Communication patterns of health teaching and information recall

The purpose of the present study was to investigate verbal communication patterns between the health-care provider and the client in well-baby clinics, and then to investigate how these patterns relate to client recall of health information. The theoretical rationale derives from Flanders's (1960) idea of classroom interaction as a social structure in a social process. Communication patterns between health-care provider and client were analyzed by the Flanders Interaction Analysis System (FIAS, 1965). Four hypotheses were proposed: I. The higher the ratio of health-care provider indirect influence to health-care provider direct influence, the higher the client recall. II. The higher the frequency of health-care provider questions, the higher the client recall. III. The higher the frequency of client questions, the higher the client recall. IV. The higher the ratio of client talk to health-care provider talk, the higher the client recall. Hypotheses I, II, III, and IV were not supported. There was, however, a statistically significant inverse relationship between health-care provider questions and client recall.