TY - JOUR T1 - Choosing, deciding, or participating: what do patients want in primary care? JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 603 LP - 604 DO - 10.3399/bjgp08X330681 VL - 58 IS - 554 AU - Joanne Protheroe AU - Peter Bower Y1 - 2008/09/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/58/554/603.abstract N2 - Choice is a concept of increasing importance in healthcare policy. While politicians, health professionals, and service managers argue about the advantages and disadvantages of choice in terms of quality of care, efficiency, and equity, the patient perspective has received less attention.1 In this issue of the BJGP, Ogden and colleagues illuminate patient perceptions of choice using both qualitative and quantitative methods.2,3Essentially, their quantitative research found that it was possible to distinguish attitudes towards ‘having choice’ from attitudes towards ‘making choices’, and that patients were more positive about the former than the latter.3 Nearly two-thirds responded positively to questions about having a range of options in health care (for example, ‘I like to know all the possible ways in which I could be treated’), whereas far fewer were positive about making choices about health care (for example, ‘I prefer to make my own mind up about what treatment I will have’).As with any good research study, this study raises as many questions as it answers. Implicit in their approach is the idea that it is possible to measure general attitudes to choice. They found that attitudes to choice within and outside of health care loaded similarly in the factor analysis, which supports this approach to a degree. However, it is noteworthy that many responders answered ‘not sure’ to questions about ‘making choices’, which may have reflected the difficulties of responding to general items on choice without context.4 Making a decision … ER -