Abstract: Objective  To investigate the expectation and actuality of decision preferences on family members of ICU patients,  and to explore influencing factors of decision control preferences.Methods  A total of 100 ICU patients' family members from a tertiary hospital in Hangzhou were investigated with general information questionnaire and Control Preference Scale. Results  The decision control preference investigation result showed that 46.0% of the relatives chose the collaborative type, 35.0% of relatives chose the passive type, and 19.0% of relatives chose the active type. There was difference between expectation and actual decision making. Statistical analysis showed that the degree of expectation was higher than that of actual decision making(χ2=14.894，P<0.05), the consistency between them was poor(Kappa=0.272), and the coincidence rate was 54.0%. Multivariate and ordered logistic regression analysis showed that main influencing factors of decision control preferences were relatives' age, education level and characters.Conclusion  About 50.0% of family members experienced discordance between their preferences and actual roles.This highlights the need for medical workers to assess  individual decision preferences before decision making in order to give individualized communication styles and implement the matched decision model.

Key words: intensive care units; , family relations, decision making