Authors: Ali Alshehri , Mohammed Alsukhayri , Randa Almalki , Ali Alaidroos , Mohamed Eldigire Ahmed ,

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine what emergency physicians think about SDM in their practice. 
Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed in the department of emergency medicine of a tertiary hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from December 2025 to February 2026. The validated Shared Decision Making Questionnaire – Physician Version (SDM-Q-Doc) was used to gather data. Descriptive statistics were made and multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to determine factors associated with SDM scores.
Results: A total of 82 physicians participated, yielding a response rate of 97.6%. The mean overall SDM-Q-Doc score was 45.91 ± 7.26 (85.0% of the maximum score), indicating a high level of physician-perceived SDM practice rather than directly observed clinical practice. Higher scores were observed for items related to information provision, while lower scores were noted for collaborative decision-making components. The SDM-Q-Doc demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.926). In multivariable analysis, physicians aged 46–60 years had significantly higher SDM scores than younger physicians (β = 6.36, p = 0.003), whereas those with more than 20 years of experience had lower scores (β = −6.73, p = 0.003). Gender and professional level were not significantly associated with SDM scores.
Conclusion: Emergency physicians reported high perceived engagement in SDM; however, SDM appeared stronger in information provision than in shared deliberation and joint treatment selection. Given the self-reported nature of the assessment, these findings might overestimate actual SDM implementation and should therefore be interpreted as physicians’ perceptions rather than objective measures of clinical practice. 

Keywords: Assessment, emergency physician, perspectives, shared decision-making, tertiary hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.