Shared-Decision Making for Hydroxyurea

The goal of the study is to understand how best to help parents of young children with sickle cell disease and their clinicians have a shared discussion about hydroxyurea (one that takes into account medical evidence and parent values and preferences). The study will compare two methods to help clinicians facilitate this-a clinician pocket guide and a clinician hydroxyurea shared decision making toolkit-in a group of parents of children ages 0-5 with sickle cell disease. The investigators hope that both methods lead to parents reaching a high-quality, well-informed decision. In addition, the team hopes to demonstrate that parents who experience a shared decision will have lower anxiety and decisional uncertainty. The researchers also expect these parents to be more likely to choose hydroxyurea and that their children will have less pain, fewer hospitalizations, better developmental outcomes, and higher quality of life. The project team hopes to show that the toolkit method is easy for clinicians to use and gives parents the support needed to make an informed decision.