Decisional Conflict Scale
The decisional conflict scale (DCS) measures personal perceptions of:
- uncertainty in choosing options;
- modifiable factors contributing to uncertainty such as feeling uninformed, unclear about personal values and unsupported in decision making; and
- effective decision making (in full version) such as feeling the choice is informed, values-based, likely to be implemented and expressing satisfaction with the choice.
The User Manual describes the properties, scoring and directions for administration for each of the DCS versions. The 4 versions are listed below along with links to available translations.
- Traditional DCS: 16 statements, 5 response categories.
Available in English, French, Danish, Chinese, Spanish, German, and Japanese, Italian. - Question Format DCS: 16 questions, 5 response categories.
- Low Literacy DCS: 10 questions, 3 response categories.
Availalble in English, Spanish (Chile), and Spanish (US). - SURE Test for clinical practice: 4 items, 2 response categories.
Available in English, and French.
You may use any of these measurement tools without requesting permission. These tools are protected by copyright but are freely available for you to use, provided you: a) cite the reference in any questionnaires or publications; b) do not charge for or profit from them; and c) do not alter them except for adding a specific condition/decision as necessary.
Important Citations
- O’Connor AM. Validation of a decisional conflict scale. Med Decis Making. 1995 Jan-Mar;15(1):25-30.
- Légaré F, Kearing S, Clay K, Gagnon S, D’Amours D, Rousseau M, O’Connor AM. Are you SURE? Assessing patient decisional conflict with a 4-item screening test. Can Fam Physician. 2010 Aug;56(8):e308-14.
- Linder SK, Swank PR, Vernon SW, Mullen PD, Morgan RO, Volk RJ. Validity of a low literacy version of the Decisional Conflict Scale. Patient Educ Couns. 2011 Dec;85(3):521-4. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2010.12.012. Epub 2011 Feb 5.
- Légaré F, Leblanc A, Robitaille H, Turcotte S. The decisional conflict scale: moving from the individual to the dyad level. Z Evid Fortbild Qual Gesundhwes. 2012;106(4):247-52. Epub 2012 Mar 28.
- Ferron Parayre A, Labrecque M, Rousseau M, Turcotte S, Légaré F. Validation of SURE, a Four-Item Clinical Checklist for Detecting Decisional Conflict in Patients. Med Decis Making. 2014 Jan;34(1):54-62. doi: 10.1177/0272989X13491463. Epub 2013 Jun 17.
- Turcotte S, Guerrier M, Labrecque M, Robitaille H, Rivest LP, Hess B, Légaré F. Dyadic validity of the Decisional Conflict Scale: common patient/physician measures of patient uncertainty were identified. J Clin Epidemiol. 2015 Mar 21. pii: S0895-4356(15)00150-X. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2015.03.005. [Epub ahead of print]
Last modified: 2015-05-15.
