Quality of patient decision aids to support the public making COVID-19 decisions: An online environmental scan

Objective: To identify and appraise the quality of COVID-19 patient decision aids (PtDAs).Methods: We conducted an environmental scan of online publicly available COVID-19 PtDAs. Two reviewers independently searched and extracted data. We calculated median International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS) scores and proportion scoring > 70% on Patient Education Materials Information Tool (PEMAT) adequate for understandability and actionability.Results: Of 876 resources identified, 12 were PtDAs. Decisions focused on initial COVID-19 vaccination series (n = 9), location of care for elderly (n = 2), and social distancing (n = 1). All 12 PtDAs were written materials and two had accompanying videos. The median IPDAS score minimizing risk of biased decisions was 4 of 6 items (IQR 1, range 2-4). For PEMAT, 92% had adequate for understandability and none for actionability.Conclusions: We identified few online publicly available COVID-19 PtDAs and none were about COVID-19 vaccination boosters or treatment. PtDAs scored poorly on actionability and none met all IPDAS criteria for minimizing risk of biased decisions.Practice implications: PtDA developers for COVID-19 and future pandemics should ensure their PtDAs meet all IPDAS criteria for minimizing risk of bias, have adequate scores for actionability, and are disseminated in the A to Z inventory.

Automated summary

This study aims to identify and evaluate the quality of COVID-19 patient decision aids (PtDAs). The findings show that there are few publicly available online COVID-19 PtDAs, and none of them are about COVID-19 vaccination boosters or treatment. The existing PtDAs scored poorly on actionability and did not meet all IPDAS criteria for minimizing risk of biased decisions.