Current decision aids developed for prostate cancer screening can decrease decisional conflict but ultimately have no effect on whether men decide to undergo screening, a systematic review has found.

An international team of researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 19 randomised con-trolled trials covering more than 12,700 men (average age 59) that compared decision aids for PSA testing with usual care.

The studies — conducted from 1999 to 2017 — tested 12 different decision aids, including booklets of up to 28 pages, one-page leaflets, group or individual education sessions, computer-based tools and videos.

However, only four of the aids presented information on the probability of having a true-negative PSA result, and only three contained information on the likelihood of a false-negative result or the next step if screening results came back negative, the authors said.