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Audiologist-patient communication profiles in hearing rehabilitation appointments
Carly Meyer1, Caitlin Barr2, Asaduzzaman Khan1
1HEARing CRC, Australia; School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Objective:
To profile the communication between audiologists and patients in initial appointments on a biomedical-psychosocial continuum; and explore the associations between these profiles and 1) characteristics of the appointment and 2) patients' decisions to pursue hearing aids.
Methods:
Sixty-three initial hearing assessment appointments were filmed and audiologist-patient communication was coded using the Roter Interaction Analysis System. A hierarchical cluster analysis was conducted to profile audiologist-patient communication, after which regression modelling and Chi-squared analyses were conducted.
Results:
Two distinct audiologist-patient communication profiles were identified during both the history taking phase (46=biopsychosocial profile, 15=psychosocial profile) and diagnosis and management planning phase (45=expanded biomedical profile, 11=narrowly biomedical profile). Longer appointments were significantly more likely to be associated with an expanded biomedical interaction during the diagnosis and management planning phase. No significant associations were found between audiologist-patient communication profile and patients' decisions to pursue hearing aids.
Conclusion:
Initial audiology consultations appear to remain clinician-centred. Three quarters of appointments began with a biopsychosocial interaction; however, 80% ended with an expanded biomedical interaction.
Practice Implications:
Findings suggest that audiologists could consider modifying their communication in initial appointments to more holistically address the needs of patients.