3.1 Patients’ Post-Decision Aid Choices and Treatment Receipt
Of the total sample of patients with hip or knee osteoarthritis, just over two-thirds (n=936/1,351) received treatments that aligned with their choice (whether for surgery or non-surgical treatment) after exposure to decision aids, while the remaining one-third (n=415/1,351) received treatments that were not aligned with their choice. There are important differences across hip and knee patients preferring surgery versus non-surgical treatment and receipt of choice-aligned (or non-aligned) treatments. Among patients with hip or knee osteoarthritis who expressed a post-decision aid choice of non-surgical treatment, the overwhelming majority (88.6% and 95.3 % of hip and knee patients, respectively) received non-surgical treatments. Comparatively, the relative percentages of patients who chose and received surgery are smaller, although they still represent a majority of that respective sample (67.4% of hip patients and 52.3% of knee patients). Notably, the majority of both patients with hip or knee osteoarthritis who received decision aids within HVHC systems chose surgery as their preferred treatment (79% and 62.8%, respectively). Figures 1 and 2 illustrate in bar graph form the distribution of patients with knee or hip osteoarthritis who received surgery according to their post-decision aid treatment choice (surgery or non-surgical treatment).