April 4-6, 2024 • Hyatt Regency • Lexington, KY
Innovations in Health Communication
Innovations in Health Communication
Abstract: The Effect of Doctors’ Communication Behavior on Patients’ Satisfaction in Medical Consultations
Given the growing attention, most of the studies on doctor-patient communication were conducted in Western countries, including the USA and the UK (Ishikawa et al., 2002), while very few studies have been found on the perspective of Bangladesh, a third-world country, struggling for the last few decades to tackle multifaceted health issues and problems consist of insufficient health care services, inadequate infrastructure facilities, and limited resources with a population per registered doctor 1581 (DGHS, 2019). Consequently, from a practical point of view in Bangladesh, incorporating patient satisfaction into doctor-patient communication research is essential as there are still many gaps in this health communication area. Investigating doctors' patient-centered communication behaviors (PCCB), which influence patient satisfaction and health outcomes as well, is therefore necessary.
This study is guided by the communication accommodation theory (CAT), formerly known as the speech accommodation theory (Giles et al., 1987; Giles, 2008), which argues that when one dyad member changes his or her speech patterns to that of the other member. How the doctors evaluate patients’ social status and group belonging may impact the accommodation (West & Turner, 2010). To perform our analysis, we used a conceptual model used by Zandbelt et al. (2007) to understand the predictors of patient satisfaction with the individual medical interview. The model was proposed based on the concepts of Ong et al. (1995).
The study used a quantitative research approach designed with a hospital-based cross-sectional sample survey. Data were collected from the patients (N = 700) who visited the doctor for medical consultation in two government hospitals and two private clinics in Chattogram City using the post-consultation questionnaire (Gordon & Street, 2016). Cronbach’s alpha (α = .96) value suggested a very good internal consistency of the scale used to measure patient satisfaction. The ethical approval was taken from the Institutional Review Committee.
A significant statistical difference (p < .001) appeared regarding patients’ perception of adequate consultation, doctors’ nonverbal behavior, inhibiting behavior, and patients’ participating behavior in private and public settings. However, R2 value shows that doctors’ patient-centered behaviors appeared as the stronger predictors of patient satisfaction toward medical interviews, followed by socioeconomic variables of patients and doctors and patients’ participation during the consultation as well. Presence of a third person with patients during the consultation (β = -0.05, p = .040), doctors’ private setting of consultation (β = 0.16, p < .001), doctors’ higher designation rank (β = 0.05, p = .042), patients’ participating behavior during the consultation (β = 0.20, p < .001), doctors’ nonverbal behavior (β = 0.10, p < .001), doctors’ inhibiting behavior (β = -0.39, p < .001), and doctors’ facilitating behavior with patients (β = 0.32, p < .001) were reported as the influencing factors of patients’ satisfaction with medical consultation.
This research data supports the main argument of communication accommodation theory that the doctors' behavior is differentiated according to the disparity of socio-economic characteristics of the patients. It also highlights the importance of providing communication skills training in medical education that considers patients’ needs.
This study is guided by the communication accommodation theory (CAT), formerly known as the speech accommodation theory (Giles et al., 1987; Giles, 2008), which argues that when one dyad member changes his or her speech patterns to that of the other member. How the doctors evaluate patients’ social status and group belonging may impact the accommodation (West & Turner, 2010). To perform our analysis, we used a conceptual model used by Zandbelt et al. (2007) to understand the predictors of patient satisfaction with the individual medical interview. The model was proposed based on the concepts of Ong et al. (1995).
The study used a quantitative research approach designed with a hospital-based cross-sectional sample survey. Data were collected from the patients (N = 700) who visited the doctor for medical consultation in two government hospitals and two private clinics in Chattogram City using the post-consultation questionnaire (Gordon & Street, 2016). Cronbach’s alpha (α = .96) value suggested a very good internal consistency of the scale used to measure patient satisfaction. The ethical approval was taken from the Institutional Review Committee.
A significant statistical difference (p < .001) appeared regarding patients’ perception of adequate consultation, doctors’ nonverbal behavior, inhibiting behavior, and patients’ participating behavior in private and public settings. However, R2 value shows that doctors’ patient-centered behaviors appeared as the stronger predictors of patient satisfaction toward medical interviews, followed by socioeconomic variables of patients and doctors and patients’ participation during the consultation as well. Presence of a third person with patients during the consultation (β = -0.05, p = .040), doctors’ private setting of consultation (β = 0.16, p < .001), doctors’ higher designation rank (β = 0.05, p = .042), patients’ participating behavior during the consultation (β = 0.20, p < .001), doctors’ nonverbal behavior (β = 0.10, p < .001), doctors’ inhibiting behavior (β = -0.39, p < .001), and doctors’ facilitating behavior with patients (β = 0.32, p < .001) were reported as the influencing factors of patients’ satisfaction with medical consultation.
This research data supports the main argument of communication accommodation theory that the doctors' behavior is differentiated according to the disparity of socio-economic characteristics of the patients. It also highlights the importance of providing communication skills training in medical education that considers patients’ needs.