A Test of a Method of Increasing Patient Question Asking in Physician-Patient Interactions.

A study examined the effectiveness of a method designed to increase active patient involvement in the health care context. Subjects, 38 patients visiting a three-physician dermatology practice one randomly selected morning, were asked to fill out a survey at the end of their visit. Half of the subjects were asked to read a "communication memo" prior to their meetings with their physicians, the other half were not. Results indicated that patients who read the memo encouraging questions were more at ease with their physicians, reported asking more questions, felt their physicians understood them more, and showed more of a decrease in concern about their health problems than did the control group. Results also indicated a positive correlation between the number of questions asked and perceived physician understanding. (Two tables of data are included; 28 references, the communication memo, and the survey are attached.) (RS)