title: A comparison of videotape and audiotape assessment of patient-centredness in family physicians' consultations.
abstract: The aim of this study was to compare videotape and audiotape assessments of doctors' patient-centred behaviour in primary care consultations. The patient-centredness scale of Henbest and Stewart was used to measure the quality of 856 doctor-patient interactions in 258 consultations performed by 47 primary care physicians recorded on videotape. Assessments were performed once using only the sound track and a second time using both the sound and video-tracks. On a nominal quality scale of 0-3, the average score for all consultations was 1.94 (S.D. 0.63) by audio assessment, and 1.94 (S.D. 0.59) by video assessment (P<0.8). There was excellent agreement between audio and video scores over a wide range of scores. Little information (<5%) was lost when using audiotape compared to videotape. It was technically easier to assess the video recordings. Audio recording is equivalent to video recording for the assessment of patient-centredness using the scale of Henbest and Stewart in primary care consultations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Rabin Medical Centre and Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv, Israel. weingml@post.tau.ac.il
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Weingarten
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yaphe
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Blumenthal
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oren
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Margalit
mesh_terms: D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D005194:Family Practice / Q000592:standards*; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D009819:Office Visits; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000592:standards*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D013637:Tape Recording; D014743:Videotape Recording