If advocates of evidence-based health care intend for more Americans to embrace the practice, then more consumer education is needed, according to a new study published on the Health Affairs journal’s Web site. 

In the study, researchers collected data between August 2006 and December 2007 that was based on focus groups, interviews and an online survey. The research team also interviewed 40 employer intermediaries, such as human resource professionals, who routinely discuss health care issues.

The new health law encourages evidence-based medicine in which individuals make medical decisions based on scientific evidence.

However, many participants in the focus groups believe medical guidelines based on clinical practices “would be too rigid and take away their ability to choose.” Instead, participants wanted to make medical choices based on their own and their physicians’ judgments about quality of care.

In fact, one participant told researchers that evidence-based guidelines are “just a way for doctors to say, ‘I'm following the national guidelines, so you can't sue me if something goes wrong.’”

“Our study demonstrated that there are critical gaps in consumer knowledge that challenge ongoing efforts to encourage consumers to use evidence-based health care,” says Dr. Kristin L. Carman, co-director of health policy and research at the American Institutes for Research.

“However, our findings also indicate some cause for optimism: a small but significant minority of our respondents accepts the underlying concepts of evidence-based health care and wants to assume a more informed and active role in their health care decision-making,” adds Carman, who is a co-author of an online article about the research. 

Other key findings include:

• Consumers believe that more care and newer care is better. According to the online survey, only 47% of respondents agreed that it is reasonable to pay less out of pocket for the most effective treatments and drugs.

• Thirty-three percent of the survey respondents agreed with the statement “medical treatments that work the best usually cost more than treatments that don’t work as well.” Only 27% of respondents disagreed, and 40% of respondents neither agreed nor disagreed.

• Many consumers do not engage in behaviors that could help them become better medical decision makers. For example, 55% of respondents to the online survey said they never took notes during medical appointments, and 28% said they never prepared questions in advance to ask their doctors.

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