The effects of patient communication skills training on the discourse of older patients during a primary care interview

OBJECTIVES: To test the effects of a communication skills training interven tion on older patients' discourse during a primary care interview. DESIGN: A quasi-experimental design involving two intervention conditions. SETTING: The Family Practice Center of a university-based clinic. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-three patients averaging age 72 and 9 family practice physicians. INTERVENTION: A communication skills training booklet received approximatel y 3 days before the scheduled appointment and a 30-minute face-to-face foll ow-up session before seeing the physician. MEASUREMENTS: Patients' seeking, providing, and verifying of information we re coded from transcripts of the 33 interviews. RESULTS: Trained patients engaged in significantly more seeking and providi ng of information than untrained patients. Additionally, trained patients o btained significantly more information from physicians than did untrained p atients, both in terms of the number of total information units and the num ber of units per question asked. CONCLUSION: Patient communication skills training appears to be an effectiv e means of enhancing patients' participation in the medical interview witho ut increasing the overall length of the interview.