Table 3.
Effect of Intervention on Patients’ Reports About Physician Communication and Medication
| Report | No. of Patients | All Patients | Intervention Group | Control Group | P Value a |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| About physician | |||||
| Overall communication, mean score (SD) | 82 | 5.67 (0.60) | 5.74 (0.54) | 5.59 (0.66) | .49 |
| Trust in physician, mean score (SD) | 82 | 4.68 (0.55) | 4.72 (0.52) | 4.62 (0.59) | .68 |
| Communication about new medication, No. (%)b | 111 | 7.90 (2.81) | 8.78 (2.23) | 6.87 (3.09) | .02 |
| What medicine is called | 107 | 103 (96.3) | 56 (94.9) | 47 (97.9) | .53 |
| What medicine is for | 106 | 105 (99.1) | 57 (98.3) | 48 (100) | .36 |
| Why medicine is important to take | 103 | 90 (87.4) | 51 (89.5) | 39 (84.8) | .63 |
| How to take the medicine | 102 | 95 (93.1) | 54 (96.4) | 41 (89.1) | .07 |
| How long to take medicine | 103 | 92 (89.3) | 56 (96.6) | 36 (80.0) | .03 |
| How to get further medicine supply (if applicable) | 81 | 69 (85.2) | 42 (82.4) | 30 (90.9) | .37 |
| Whether medicine has side effects | 103 | 75 (72.8) | 50 (86.2) | 25 (55.6) | .001 |
| Risk of getting side effects | 105 | 64 (61.0) | 43 (76.8) | 21 (42.9) | .003 |
| What to do if side effects occur | 100 | 63 (63.0) | 40 (74.1) | 23 (50.0) | .008 |
| Interactions with other medicines | 100 | 62 (62.0) | 43 (81.1) | 19 (40.4) | <.001 |
| About new medication immediately after the visit | |||||
| Planning to take new medication, No. (%) | 110 | 107 (97.3) | 59 (98.3) | 48 (96.0) | .56 |
| Certainty about taking new medication, mean score (SD) | 111 | 8.94 (2.16) | 9.30 (1.96) | 8.51 (2.29) | .04 |
| Importance of new medication, mean score (SD) | 111 | 3.61 (0.62) | 3.65 (0.61) | 3.57 (0.64) | .52 |
| Worry about condition medication is for, mean score (SD) | 111 | 2.36 (1.02) | 2.45 (1.08) | 2.25 (0.93) | .32 |
Note: Data are presented as mean (SD) unless otherwise indicated. Unit of analyses for overall communication and trust in physician is the patient; unit of analyses for all other outcomes is the new medication. Overall communication ranges from 1 to 6; trust in physician ranges from 1 to 5; communication about new medication and certainty about taking new medication range from 0 to 10; and importance of new medication and worry about condition range from 1 to 4. Higher scores indicate better communication, more trust, and greater certainty, importance, and worry.
P value describes difference between intervention and control group patients.
The 10 items comprising the communication about new medication scale are listed and describe the number and percentage of patients who reported receiving “about the right amount” of information about the item.