Table 7. Univariate analyses of high comfort levels with SDMa.
| High comfort with SDM N (%) | χ2 (d.f.) | |
|---|---|---|
| Doctor type | ||
| Medical oncologists | 105 (89.0) | χ2(4)=4.95 |
| Radiation oncologists | 39 (78.0) | |
| Haematologistsb | 4 (66.7) | |
| Paediatric oncologists | 9 (81.8) | |
| Surgeons | 296 (84.3) | |
| Cancer specialty | ||
| Breast and urological | 360 (87.6) | χ2(1)=12.74** |
| Colorectal, gynaecology and haematology | 93 (74.4) | |
| Gender | ||
| Male | 372 (83.0) | χ2(2)=4.56* |
| Female | 81 (92.0) | |
| Age | ||
| Under 40 years | 65 (86.7) | χ2(2)=0.42 |
| 40–55 years | 241 (83.4) | |
| Over 55 years | 146 (84.6) | |
| Country of medical training | ||
| Australia | 412 (84.4) | χ2(1)=0.00 |
| Other | 39 (84.8) | |
| Caseload per month | ||
| 2 or less | 62 (81.6) | χ2(3)=6.65 |
| 3–6 | 162 (80.6) | P=0.084 |
| 7–10 | 111 (86.7) | |
| 11+ | 113 (90.4) | |
| Direct patient care per week | ||
| <20 hrs | 137 (82.5) | χ2(1)=0.70 |
| 20+hrs | 315 (85.4) | |
| Community size | ||
| <100 000 | 34 (85.0) | χ2(2)=1.27 |
| 100 000–500 000 | 158 (86.8) | |
| 500 000+ | 259 (83.0) | |
*P<0.05 **P<0.01.
a
Percentages here represent respondents who reported comfort levels of 4 or 5 on the 5-point Likert scale, 1=not comfortable, 5=very comfortable.
b
An initial decision to shorten the survey for participants other than breast cancer specialists, excluding the question concerning comfort levels with each of the four decision making examples was reversed mid-way through sending the survey to second cohort (haematologists) and explains the small number of responses in this group for these questions.