Which patient and doctor behaviours make a medical consultation more effective from a patient point of view. Results from a European multicentre study in 31 countries

Maria Angela Mazzi; Michela Rimondini; Egbert van der Zee; Wienke Gw Boerma; Christa Zimmermann; Jozien Bensing

doi:10.1016/j.pec.2018.05.019

Which patient and doctor behaviours make a medical consultation more effective from a patient point of view. Results from a European multicentre study in 31 countries

Maria Angela Mazzi^*, Michela Rimondini, Egbert van der Zee, Wienke Gw Boerma, Christa Zimmermann, Jozien Bensing

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Objective: To assess European patients’ preferences regarding seven aspects of doctor-patient communication. Methods: 6049 patients from 31 European countries evaluated 21 doctor and 12 patient behaviours, through a patient-generated questionnaire (PCVq). Multilevel models explored the effects of patient characteristics, contextual and cultural dimensions on preferences. Results: Patients attributed more responsibility to doctors, by giving greater importance to doctor than to patient factors, in particular to Treating the patient as a partner and as a person and Continuity of care. Gender, age, education, the presence of chronic illness and two of Hofstede's cultural dimensions, Individualism and Indulgence, showed differential evaluations among patients. Women gave greater importance to all seven communication aspects, older patients to being prepared for the consultation, lower educated patients to Treating patient as a person and Thoughtful planning. Patients from countries with an indulgent background rated all seven communication aspects of greater importance. A more individualistic orientation was related to lower importance regarding the four doctor's factors and the patient factor Open and Honest. Conclusions: Treating the patient as a person and providing continuity of care emerged as universal values. Practice implications: The findings should represent a landmark for the adaptation of patient-generated communication guidelines and programs in Europe.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1795-1803
Journal	Patient Education and Counseling
Volume	101
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2018.05.019
Publication status	Published - Oct 2018
Externally published	Yes

Funding

This article is based on the QUALICOPC (Quality and Costs of Primary Care in Europe) project, co- funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement 242141 . Conflict of interest The authors have no potential conflict of interest related to the subject of the paper. The authors would like to thank the partners from the QUALICOPC project for their role throughout the study and their coordination of the data collection: P. Groenewegen and W. Schäfer (coordinating team NIVEL, the Netherlands), J. De Maeseneer, E. De Ryck, L. Hanssens, A. Van Pottelberge, S. Willems (Belgium), G. Capitani, S. De Rosis, A.M. Murante, S. Nuti, C. Seghieri, M. Vainieri (Italy) and C. Sirdifield, N. Siriwardena (UK). The authors would also like to thank all persons who have supported the national coordinators in the data collection in their countries. The authors are grateful to Marta Garcia-Granero (University of Navarra, Spain) for providing the Stata routine ordinal alpha. Appendix A

Keywords

Contextual and individual features
Cross-national research
Hofstede's cultural dimensions
Multilevel linear regressions
Patient consultation values questionnaire
Patients’ preferences
Primary care communication

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10.1016/j.pec.2018.05.019

Cite this

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title = "Which patient and doctor behaviours make a medical consultation more effective from a patient point of view. Results from a European multicentre study in 31 countries",

abstract = "Objective: To assess European patients{\textquoteright} preferences regarding seven aspects of doctor-patient communication. Methods: 6049 patients from 31 European countries evaluated 21 doctor and 12 patient behaviours, through a patient-generated questionnaire (PCVq). Multilevel models explored the effects of patient characteristics, contextual and cultural dimensions on preferences. Results: Patients attributed more responsibility to doctors, by giving greater importance to doctor than to patient factors, in particular to Treating the patient as a partner and as a person and Continuity of care. Gender, age, education, the presence of chronic illness and two of Hofstede's cultural dimensions, Individualism and Indulgence, showed differential evaluations among patients. Women gave greater importance to all seven communication aspects, older patients to being prepared for the consultation, lower educated patients to Treating patient as a person and Thoughtful planning. Patients from countries with an indulgent background rated all seven communication aspects of greater importance. A more individualistic orientation was related to lower importance regarding the four doctor's factors and the patient factor Open and Honest. Conclusions: Treating the patient as a person and providing continuity of care emerged as universal values. Practice implications: The findings should represent a landmark for the adaptation of patient-generated communication guidelines and programs in Europe.",

keywords = "Contextual and individual features, Cross-national research, Hofstede's cultural dimensions, Multilevel linear regressions, Patient consultation values questionnaire, Patients{\textquoteright} preferences, Primary care communication",

author = "Mazzi, {Maria Angela} and Michela Rimondini and {van der Zee}, Egbert and Boerma, {Wienke Gw} and Christa Zimmermann and Jozien Bensing",

year = "2018",

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doi = "10.1016/j.pec.2018.05.019",

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Which patient and doctor behaviours make a medical consultation more effective from a patient point of view. Results from a European multicentre study in 31 countries. / Mazzi, Maria Angela; Rimondini, Michela; van der Zee, Egbert et al.
In: Patient Education and Counseling, Vol. 101, No. 10, 10.2018, p. 1795-1803.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

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Which patient and doctor behaviours make a medical consultation more effective from a patient point of view. Results from a European multicentre study in 31 countries

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