title: A communication skills intervention for parents of pediatric surgery patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  It was hypothesized that parents exposed to a communication skills intervention would participate (e.g., ask questions, express concerns) in a pre-surgical consultation more than parents in the control group.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty-five parents of prospective pediatric surgery patients were randomly assigned to either a communication skills intervention (booklet mailed prior to the consultation) or control group. Only initial consultation parents were included, no follow-ups. Audio-recordings of the medical consultations were obtained and the transcripts analyzed utilizing a content-coding system to determine patient participation. Also, parents were given a health literacy test (s-TOFHLA) and a post-interview questionnaire to gather demographic data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Intervention parents participated overall significantly more than control parents. Follow-up analyses revealed that intervention parents asked significantly more questions, and engaged in significantly more information verifying and expressing of concerns. There were no significant differences for parents' assertive statements or information provision. Other significant predictors of parents' participation were consultation length and parents' income.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The intervention tested in this study promoted parents' participation in a pre-surgical consultation. As such, it has the potential to improve information exchange between parents and physicians with positive implications for informed consent.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Providing parents with communication guidelines prior to a surgical consultation may improve physician-patient communication.
authors.affiliation: School of Communication and Department of Family Medicine, The Ohio State University, USA. cegala.1@osu.edu
authors.forename: Donald J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Cegala
authors.forename: Deena J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Chisolm
authors.forename: Benedict C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Nwomeh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D013502:General Surgery; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009819:Office Visits; D010290:Parents; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010372:Pediatrics; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013637:Tape Recording
keywords: Communication skills; Patient participation