Desirability of Explanation and Support from Medical Workers and Self-Determination by Japanese Young Patients in Virtual Medical Situations

Abstract

The participants were 50 ordinary Japanese university students. The participants were asked to imagine cases of mild, moderate or serious illness or injury. The participants were also asked to evaluate 12 items using numbers (0-100) regarding for each virtual level of seriousness. These 12 items were related to their own way of medical examination or treatment, refusal of the proposed medical examination or treatments, etc. A two-way ANOVA was conducted on the evaluation scores of the desirable degree of explanation from medical workers (DE), and support from medical workers (DS) and self-determination by patients (DSD). The ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of level of virtual seriousness and evaluated desirability as well as interaction (p<0.05). Regarding DSD, the difference in the average scores among the virtual cases of mild, moderate, or serious illness or injury did not reach significance level. Although regarding DE and DS, the average scores of the case of serious were significantly higher than those of the case of mild illness or injury. Further research on this issue in different age groups may be important.