Table 2.

Example of responses to the Cardiac Blockage vignette from study participants^†

Level of Performance	Standard 4 Reasons for treatment choice	Standard 5 Disadvantages of treatment option
Good response (control)	“I could return to my normal activity and not be confined and stay at home as much; I wouldn’t have to be on the medication for the rest of my life; it would remove the symptoms…To have a more complete life, not to have to depend on anyone.” - 9 point response	“You would have to take the medication the rest of your life and you would not be able to do the same things you did before and have to stay at home.” - 6 point response
Marginal response (MCI)	“…it would cure it immediately; wouldn’t have to depend on the medicine the rest of my life and I would be better off, able to get around and do things a lot better… Consideration of the family.” - 5 point response	“You would eventually get worse, you wouldn’t be in any pain; you wouldn’t be active and would deteriorate on down the line.” -2 point response
Very poor response (advanced MCI)	“Sometimes the medicine wouldn’t work right; valves might still close up. It would be better to get it done when you’re working right than to wait until you’re completely down to do it…You’d be hurting more with greater risk of stroke or heart attack; severe pain and tingling in your feet.” - 0 point response	“Sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn’t. Probably work for a while and then the blockage would get worse. If you missed a dosage the valves would close up, might still need surgery, have a stroke or heart attack.” - 0 point response

^†Participants are presented a hypothetical scenario where there are two courses of treatment (heart medicine, heart bypass surgery) each with its own incident risks and benefits. In all of the examples, the participants chose to have heart surgery.