TY - JOUR
T1 - Interpersonal perception in the context of doctor-patient relationships
T2 - A dyadic analysis of doctor-patient communication
AU - Kenny, David A.
AU - Veldhuijzen, Wemke
AU - Weijden, Trudy van der
AU - LeBlanc, Annie
AU - Lockyer, Jocelyn
AU - Légaré, France
AU - Campbell, Craig
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Toni Laidlaw, Chair and other members of the steering committee that designed and oversaw the administration of the data collection in the original study, including Heather Macleod, Francois Goulet, Suzanne Kurtz, Gordon Page, and David Blackmore. We explicitly acknowledge the financial support from the Medical Council of Canada and the Canada Research Chair in Implementation of Shared Decision Making in Primary Care. There are no potential conflicts of interest.
PY - 2010/3
Y1 - 2010/3
N2 - Doctor-patient communication is an interpersonal process and essential to relationship-centered care. However, in many studies, doctors and patients are studied as if living in separate worlds. This study assessed whether: 1) doctors' perception of their communication skills is congruent with their patients' perception; and 2) patients of a specific doctor agree with each other about their doctor's communication skills. A cross-sectional study was conducted in three provinces in Canada with 91 doctors and their 1749 patients. Doctors and patients independently completed questions on the doctor's communication skills (content and process) after a consultation. Multilevel modeling provided an estimate of the patient and doctor variance components at both the dyad-level and the doctor-level. We computed correlations between patients' and doctors' perceptions at both levels to assess how congruent they were. Consensus among patients of a specific doctor was assessed using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The mean score of the rating of doctor's skills according to patients was 4.58, and according to doctors was 4.37. The dyad-level variance for the patient was .38 and for the doctor was .06. The doctor-level variance for the patient ratings was .01 and for the doctor ratings, .18. The correlation between both the patients' and the doctors' skills' ratings scores at the dyad-level was weak. At the doctor-level, the correlation was not statistically significant. The ICC for patients' ratings was .03 and for the doctors' ratings .76. Overall, this study suggests that doctors and their patients have a very different perspective of the doctors' communication skills occurring during routine clinical encounters.
AB - Doctor-patient communication is an interpersonal process and essential to relationship-centered care. However, in many studies, doctors and patients are studied as if living in separate worlds. This study assessed whether: 1) doctors' perception of their communication skills is congruent with their patients' perception; and 2) patients of a specific doctor agree with each other about their doctor's communication skills. A cross-sectional study was conducted in three provinces in Canada with 91 doctors and their 1749 patients. Doctors and patients independently completed questions on the doctor's communication skills (content and process) after a consultation. Multilevel modeling provided an estimate of the patient and doctor variance components at both the dyad-level and the doctor-level. We computed correlations between patients' and doctors' perceptions at both levels to assess how congruent they were. Consensus among patients of a specific doctor was assessed using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The mean score of the rating of doctor's skills according to patients was 4.58, and according to doctors was 4.37. The dyad-level variance for the patient was .38 and for the doctor was .06. The doctor-level variance for the patient ratings was .01 and for the doctor ratings, .18. The correlation between both the patients' and the doctors' skills' ratings scores at the dyad-level was weak. At the doctor-level, the correlation was not statistically significant. The ICC for patients' ratings was .03 and for the doctors' ratings .76. Overall, this study suggests that doctors and their patients have a very different perspective of the doctors' communication skills occurring during routine clinical encounters.
KW - Doctor-patient communication
KW - Doctor-patient relationship
KW - Dyadic data analysis
KW - Relationship-centered care
KW - Shared decision making
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U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.10.065
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.10.065
M3 - Article
C2 - 20005618
AN - SCOPUS:75849153491
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 70
SP - 763
EP - 768
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
IS - 5
ER -