Study: Physicians should encourage patients to talk more

Physicians are not mind readers, it turns out.

In a recent experiment, 29 primary-care physicians across 10 outpatient clinics engaged in consultations with 207 patients. Immediately following the visit, the doctors were asked to complete a survey instrument about what they thought their patients believed about the cause, meaning, treatment and control of their conditions.

By and large, the patients and physicians were not on the same page, as physicians' perceptions of their patients' health beliefs differed significantly (P < 0.001) from patients' actual beliefs, according to a new study published in the July 23 online issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Physicians were poorer judges of African-Americans' preferences to be a partner in their care, the meaning of the condition to Hispanic patients and beliefs about control when the patient was of a different race to them, the researchers found. In some cases, understanding was better when physicians and patient were of the same race or ethnicity [1].

Not surprisingly, however, when patients participated more actively in the audio-recorded consultations, physicians' perceptions of their patients' health beliefs were substantially more accurate. According to study coauthor Dr. Richard Street, from Texas A&M University, physicians can improve their understanding of patients' health beliefs, and thus address any misconceptions or differences of opinion, by encouraging patients to be more involved in exchanges by expressing their beliefs and concerns about their health.

"When doctors take time to listen to what the patient has to say [2], they can get a wealth of information about the lens through which patients make sense of their health," added Paul Haidet from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. "This can help them be better doctors."

To learn more:
- read this article [3] on e! Science News
- see this Softpedia story [4]
- check out the study abstract [5] in the Journal of General Internal Medicine

Related Articles:
Patient relations: Best practices for delivering a cancer diagnosis [6]
Undercover actors catch physicians' contextual errors in care [7]
Experts point to the value of physician-patient communication [2]