Table 1.

Characteristics of 2556 responding US physicians, as well as their perceived barriers to shared decision-making

Characteristic	N (%)
Age, mean (SD), years	51.0 (8.5)
Male sex	1784 (70)
Race or ethnic group*
White or Caucasian	1958 (77)
Asian	369 (15)
Other	124 (5)
Black or African-American	80 (3)
Region†
South	829 (33)
Midwest	594 (23)
Northeast	548 (22)
West	570 (22)
Primary specialty
Primary care	1034 (40)
Surgery	571 (22)
Procedural specialty	486 (19)
Non-procedural specialty	399 (16)
Non-clinical	44 (2)
Practice setting type
Group/HMO	1641 (64)
Small/solo	498 (19)
City/state/federal government	336 (13)
Medical school	59 (2)
Practice compensation type‡
Billing only	1036 (41)
Salary plus bonus	874 (35)
Salary only	460 (18)
Other	154 (6)
Political self-characterisation§
Very conservative	254 (10)
Somewhat conservative	709 (28)
Independent/moderate	726 (29)
Somewhat liberal/progressive	495 (20)
Very liberal/progressive	247 (10)
Which of the following is a major barrier to you more actively engaging patients in a process of shared decision-making? (n=2402)¶
Patient confusion	1558 (65)
Lack of patient interest in playing an active role	1425 (59)
Lack of adequate time with the patient	1349 (56)
Administrative burdens	808 (34)
Inability to individualise risk	499 (21)
Financial pressure to do better paying activities	349 (15)
Other	268 (11)
Lack of supportive systems	216 (9)

*Percentages based on a denominator of 2532.

†Percentages based on a denominator of 2541.

‡Percentages based on a denominator of 2524.

§Percentages based on a denominator of 2497.

¶Item was ‘Mark all that apply’; hence percentages here were calculated with the denominator as the total number of respondents who answered this question (ie, selected at least one of the response category options).

HMO, Health Maintenance Organization.