A questionnaire study of GPs’ and patients’ beliefs about the different components of patient centredness

Much research has explored the interaction between doctor and patient in the consultation and patient centredness has generally emerged as the preferred mode of consultation style. The present study aimed to examine and compare general practitioners' (GPs) and patients' beliefs about the importance of the different aspects of patient centred behaviour in a consultation. Matched questionnaires were completed by 410 patients (response rate = 76.5%) and 64 GPs (response rate = 85.3%) from practices around London concerning aspects of patient centredness operationalised in terms of doctor receptiveness, patient involvement, the affective content of the relationship and information giving. The results showed that GPs and patients showed similar beliefs about involving the patient in decision making, aspects of doctor receptiveness and the importance of the patient's own feelings in the consultation. However, GPs believed that it was less important to focus only on the patient's main problem, and more important to acknowledge their own feelings and avoid medical language. Further, GPs rated doctor receptiveness and the affective content of the relationship overall as more important for a good consultation than the patients. The patients also consistently rated information giving as more important than the GPs. To conclude, GPs rated the doctor receptiveness and affective components of patient centredness as more important than patients whereas patients showed greater endorsement of information indicating that although patient centredness may currently be the preferred style of consultation, doctors and patients prefer different aspects of this behaviour. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.