Table 3.

Descriptions and inter‐rater reliability for each item on the OPTION scale (n = 19)

OPTION scale items	ICC1
1. The clinician draws attention to an identified problem as one that requires a decision‐making process	0.12
2. The clinician states that there is more than one way to deal with the identified problem (equipoise)	0.54
3. The clinician assesses the patient’s preferred approach to receiving information to assist decision making (e.g. discussion, reading printed material, assessing graphical data, using videotape or other media)	0.56
4. The clinician lists options that can include the choice of ‘no action’	0.03
5. The clinician explains the pros and cons of options to the patient (taking ‘no action’ is an option)	0.63
6. The clinician explores the patient’s expectations (or ideas) about how the problem(s) are to be managed	0.54
7. The clinician explores the patient’s concerns (fears) about how the problem(s) are to be managed	0.67
8. The clinician checks that the patient has understood the information	0.76
9. The clinician offers the patient explicit opportunities to ask questions during the decision‐making process	0.86
10. The clinician elicits the patient’s preferred level of involvement in decision making	na2
11. The clinician indicates the need for a decision‐making (or deferring) stage	0.62
12. The clinician indicates the need to review the decision (or deferment)	0.52

¹ICC = intraclass correlation coefficient.

²na = not available, (could not be calculated because the variance of one rater’s score was equal to zero).