Assessment of emergency physicians’ perspectives on shared decision-making in a tertiary hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

<p><strong>Objective: </strong>The purpose of this study was to determine what emergency physicians think about SDM in their practice.&nbsp;<br /><strong>Methods: </strong>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 &ndash; 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.<br /><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 82 physicians participated, yielding a response rate of 97.6%. The mean overall SDM-Q-Doc score was 45.91 &plusmn; 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&rsquo;s &alpha; = 0.926). In multivariable analysis, physicians aged 46&ndash;60 years had significantly higher SDM scores than younger physicians (&beta; = 6.36, p = 0.003), whereas those with more than 20 years of experience had lower scores (&beta; = &minus;6.73, p = 0.003). Gender and professional level were not significantly associated with SDM scores.<br /><strong>Conclusion: </strong>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&rsquo; perceptions rather than objective measures of clinical practice.&nbsp;</p>