Quick Take: Study finds clear doctor-patient communication severely lacking

A recent study by researchers from Texas A&M University finds that doctor-patient communications can be riddled with misunderstanding.

By Anonymous (not verified) on Jan 28, 2009

A recent study by researchers from Texas A&M University finds that doctor-patient communications can be riddled with misunderstanding. In studying 74 interactions between doctors and their patients with severe arthritis of the knee, the researchers found that 20% of the time the doctor and patient disagreed on whether or not the doctor had recommended knee replacement surgery.

Dr. Richard Street of the group from Texas A&M told Reuters Health that patients and physicians often take for granted that they understand one another. The studys result, however, reveal theyre not always on the same page.

There was modest to poor agreement, the researchers report, between doctors and the patients on how severe the patients osteoarthritis was and on the risks and benefits of knee replacement surgery. Physicians usually thought the patients condition was less severe than the patients did, the group says.

In 18% of the interactions, physicians and patients even disagreed on whether the doctor had recommended knee replacement surgery. It is a disturbing statistic when one considers that, according to the researchers, the stronger the agreement between patient and doctor on the benefits of knee replacement surgery, the more satisfied patients were and the greater their intention to follow their doctors recommendations.

And Street told Reuters that such miscommunication isnt limited to this type of surgery, but is prevalent in discussions between physicians and their patients.
Street suggests that patients should check for understanding by repeating back what the physician is telling them. And he says doctors should check for understanding themselves.

The implications of the study clearly can be extended to other areas affected by patient-doctor communication, such as patient adherence and compliance to prescription drug regimens.