Development and acceptability of gist-based decision aids for prostate and breast cancer screening: a two-phase qualitative interview study in an online setting

08 Jul 20264 min read0 viewsJournal Feed

GIST (Key Takeaways)

Background Traditional approaches to designing decision aids have focused on providing completeness of information and quantitative detail. An alternative approach based on psychological research emphasises understanding the essence or 'gist' of the decision.
Few gist-based decision aids exist. The objective of this study was to develop novel gist-based decision aids for prostate and breast cancer screening and evaluate their acceptability.
Methods Men aged 40 - 60 years and women aged 40 - 49 years eligible for prostate or breast cancer screening were recruited from ResearchMatch (National Institutes of Health) and a public hospital located in New York City. Three rounds of semistructured interviews were performed to determine self-reported comprehensibility and acceptability, with iterative modifications after each phase, including: Phase 1: initial feedback; Phase 2, Round 1: evaluating our modifications; and Phase 2, Round 2: confirming final content.
Results A total of 80 participants were involved in the two-phase qualitative interview process; Phase 1 and Phase 2 included 32 and 48 participants, respectively. Racial distribution was 50% white, 30% black and 10% Asian; 9% of participants were Hispanic or Latino.

Clinical Editorial

BMJ Open published a clinical update in Research Highlights on 08 Jul 2026.

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