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Van den Brink-Muinen A, Van Dulmen AM, Jung HP, Bensing JM. Communiceren artsen volgens de verwachtingen van hun patienten? Huisarts Wet 2008;51(3):141-6. Inleiding Dit onderzoek geeft inzicht in de specifieke voorkeuren van patienten voor de communicatie met huisartsen en hoe goed huisartsen daarnaar handelen, volgens patienten zelf en (vooral) op grond van geobserveerd feitelijk gedrag in consulten. Methoden We observeerden video-opnamen van 1787 consulten van 142 huisartsen (gemiddeld 15 per huisarts). De patienten vulden voor het consult op een vragenlijst in wat zij verwachtten van de communicatie. Na het consult rapporteerden zij in welke mate hun huisarts daaraan had voldaan. De voorkeuritems, de feitelijk gedragsitems en het observatieprotocol RIAS meten allemaal zowel affectgerichte als taakgerichte communicatieaspecten. We gebruikten beschrijvende en multiniveau-analyses. Beschouwing De meeste patienten vonden dat de communicatie met hun huisarts tijdens een consult aansloot bij hun voorkeuren. In het algemeen vonden de patienten zowel affect- als taakgerichte communicatieaspecten belangrijk, en kwam de huisarts hier vaak aan tegemoet. Huisartsen blijken goed aan te voelen wat hun patienten belangrijk vinden om over te praten. Vrouwelijke huisartsen waren zowel meer affect- als taakgericht in hun communicatie dan mannelijke huisartsen, speciaal met vrouwelijke patienten. Patienten die vanwege psychosociale klachten naar de huisarts gingen, hadden meer kans op een affectieve dokter dan patienten met een biomedisch probleem. Conclusie We bevelen huisartsen aan om te letten op de voorkeuren van de patienten voor communicatie en om de patienten aan het einde van een consult te vragen of de communicatie naar wens is verlopen.

Bensing JM, Tromp F, Van Dulmen S, Van den Brink-Muinen A, Verheul W, Schellevis FG. De zakelijke huisarts en de niet-mondige patient: veranderingen in communicatie. Een observatieonderzoek naar consulten met hypertensiepatienten. Huisarts Wet 2008;51(1):6-12. Doel Vaststellen of er in de loop der jaren veranderingen zijn opgetreden in de communicatie tussen huisartsen en hun (hypertensie)patienten. We startten het onderzoek met twee hypothesen: ten eerste verwachtten we dat huisartsen zich in de communicatie met patienten de laatste jaren zakelijker en biomedischer zijn gaan opstellen, als gevolg van het standaardenbeleid en de gegroeide nadruk op efficiency in de gezondheidszorg; ten tweede verwachtten we dat patienten juist mondiger zijn geworden, wat zich zou moeten uiten in meer vragen en een actievere deelname aan het medisch consult. Methoden Wij hebben een secundaire analyse uitgevoerd op bestaand videomateriaal van doorsnee huisartsconsulten uit 1986 en 2002. De twee onderzoeken waarin deze gegevens verzameld werden, gebruikten precies dezelfde methodologie en tussen de groepen patienten bestonden geen sekse- of leeftijdsverschillen van betekenis. Uit de bestaande datasets selecteerden wij de hypertensieconsulten (102 in 1986; 108 in 2002). De communicatie tussen arts en patient codeerden wij met behulp van het Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS), op de coderingen pasten wij vervolgens een multilevelanalyse toe. Resultaten Anders dan wij verwachtten, waren de patienten in 2002 juist minder actief dan zestien jaar tevoren: zij praatten minder, namen minder initiatieven, stelden minder vragen en uitten minder zorgen. Artsen stelden in 2002 meer biomedische vragen en gaven meer biomedische informatie, maar toonden minder hun compassie met de patient en zochten minder vaak de dialoog. Over het geheel genomen hadden de consulten in 2002 een meer biomedisch karakter gekregen en waren ze zakelijker geworden dan zestien jaar tevoren. Conclusie De veronderstelling dat huisartsen een gelijkwaardiger relatie hebben gekregen met patienten, die actieve en kritische consumenten zijn geworden, wordt niet gereflecteerd in onze steekproef van hypertensiepatienten. De belangrijkste verandering die wij waarnamen was dat het communicatiepatroon van de huisarts zakelijker en taakgerichter was geworden. De recente nadruk op evidence-based geneeskunde en protocolgestuurde zorg worden hierin gereflecteerd. Ook de introductie van de computer in de huisartsenpraktijk kan hierin een rol spelen. Men kan dus wel wat vraagtekens zetten bij het vermeende vermogen van de moderne geneeskunde om patienten te helpen hun zorgen te uiten.

PURPOSE: Within the time constraints of a typical physician-patient encounter, the full patient agenda will rarely be voiced. Unexpectedly revealed issues that were neither on the patient's list of items for discussion nor anticipated by the physician constitute an emerging agenda. We aimed to quantify the occurrence rate of emerging agendas in primary care practices and to explain the variation between patients and practices. METHODS: This observational cross-sectional study involved 182 primary care practices in 9 European cultural regions. Consecutive primary care consultations were videotaped and rated. Patients completed preconsultation and postconsultation questionnaires assessing their expectations and perceived care. Emerging agenda, determined by using 11-item preconsultation and postconsultation questionnaires, was defined as care perceived by the patient to be in addition to expected care, after adjustment for cultural variations of patient expectations. RESULTS: For consultations involving 2,243 patients (mean age, 44.8 years, 58.4% women), every sixth (15.8%) consultation revealed emerging psychosocial agenda. Biomedical agenda emerged in 14.5% of the consultations. Rates for unmet expectations were 13.6% and 10.3%, respectively, for psychosocial and biomedical problems. Practices showed considerable heterogeneity of occurrence of emerging agenda (biomedical, median 13%, range 0%-67%; psychosocial, median 14%, range 0%-53%). After controlling for region and patient baseline characteristics, variables significantly related to emerging agenda were patient expectations and biomedical or psychosocial discourse content, but not consultation time or sex of the patient. A large proportion of the variance attributable to physicians remained concealed in a practice dummy variable (explaining up to 8% of the variance). CONCLUSION: Unexpected agenda emerges in every sixth to seventh consultation in outpatient primary care visits. peerReviewed

The objectives of this study were to describe the features of consultation within general practice with special attention to the differences between short, moderate and long consultations. An analysis of 2801 videotaped consultations of 183 General Practitioners from six countries participating in the Eurocommunication Study was made. The communicative behaviour was gauged by means of the Roter Interaction Analysis System. The consultation can be seen as a “standard operating procedure” consisting of 8% social behaviour, 15% agreement, 4% rapport building, 10% partnership building, 11% giving directions, 28% giving information, 14% asking questions and 7% counselling. A short consultation can be described as an encounter with a little bit of social behaviour to set the contact, medical questioning, giving directions for the further consultation and advises in order to solve the problem(s) mentioned. In a long consultation doctors take more time for a social talk, they give more attention to the relation or contact with the patient, they listen more extensively, especially to psychosocial problems, and they give more information.

Background: The general practitioner is usually the first health care contact for mental problems. The position of a general practitioner may vary between health care systems, depending on the referral system (gatekeepers versus directly accessible specialists), presence of fixed lists and the payment system. This may influence patients’ expectations and requests for help and GPs’ performance. In this paper the effects of working in different health care systems on demand and supply for psychological help were examined. Methods: Data were collected in six European countries with different health care system characteristics (Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the UK). For 15 consecutive contacts with 190 GPs in the six countries, each patient completed questionnaires concerning reason for visit and expectations (before) and evaluation (after consultation). General practitioners completed registration forms on each consultation, indicating familiarity with the patient and diagnosis. General practitioners completed a general questionnaire about their personal and professional characteristics as well. Results: Practices in different countries differed considerably in the proportion of psychological reasons for the visit by the patient and psychological diagnoses by the GP. Agreement between patients’ self-rated problems and GPs’ diagnoses also varied. Patients in different countries evaluated their GPs’ psychological performance differently as well, but evaluation was not correlated with agreement between request for help and diagosis. In gatekeeping countries, patients had more psycho-social requests, GPs made more psychological diagnoses and agreement between both was relatively high. Evaluation, however, was more positive in non-gatekeeping countries. Individual characteristics of doctors and patients explained only a relatively small part of variance. Conclusions: Health care system characteristics do affect GPs’ performance in psycho-social care.

Inleiding Huisarts-patientcommunicatie is van groot belang voor de kwaliteit van zorg. De invloed van nationale kenmerken van gezondheidszorgsystemen, zoals de poortwachtersrol van de huisarts, op de communicatie is tot nu toe niet onderzocht. Daarom is een internationaal vergelijkend onderzoek gedaan naar verschillen in huisarts-patientcommunicatie tussen wel- en niet-poortwachterslanden.

Differences are investigated between female practice populations of female general practitioners providing women's health care and of women and men general practitioners providing regular health care. Women's health care in the Netherlands is provided in the general practice “Aletta” and is based on the following principles: (1) consideration of the patient's gender identity and gender roles; (2) consideration of the patient's personal and social situation; (3) treating the patient respectfully; (4) encouraging the patient to cope with health problems and stimulating self-responsibility; and (5) avoidance of medicalization. Data were derived from an extensive health interview with 253 women Aletta patients (15 years or older) about socio-demographic characteristics, gender role, attitudes, somatic and mental health status, and medical consumption. The Aletta patients were also asked about their motives in choosing women's health care. Reference groups were comprised of 391 and 628 women patients of women and men general practitioners, respectively, providing regular health care. Logistic regression analyses were performed to explain differences between the three groups. “The Aletta patient” can be characterized as a young, urban, single, highly educated, working, and childless woman, who deliberately chooses women's health care. She is more androgynous than women of other doctors, less inclined to seek help with the GP, she suffers more from psychosomatic and psychosocial problems, and she has poorer mental health. It results in a higher use of mental health care, and also of alternative health care. Women patients of women and men doctors providing regular health care hardly differ between each other in the characteristics described above. Health policy makers should take into consideration that in the future possibly more women will prefer health care in which the ideas of women's health care are being applied. The integration of some important aspects of women's health care into regular health care is recommended.

Objective This study investigated at a country level how cross-national differences in medical communication can be understood from the first four of Hofstede's cultural dimensions, i.e. power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism and masculinity/femininity, together with national wealth. Methods A total of 307 general practitioners (GPs) and 5820 patients from Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland participated in the study. Medical communication was videotaped and assessed using Roter's interaction analysis system (RIAS). Additional context information of physicians (gender, job satisfaction, risk-taking and belief of psychological influence on diseases) and patients (gender, health condition, diagnosis and medical encounter expectations) was gathered by using questionnaires. Results Countries differ considerably form each other in terms of culture dimensions. The larger a nation's power distance, the less room there is for unexpected information exchange and the shorter the consultations are. Roles are clearly described and fixed. The higher the level of uncertainty avoidance, the less attention is given to rapport building, e.g. less eye contact. In ‘masculine’ countries there is less instrumental communication in the medical interaction, which was contrary to expectations. In wealthy countries, more attention is given to psychosocial communication. Conclusion The four culture dimensions, together with countries’ wealth, contribute importantly to the understanding of differences in European countries’ styles of medical communication. Their predictive power reaches much further than explanations along the north/south or east/west division of Europe. Practice implications The understanding of these cross-national differences is a precondition for the prevention of intercultural miscommunication. Improved understanding may occur at microlevel in the medical encounter, as well as on macrolevel in pursuing more effective cooperation and integration of European health care policies.

Objective: To get insight into the changes over time of patients' involvement in the decision-making process, and into the factors contributing to patients' involvement and general practitioners' (GPs) communication related to the Medical Treatment Act (MTA) issues: information about treatment, other available treatments and side-effects; informed decision making; asking consent for treatment. Background: Societal developments have changed the doctor-patient relationship recently. Informed decision making has become a central topic. Patients' informed consent was legalized by the MTA (1995). Design: Data of two cross-sectional studies, the First (1987) and Second (2001) Dutch National Survey of General Practice, were compared. Setting and participants: General practice consultations; 16 GPs and 442 patients in 1987; 142 GPs and 2784 patients in 2001. Methods: Consultations were videotaped and rated using Roter's Interaction Analysis System and observer questionnaires; pre- and post-consultation patient questionnaires; and GP questionnaires. Descriptive analyses and multivariate, multilevel analysis were applied. Main results: Most patients reported to have received the information they had considered as important prior to the consultation. There were discrepancies in involvement in treatment decisions and in giving information about other available treatments, side-effects and risks. GPs who were more affective and gave more information, more often involved their patients, especially younger patients, in decision making. In 2001, more informed decision making was observed and the GPs asked consent for a treatment more often, but they less often asked for the patients' understanding. Conclusion: Patients' involvement in decision making has increased over time, but not in every respect. However, this does not apply for all patients, especially the older ones. It should be questioned whether they are willing or capable to be involved and if so, how they could be encouraged.

Background Departing from the hypotheses that over the past decades patients have become more active participants and physicians have become more task-oriented, this study tries to identify shifts in GP and patient communication patterns between 1986 and 2002. Methods A repeated cross-sectional observation study was carried out in 1986 and 2002, using the same methodology. From two existing datasets of videotaped routine General Practice consultations, a selection was made of consultations with hypertension patients (102 in 1986; 108 in 2002). GP and patient communication was coded with RIAS (Roter Interaction Analysis System). The data were analysed, using multilevel techniques. Results No gender or age differences were found between the patient groups in either study period. Contrary to expectations, patients were less active in recent consultations, talking less, asking fewer questions and showing less concerns or worries. GPs provided more medical information, but expressed also less often their concern about the patients' medical conditions. In addition, they were less involved in process-oriented behaviour and partnership building. Overall, these results suggest that consultations in 2002 were more task-oriented and businesslike than sixteen years earlier. Conclusion The existence of a more equal relationship in General Practice, with patients as active and critical consumers, is not reflected in this sample of hypertension patients. The most important shift that could be observed over the years was a shift towards a more businesslike, task-oriented GP communication pattern, reflecting the recent emphasis on evidence-based medicine and protocolized care. The entrance of the computer in the consultation room could play a role. Some concerns may be raised about the effectiveness of modern medicine in helping patients to voice their worries.

This study explores the relation between the diagnosis made by the general practitioner (GP) and his or her communicative behavior within a consultation, by means of the analysis of 2095 videotaped consultations of 168 GPs from six countries participating in the Eurocommunication study. The doctors' diagnoses were coded into ICPC chapters and merged into seven clinically relevant diagnostic clusters. The communicative behavior was gauged by means of the Roter interaction analysis system (RIAS). We found the most important differences for consultations about psychosocial problems as compared to all other diagnostic categories. In these consultations, doctors show more affective behavior, are more concerned about having a good relationship with their patients, ask more questions and give less information than in other consultations. The percentages of utterances in the other diagnostic categories were pretty similar. The communicative behavior of doctors reflects a global pattern in every consultation. This pattern is the most stable for affective behavior (social talk, agreement, rapport building and facilitation). Within instrumental behavior (the other categories), the directions and the information the doctor gives are adapted to the problems presented.

Based on differences in national health care system characteristics such as the gatekeeping role of GPs (at the macrolevel) and on diverging GP and patient characteristics (at the microlevel), communication may differ between countries. Knowledge of the influence of these characteristics on doctor-patient communication will be important for setting European health care policies.Our objectives were (i) to compare doctor-patient communication in general practice between European countries; and (ii) to investigate the influence of the gatekeeping system and GP and patient characteristics on doctor-patient communication in general practice.Fifteen patients per GP (in total 2825 patients) of 190 GPs in six European countries were included. Participating countries were The Netherlands, Spain, the UK (gatekeeping countries), Belgium, Germany and Switzerland (non-gatekeeping countries). Data were collected by means of patient and GP questionnaires and observation of videotaped consultations, and analysed by one-way and multilevel, multivariate analysis.Differences in communication between countries were found in: affective and instrumental behaviour; biomedical and psychosocial talk; GPs' patient-directed gaze; and consultation length. The study showed that GPs' gatekeeping role (with registered patients) was less important for doctor-patient communication than was expected. Patient characteristics such as gender, age, having psychosocial problems, and familiarity between the doctor and the patient were the most important in explaining differences in communication.The gatekeeping role of GPs is hardly important in explaining doctor-patient communication. The relationship is more complex than expected. Patient and GP characteristics are more important. Cultural factors should be included in future studies.

The aim of this study has been to obtain more insight into the health condition of fatigued patients, their expectations when visiting the general practitioner (GP), the way they communicate, and possible gender differences. Data consisted of 579 patient questionnaires and 440 video-observations of these patients and 31 GPs. Results showed that fatigue is a common health problem but seldom on the agenda in general practice. More women indicated symptoms of fatigue than men did. Fatigued patients’ health was worse than that of non-fatigued patients, and they expected more biomedical and especially psychosocial communication. Furthermore, male fatigued patients expected more biomedical communication than fatigued female patients did. While the GPs accommodated their verbal behavior to fatigued patients by giving more psychosocial information and more counseling, they were not more affective towards the fatigued than towards the non-fatigued patients. Female GPs were more affective than their male colleagues, and they used gender-specific communication strategies to explore the patient’s agenda. It seems necessary to use a gender-sensitive approach in communication research. # 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Objectives: To compare determinants of consultation length discussed in the literature with those found in consultations with general practitioners from different European countries; to explore the determinants of consultation length, particularly the effect of doctors9 and patients9 perceptions of psychosocial aspects. Design: Analysis of videotaped consultations of general practitioners from the Eurocommunication study and of questionnaires completed by doctors and by patients. Setting: General practices in six European countries. Participants: 190 general practitioners and 3674 patients. Results: In a multilevel analysis with three levels (country, general practitioner, and patient), country and doctor variables contributed a similar amount to the total variance in consultation length (23% and 22%, respectively) and patient variables accounted for 55% of the variance. The variables used in the multilevel analysis explained 25% of the total variation. The country in which the doctor practised, combined with the doctors9 variables, was as important for the variance in consultation length as the variation between patients. Consultations in which psychosocial problems were considered important by the doctor and the patient lasted longer than consultations about biomedical problems only. The doctor9s perception had more influence in this situation than the patient9s. Consultation length is influenced by the patients9 sex (women got longer consultations), whether the practice was urban or rural, the number of new problems discussed in the consultation (the more problems the longer the consultation), and the patient9s age (the older the patient the longer the consultation). As a doctor9s workload increased, the length of consultations decreased. The general practitioner9s sex or age and patient9s level of education were not related to the length of consultation. Conclusion: Consultation length is determined by variables related to the doctor and the doctor9s country as well as by those related to patients. Women consulting in an urban practice with problems perceived as psychosocial have longer consultations than other patients.

Background: the number of women entering general practice is rising in many countries. Thus, gender differences in work situation preferences and practice activities are important for future planning. Objectives: this article describes the differences between male and female general practitioners (GPs) in 32 European countries. It examines gender differences in curative and preventive services and relates these to features of the health care systems and the practice. Methods: the data were collected in 1993 and 1994 in the European Study of Task Profiles of General Practitioners. In 32 countries, 8183 GPs answered standardized questionnaires written in their own languages on their selfreported involvement in curative and preventive services, as well a how their practice was organized and managed. Because the independent variables in this study were on both the national 1 and individual practice levels, the data were subjected to multilevel analysis. Results: regardless of the type of health care system, the female GPs were younger than the male GPs and more often worked part time in groups or partnerships and in cities, although not in deprived areas. They made fewer house calls and did less work outside office hours. Differences between men and women regarding workload diminished considerably after controlling for part-time work. When other characteristics of the person and the practice were taken into account, female GPs proved to be less involved in several curative services, except as the first contact for gyneacological problems, but more involved in health education. Some differences were found in only certain types of health care systems. Conclusions: the result may have important implications for working arrangements, training, education, and planning of resources for general practice in the future. (aut.ref.)

Our aim is to investigate differences between European health care systems in the importance attached by patients to different aspects of doctor-patient communication and the GPs' performance of these aspects, both being from the patients' perspective. 3658 patients of 190 GPs in six European countries (Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland) completed pre- and post-visit questionnaires about relevance and performance of doctor-patient communication. Data were analyzed by variance analysis and by multilevel analysis. In the non-gatekeeping countries, patients considered both biomedical and psychosocial communication aspects to be more important than the patients in the gatekeeping countries. Similarly, in the patients' perception, the non-gatekeeping GPs dealt with these aspects more often. Patient characteristics (gender, age, education, psychosocial problems, bad health, depressive feelings, GPs' assessment of psychosocial background) showed many relationships. Of the GP characteristics, only the GPs' psychosocial diagnosis was associated with patient-reported psychosocial relevance and performance. Talking about biomedical issues was more important for the patients than talking about psychosocial issues, unless the patients presented psychosocial problems to the GP. Discrepancies between relevance and performance were apparent, especially with respect to biomedical aspects. The implications for health policy and for general practitioners are discussed.

Objectives: differences were investigated between general practitioners providing women's health care (4 women) and general practitioners providing regular health care (8 women and 8 men). Expectations were formulated on the basis of the principles of women's health care and literature about gender differences. Methods: data were used from 405 videotaped consultations of female patients (over 15 years). Roter's Interaction Analysis System (RIAS) was used to measure the verbal affective and instrumental behavior of the doctors and their patients. These dat were supplemented by various nonverbal measures. The data were analyzed by means of multilevel analysis. Results: doctors in the women's health care practice (called Aletta) look at their patients and talk with them more than other doctors. The general practitioners have approximately the same aafective behavior, but the Aletta doctors show more verbal attentiveness and warmth. They also give more medical information and advice. Most of the characteristics of Aletta doctors fit female doctors providing regular health care too. Male doctors show a less communicative behavior in most respects. The differences between general practitioners are reflected in their patients' communication style. Conclusions: the integration into regular care of some aspects of doctor-patient communication that were found in women's health care might be desirable in the light of the further improvement of the quality of care for women and men. (aut.ref.)

Patienten vinden het belangrijk om voorlichting te krijgen van hun huisarts en om mee te beslissen over een behandeling. Op een aantal punten gebeurt dat niet zo vaak als patienten willen. Oudere patienten worden het minst bij beslissingen betrokken.

The differences between female and male general practitioners (GPs) were studied regarding three different factors: 1) Do female GPs see more female patients than their male colleagues in the same practice?; 2) Are female GPs confronted with different types of health problems from their male colleagues?; and 3) Do female GPs provide different services to their patients? Data from the Dutch National Study on Morbidity and Interventions in General Practice were used. All practices in this study with both female (n = 23) and male (n = 27) GPs were selected. This resulted in detailed data on 47,254 consultations, 62% of which were with female patients. The three research questions all received an affirmative response: 1) female patients tend to choose female general practitioners; 2) female GPs see different health problems from their male colleagues, and that is only partly because the patient so chooses; and 3) besides the expected differences in female-specific problems, there is a clear GP-gender effect in the presence of 'social' and 'metabolic' problems in the female GP's consultations. Some differences in the provision of services between male and female GPs occurred, with female GPs spending more time on their patients and having a stronger tendency to provide continuity of care. In addition to a gender effect (both physician and patient) a part-time effect in most issues studied was observed.

Er is een groot tekort aan donororganen. Op 1 november 2008 stonden 1325 patienten op de wachtlijst, van wie 71% wacht op een nier, 13% op een long, 10% op een lever en 4% op een hart (http://www.transplantatiestichting.nl). De verwachting is dat het tekort verder zal toenemen. Het is daarom belangrijk te weten waarom mensen zich niet als donor laten registreren. Wij vergeleken de redenen van chronisch zieken en gehandicapten (Nationaal Panel Chronisch zieken en Gehandicapten) met die van de Nederlandse bevolking (Consumentenpanel Gezondheidszorg), beide NIVEL-panels.