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The impact of communication style on patient satisfaction

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Abstract

Background

Communication between patients and health providers influences patient satisfaction, but it is unknown whether similarity in communication styles results in higher patient satisfaction.

Methods

This study was conducted in the Smilow Cancer Hospital Breast Center. During routine follow-up visits, patients completed a Communication Styles Assessment (CSA), health survey (SF-12), Princess Margaret Hospital Satisfaction with Doctor Questionnaire, and brief demographic form. Physicians and Advanced Practice Providers were also asked to complete the CSA. Patients and providers were blinded to each other’s responses. A communication styles concordance score was calculated as the Pearson correlation between 80 binary CSA items for each provider/patient pair. Factors affecting patient satisfaction scores were assessed in mixed-effects models.

Results

In total, 330 patients were invited to participate; of these 289 enrolled and 245 returned surveys. One hundred seventy-four completed all survey components, and 18 providers completed the CSA. Among the factors considered, physical health score (effect size = 0.0058, 95% CI 0.00051 to 0.0011, p = 0.032) and employment status (0.12, 95% CI − 0.0094 to 0.25, p = 0.069) had the greatest impact on patient satisfaction. However, patients who were not employed and less physically healthy had significantly elevated satisfaction scores when their communication style was more similar to their provider’s (1.52, 95% CI 0.66 to 2.38, p = 0.0016).

Conclusions

Patients who were physically healthy and employed were generally more satisfied with their care. The similarity in communication styles of patients and providers had a greater impact on patient satisfaction for patients who were less physically healthy and not employed.

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Funding

This study was funded by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (grant number BCRF-16-130 awarded to Lajos Pusztai, MD, DPhil).

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Correspondence to Lajos Pusztai.

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Conflicts of interest

Dr. Mougalian is a consultant for Eisai Pharmaceuticals and Puma Biotechnology. Dr. DiGiovanna receives remuneration from DAKO and NeoMarkers and consultants for Merck. Dr. Silber receives remuneration from AstraZeneca. Dr. Adelson is a consultant for Celgene, Roche, and Heron Therapeutics. Dr. Killelea is a consultant for Genentech. All other authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Research involving human or animal participants

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Yale Institutional Review Board and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Trant, A.A., Szekely, B., Mougalian, S.S. et al. The impact of communication style on patient satisfaction. Breast Cancer Res Treat 176, 349–356 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-019-05232-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-019-05232-w

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