Communication Study
Doctors in a Southeast Asian country communicate sub-optimally regardless of patients’ educational background

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2011.02.002Get rights and content
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Abstract

Objective

To explore the relationship between the style of doctor–patient communication and patients’ educational background in a Southeast Asian teaching hospital setting using the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS).

Methods

We analyzed a total of 245 audio-taped consultations involving 30 internal medicine residents with 7–10 patients each in the internal medicine outpatient clinics. The patients were categorized into a group with a high and a group with a low educational level. We ranked the data into 41 RIAS utterances and RIAS-based composite categories in order of observed frequency during consultations.

Results

The residents invariantly used a paternalistic style irrespective of patients’ educational background. The RIAS utterances and the composite categories show no significant relationship between communication style and patients’ educational level.

Conclusion

Doctors in a Southeast Asian country use a paternalistic communication style during consultations, regardless of patients’ educational background.

Practice implication

To approach a more partnership doctor–patient communication, culture and clinical environment concern of Southeast Asian should be further investigated.

Keywords

Doctor–patient communication
The continuum of partnership style
The RIAS method
Intercultural communication

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