Table 5.
Comparison of communication performance between American family physicians9 face-to-face and GPs on the telephone.
| Communication behaviour | Family physiciana | GPb |
|---|---|---|
| Data gathering | ||
| Closed-ended questions on biomedical topics | 18.6 | 5.91 |
| Open-ended questions on biomedical topics | 3.0 | 0.49 |
| Ratio of closed to open questions on biomedical topics | 6.2 | 12.06 |
| Closed-ended questions on psychosocial topics | 6.8 | 1.00 |
| Open-ended questions on psychosocial topics | 1.5 | 0.16 |
| Ratio of closed to open questions on psychosocial topics | 4.53 | 6.25 |
| Ratio of questions on all biomedical to all psychosocial topics | 2.60 | 5.52 |
| Patient education and counselling | ||
| Provides biomedical information | 37.6 | 10.44 |
| Provides psychosocial information | 7.6 | 0.16 |
| Counsels biomedical | 13.8 | 4.93 |
| Counsels psychosocial | 8 | 1.02 |
| Ratio of information on all biomedical topics to information given on all psychosocial topics | 3.29 | 13.03 |
a
n = 277.
b
n = 43.