# Data from the paper: Power asymmetry and embarrassment in shared decision-making: 
predicting participation preference and decisional conflict.

## Introduction and Data Collection

Shared decision-making (SDM) is the gold standard for patient-clinician interaction,
yet many patients are not actively involved in medical consultations and hesitate 
to engage in decisions on their health. Despite considerable efforts to improve 
implementation, research on barriers to SDM within the patient-clinician 
relationship and interaction is scant. To identify potential barriers to urological 
patients’ participation in decision-making, we developed two novel scales assessing 
power asymmetry (PA-ME) and embarrassment in medical encounters (EmMed). The present 
data set contain data from a study, in which both scales were validated in a large
sample comprising urological patients and non-clinical participants. The study further
examined the effects of both factors on participation preferences and decisional
conflict among patients. Data were collected from 107 urological patients at a 
university hospital for Urology and Urosurgery in Germany. Patients completed 
self-report questionnaires before and after their clinical appointments. In addition,
250 non-clinical participants provided data via an online study. All participants 
rated perceived power asymmetry in the patient-clinician relationship and their 
experience of embarrassment in medical contexts using the PA-ME and EmMed scales. 
Urological patients further indicated their participation preference in decisions
regarding both general and urological care prior to the consultation. Afterward,
they assessed the level of perceived decisional conflict. Sociodemographic data were
collected from all participants, along with clinical data from the patient group.

Comprehensive details regarding data acquisition procedures and the measurement 
instruments are provided in the associated publication (see below).

## Prerequisites and File Formats

The data are available upon request. Please contact alpers@uni-mannheim.de to obtain
access. Two datasets are available: one for the clinical sample (urological patients)
and one for the non-clinical sample (online participants). Both datasets are provided
in SPSS (.sav) format.

## Codebook 

Codebooks for both datasets will be included with the data upon request.

## Citation

Please cite the data as well as the associated paper as follows: 

Scherer, K. A., Büdenbender, B., Blum, A. K., Grüne, B., Kriegmair, 
M. C., Michel, M. S., & Alpers, G. W. (2025). Data from the paper: 
Power asymmetry and embarrassment in shared decision-making:
predicting participation preference and decisional conflict. MADATA, 
University of Mannheim.

Scherer, K. A., Büdenbender, B., Blum, A. K., Grüne, B., Kriegmair, 
M. C., Michel, M. S., & Alpers, G. W. (2025). Power asymmetry and 
embarrassment in shared decision-making: predicting participation 
preference and decisional conflict. BMC Medical Informatics and 
Decision Making, 25(1), 120.


## Contact 

For questions or comments, please contact:
Prof. Dr. Georg W. Alpers
Chair of Clinical and Biological Psychology and Psychotherapy
University of Mannheim
Email: alpers@uni-mannheim.de