Does health habit counseling affect patient satisfaction?

Area of Science:

• Family Medicine
• Health Behavior Research
• Patient Satisfaction Studies

Background:

• Patient acceptability of health behavior advice is crucial for illness prevention but not well understood.
• Physician discussions on behavioral risk factors' impact on patient satisfaction requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess if physician discussions about behavioral risk factors decrease patient satisfaction in outpatient settings.
• To determine the association between health habit counseling and patient satisfaction.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study of 2,459 adult outpatient visits.
• 138 community family physicians in Northeast Ohio participated.
• Health habit counseling assessed by direct observation; patient satisfaction by a modified MOS 9-item visit rating scale; logistic regression analysis.

Main Results:

• Counseling on diet, exercise, alcohol/substance use, STD/HIV prevention showed no association with patient satisfaction.
• Patients asked about tobacco use or counseled on quitting reported higher satisfaction.
• Controlling for patient mix did not alter these findings.

Conclusions:

• Physician discussions on health behavior change do not diminish patient satisfaction.
• Assessing tobacco use and providing cessation counseling are linked to increased patient satisfaction.