Affective Forecasting in High-Risk Cancer Surgery decision-making
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring the role of Affective Forecasting in high-risk cancer surgery uptake decisions: a framework analysis.
IRAS ID
348274
Contact name
Anna Tickle
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Nottingham
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 19 days
Research summary
This project explores how cancer patients and their clinical teams make decisions when offered or offering a high-risk surgery. In this context, ‘high risk’ refers to cancer surgeries that have an unclear or complex balance between the certainty of positive and negative outcomes (e.g. increased length of life but reduced quality of life). These decisions are often emotionally complex, and research shows they can lead to decision regret which can negatively impact mental health, quality of life, and how well people stick to their treatment and recovery plans (Becerra Pérez et al., 2016; Parhiscar & Rosenfeld, 2022); Szproch & Maguire, 2022).
Despite how common and important these decisions are, there's little research on how patients and clinicians make them. The leading healthcare decision-making theories often focus on thought processes, often overlooking the recognised role of emotions. This study takes a different approach, using the theory of Affective Forecasting, which promotes that people make decisions based on how they think they’ll feel afterward, rather than facts and logic. understanding these emotional predictions may help improve support for patients and clinicians facing these choices.
Up to 30 participants (5-10 clinicians and 20-25 patients), all connected to Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust will be recruited. Their experiences and views will be collected through a combination of recorded consultation data and virtual interviews. Patients participants will be hear clips or quotes from their consultations to help them remember and reflect on what they were thinking and feeling at the time. An Affective Forecasting framework will be used to in the analysis of the data, to understand whether it has played a role in the participants decision-making.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 3
REC reference
25/WS/0096
Date of REC Opinion
1 Jul 2025
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion