Using value-focused thinking to elicit oncologic inpatients’ life and treatment objectives: a qualitative interview study

Abstract

Objective Value-focused thinking (VFT) is a decision-making method that places the qualitative elicitation of decisionmakers’ objectives at the beginning of the decision-making process. A potential healthcare application of VFT is to elicit patients’ objectives to better understand what matters to them. Only then can treatments be tailored accordingly. This is particularly important for patients with life-threatening diseases such as cancer. Thus, this interview study used VFT to elicit the life and treatment objectives of non-terminal oncologic inpatients. Methods Fifteen cancer inpatients (median age 66 years) were sampled in a German university hospital in September 2019. The participants completed questionnaires, the data of which were used to semi-structure the subsequent interviews. Data were analysed using inductive category formation to identify objectives in the transcribed interviews. Results Sixteen objectives in five life domains (optimising physical wellbeing, optimising mental wellbeing, optimising personal life, optimising family life and optimising financial life) were identified. Conclusion Comparison of the findings with previous research indicated that VFT is a reliable approach to elicit patients’ objectives. The identified objectives could increase understanding of the outcomes that cancer inpatients care about.