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This study explores male physicians' use of verbal compliance-gaining strategies to encourage patients to adhere to medication regimens, lifestyle changes, or future appointments, and assesses which strategies are associated with patients' reported healthcare experiences. Five physicians from a family practice clinic in northern British Columbia, Canada, were audio-recorded while interacting with 31 patients during actual consultations. Compliancegaining utterances were coded into five categories of strategies, while patient experience with care was assessed using a questionnaire. A number of intriguing findings emerged: direct orders were related to a more negative experience with interpersonal aspects of care, but were fairly frequently used, especially with female patients. Persuasion was the only strategy that promoted a positive patient experience, but was rarely used. However, the effect of persuasion on patient experience was no longer significant when adjusting for patients' health status. Physicians relied mostly on motivation strategies to encourage adherence, but these strategies were not related to patients' assessment of their healthcare experiences. These results suggest that the most frequently used verbal compliance-gaining strategies by physicians are not always appreciated by patients. To be more effective, it is necessary to inform physicians about which compliance-gaining strategies promote a positive patient healthcare experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results of past research on physician-patient interruption present an inconclusive picture. This study reconceptualizes interruption into cooperative and intrusive categories. Thirty physician-patient interviews, 13 male/male and 17 male/female, were audiotaped and microanalyzed. It was found that physicians did not interrupt patients more or vice versa. Rather, physicians and patients interrupted differently, the former more intrusively and the latter, more cooperatively. Furthermore, physicians did not dominate speaking turns nor speak more words than patients, as previously believed. We argue that their difference may not be measured by the number of words or speaking turns because it is embedded in their respective communication style. It was also found that female patients exhibited eleven times as much cooperative interruptions as did male patients. When physicians interrupted patients, they were unsuccessful only 6% of the time. When patients interrupted physicians, they were unsuccessful 32% of the time. The results of this study point out the necessity to reconceptualize interruptions in physician-patient interviews.