title: Physician and patient perceptions of the physician explanations in medical encounters.
abstract: Although, in actual practice, physicians have to subjectively judge the level of the explanation that they provide, little is known about this judgment. Therefore, making use of 630 physician-patient pairs in Japan, we investigated the association between patient and physician evaluations of physician explanations of medical test results and diagnoses. We found that the physician's judgment does not always agree with that of the patient, with regard to the level of explanation necessary. In addition, we first identified factors relating to the accuracy of physician judgments with regard to their explanations to patients. More studies will be necessary to verify the present findings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Services Management and Policy, Kyushu University, Japan. hagihara@hsmp.med.kyushu-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Akihito
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hagihara
authors.forename: Misato
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Odamaki
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nobutomo
authors.forename: Kimio
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tarumi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003142:Communication; D003933:Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States