Attribute | Levels | Rationale |
---|---|---|
1. Systolic blood pressure | a. 140Â mm/Hga b. 185Â mm/Hg c. 200Â mm/Hg | âą Highest ranked attribute in Stage 3 phases 1 and 2 âą Levels include those across rage from âsafe to offer thrombolysisâ to âgrey areâ to âoutside the thrombolysis licencing guidelinesâ |
2. Gender | a. Malea b. Female | âą To increase clinical face validity âą To examine if gender has an unconscious influence on decision-making |
3. Age | a. 68a b. 85 c. 95 | âą Included for purposes of ecological and face validity âą Evidence from exploratory work that some clinicians may take patient age into account and adhere to current licensing guidelines |
4. Frailty | a. you do not perceive as fraila b. you perceive as frail | âą Very challenging to adequately define frailty due to subjectivity in how clinicians view/consider it âą Aim was to trigger perception of frailty in patient and therefore the current phrasing was considered optimal to meet aim |
5. Time since symptom onset | a. 50Â mina b. 2Â h 30 mins c. 4Â h 15 mins | âą Potential greater benefit of very early treatment time (50 mins) included to compare to mid-point in time window and rapidly approaching end of window (4Â h 15mins) |
6. Pre-stroke dependency (mRS) | a. mRS 1 b. mRS 3 c. mRS 4a | âą Qualitative work suggested mRS 3 was the grey area in dependency |
7. Pre-stroke cognitive functioning | a. No history of memory problemsa b. Moderate dementia c. Severe dementia | âą Exploratory work suggested dementia/cognitive functioning could influence decision to offer thrombolysis |
8. Ethnicity | a. whitea b. Afro-Caribbean c. Asian | âą Included as an attribute that may have an implicit effect on decision-making âą Included as this is information that would be obvious in a typical decision |
9. NIHSS (stroke severity) | a. NIHSS 2 (without aphasia)a b. NIHSS 2 (with aphasia) c. NIHSS 5 (without aphasia) d. NIHSS 5 (with aphasia) e. NIHSS 14a f. NIHSS 23 | âą Presence or absence of aphasia deemed very important in previous stage and therefore was included at lower NIHSS scores (mild strokes) to assess whether it would influence decision-making. âą NIHSS 14 included as it is the SITS mean score (for treated patients) âą NIHSS 23 considered a severe stroke |