Duration of military service is associated with decision quality in Veterans considering total knee replacement: case series

Due to the nature of military service, the patient–physician relationship in Veterans is unlike that seen in civilian life. The structure of the military is hypothesized to result in barriers to open patient–physician communication and patient participation in elective care decision-making. Decision quality is a measure of concordance between a chosen treatment and the aspects of medical care that matter most to an informed patient; high decision quality is synonymous with patient-centered care. While past research has examined how age and other demographic factors affect decision quality in Veterans, duration of military service, rank at discharge, and years since discharge have not been studied