Byrne and Long: a classification for rating the interview style of doctors

In order to assess the doctor's verbal behaviour in the consultation, a classification instrument is needed that will enable us to summarize the doctor's interview style. Such an instrument, developed by Byrne and Long, is evaluated in this study. After presenting the procedure as it has been worked out by Byrne and Long, some points of criticism are formulated. On account of our criticism, some changes have been introduced into the instrument. To test the relevance and reliability of the instrument, 36 consultations have been classified according to the adjusted system. This procedure showed that it was possible to represent a consultation with the 45 categories the system consisted of (although only 15 categories occurred in more than half of the consultations). Those categories that occurred often enough, could be measured with sufficient reliability, with inter-observer reliability coefficients mostly above 0.70. An example shows that the procedure is extremely useful to indicate certain differences between doctors and types of consultations.