication Title:	Ageing and Society
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISSN:	0144-686X
Official Date:	March 2006
Dates:	Date Event March 2006 Published
Volume:	Vol.26
Number:	No.2
Page Range:	pp. 303-321
DOI:	10.1017/S0144686X05004265
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access (Creative Commons)
Funder:	National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institute for Health Research (Great Britain) (NIHR)
Grant number:	AG-16747 (NIA-US)

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