Patient information-seeking behaviors when communicating with doctors

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Patient Communication
• Health Psychology

Background:

• Understanding patient information-seeking behaviors is crucial for effective doctor-patient communication.
• Previous research indicates a gap between patients' desire for information and their actual information-seeking actions during medical consultations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate patient differences in question-asking and information-seeking behaviors within rehabilitation medicine settings.
• To identify factors influencing these behaviors, including sociodemographic characteristics, attitudes, and situational variables.

Main Methods:

• A study involving 106 rehabilitation medicine patients.
• Data collection included sociodemographic information, attitude measures, interviews, and recordings of doctor-patient encounters.
• Regression analyses were used to determine the association between patient behaviors and various influencing factors.

Main Results:

• Patients expressed a desire for extensive medical information but exhibited limited information-seeking behaviors during consultations.
• Patients generally deferred medical decision-making authority to their doctors.
• Patient information-seeking was more strongly correlated with situational factors (e.g., visit length, diagnosis) than with patient attitudes or demographics.
• Patient attitudes significantly impacted information-seeking only in interactions exceeding 19 minutes.

Conclusions:

• Longer doctor-patient interactions may be necessary for patient attitudes about information desire and decision-making participation to translate into active information-seeking communication.
• Situational variables play a more dominant role in shaping patient information-seeking behaviors than personal characteristics in this cohort.
• Findings highlight the need to consider interaction dynamics and context when promoting patient engagement in healthcare decision-making.