Doctors' Understanding of Survival Statistics (MPIB)

July 20, 2011 updated by: Max Planck Institute for Human Development

Study of Primary Care Physicians' Understanding and Use of Different Survival Measures

The probably most commonly used measure for expressing the pay-offs of early detection and treatment are survival rates. Yet, over time and groups this metric comes with several biases and thus, is not reliable for judging such benefits. Epidemiologists recommend using reduction of disease-specific mortality rates instead, which is unbiased. The purpose of the study is to investigate how primary care physicians understand and use different survival measures for determining the benefit of cancer screening tests.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

778

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Germany
      • Berlin, Germany, 14195
        • Max Planck Institute for Human Development

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

30 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

301 primary care physicians (internal, general, and family medicine physicians)

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • primary care physicians (internal, general, and family medicine physicians)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • all other types of physicians

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
mortality*incidence*5-year survival*early stage
Physicians will be faced in scenarios about screening with information on mortality and 5-year survival, followed by information on mortality*incidence and 5-year survival*early stage in a random order.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Number of Physicians (=Participants) Recommending the Screening
Time Frame: 25 minutes (mean duration of the survey)
The aim of the study was to learn how different medical cancer screening statistics would influence doctors' recommendation behavior and their effectiveness judgments of screening tests. For that reason the online survey study presented physicians with four different medical statistics (e.g., 5-year survival) within four successive scenarios and asked after each scenario whether they would recommend the screening to a (hypothetical) patient given the data. Options to answer are: Definitely yes, Probably yes, Probably no, Definitely no, Can't decide.
25 minutes (mean duration of the survey)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Number of Physicians (= Participants) Assuming a Benefit of Screening
Time Frame: 25 minutes (mean duration of the survey)
Physicians are faced with four different medical statistics about the effect of screening (e.g., 5-year survival) within four successive scenarios and after each scenario asked whether they assume the screening to be beneficial given the statistical information. Options to answer are: yes, no, can't decide. If yes, then participants are further asked to describe this benefit by the following categories: Very large, large, moderate, small, very small.
25 minutes (mean duration of the survey)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Max Planck Institute for Human Development

Collaborators

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Odette Wegwarth, Dr., Max Planck Institute for Human Development

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

December 1, 2009

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2009

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 18, 2009

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 21, 2009

First Posted (Estimate)

September 22, 2009

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

August 15, 2011

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 20, 2011

Last Verified

July 1, 2011

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • MPIB-01-SM

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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