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. 2021 Oct;36(10):3023-3030.
doi: 10.1007/s11606-020-06467-w. Epub 2021 Jan 28.

Impact of Physicians' Personalities and Behavioral Traits on Treatment-Related Decision-making for Elderly Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Xia Wu #  1 , Yi-Nan Jiang #  2 , Yue-Lun Zhang  3 , Jia Chen  1 , Yue-Ying Mao  1 , Lu Zhang  1 , Dao-Bin Zhou  1 , Xin-Xin Cao  4 , Jian Li  5
Affiliations

Impact of Physicians' Personalities and Behavioral Traits on Treatment-Related Decision-making for Elderly Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Xia Wu et al. J Gen Intern Med. 2021 Oct.

Abstract

Background: Elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) can be treated with intensive therapy, low-intensity therapy, or best supportive care. Medical decision-making might be affected by physicians' occupational and non-occupational factors.

Objective: To explore the impact of physicians' personalities and behavioral traits on treatment-related decision-making for elderly AML patients.

Design: A nationwide cross-sectional survey.

Participants: Hematologists in mainland China (N = 529; response rate 64.5%).

Main measures: The medical decision-making for elderly AML patients was evaluated using 6 clinical vignettes. Hematologists' attitudes toward risk and uncertainty, Big Five personality traits, and decision-making styles were assessed using binary lottery choices and well-recognized self-report inventories.

Key results: The resulting binary regression model in predicting treatment intensity contained professional title group (OR = 0.012, 95% CI 0.001 to 0.136, P < 0.001), conscientiousness (OR = 0.336, 95% CI 0.121 to 0.932, P = 0.036), extraversion (OR = 0.403, 95% CI 0.166 to 0.974, P = 0.044), conscientiousness by title group (OR = 2.009, 95% CI 1.100 to 3.667, P = 0.023), and extraversion by title group (OR = 1.627, 95% CI 0.965 to 2.743, P = 0.068) as predictors of therapy intensity preference. Junior physicians with a higher level of extraversion (mean difference = 0.27; 95% CI 0.07 to 0.45; P = 0.009) or conscientiousness (mean difference = 0.19; 95% CI 0.01 to 0.36; P = 0.028) tended to prescribe more intensive therapy. Meanwhile, no significant correlation was found between physicians' personalities or behavioral traits and treatment-related decision-making in senior physicians.

Conclusions: Physicians' personalities contribute to treatment-related decision-making for elderly AML patients, depending on the professional titles. More extravert or conscientious attending physicians tended to prescribe more intensive therapy. Meanwhile, the decisions made by chief and associate chief physicians were not impacted by their personal traits. Junior physicians should be aware of such potential influence when making medical decisions.

Keywords: elderly acute myeloid leukemia; personality; physician; treatment-related decision-making.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they do not have a conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
a Decision-making results for the six vignettes. b Decision-making results for each group. G1 represents the group with a preference for intensive therapy. G2 represents the group with a preference for non-intensive therapy. V1 to V6 represent vignette 1 to vignette 6. IC, standard-dose chemotherapy; LIT, low-intensity chemotherapy; BSC, best supportive care.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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