The role of trust in health decision making among African American men recruited from urban barbershops.

Objective To examine factors within the patient-provider relationship that influence which role African American men aged 40-70 years prefer when making health care decisions. Methods We recruited 40 African American men from barbershops in the Richmond, Virginia, metropolitan area to participate in semistructured interviews. At the completion of each interview, participants completed a brief selfadministered demographic survey. Results The semistructured interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim and then imported into a qualitative software program for organizing, sorting, and coding data. The principles of thematic analysis and template approach were used in this study. The survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Trust was a major theme that emerged from the semistructured interviews. The men listed trust in the health care provider as the primary reason for choosing a collaborative or active role in the decision-making process. Within the theme of trust, 4 subthemes emerged: expertise, information sharing, active listening, and relaionship length. Thirty-five out of the 40 men interviewed preferred an active or collaborative role in the decision-making process; only 5 preferred passive decision making. Conclusions Trust emerged as an important factor that influenced role preference for African American men when making health care decisions in the context of the patientprovider relationship. Future studies that help identify which other factors influence health care decision-making roles among African American men may have implications for addressing health disparities among this population and improve the quality of their health care.