Factors Affecting Decision Making Process on Spine Surgery: Patients’ Perspective

Abstract

Objective:  To determine the factors that affects the decision making process of the spine surgery from a patient’s perspective.

Material and Methods:  The study was carried on 264 patients admitted for spine surgery in the Department of Neurosurgery, Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan. Data was collected from patients on questionnaire using a Likert scale. Reliability was ensured by Cronbach alpha.

Results:  The results for regression analysis revealed that there is a significant negative relationship between previous experiences and decision for spine surgery in patients (? = -0.156, p = 0.001 < 0.05). There is a significant positive influence of emotional and social state (? = 0.193, p = 0.002), information & counselling (? = 0.097, p = 0.011), socioeconomic status (? = 0.131, p = 0.004), severity of disability (? = 0.602, p = 0.000), ineffective conservative treatment (?9 = 0.082, p = 0.013) and intensity of pain (? = 0.527, p = 0.000) on decision for spine surgery in patients. The independent variables, including physical health, gender role and age were found to have an insignificant effect on the decision for spine surgery (p > 0.05).

Conclusion:  It is concluded that the factors affecting the decision of patients on spine surgery included previous experience, emotional & social state, information & counselling, socioeconomic status, severity of disability, ineffectiveness of previously taken conservative treatment and intensity of pain.