title: Impact of Prominent Themes in Clinician-Patient Conversations on Caregiver's Perceived Quality of Communication with Paediatric Dental Visits.
abstract: Patients' perceived satisfaction is a key performance index of the quality health care service. Good communication has been found to increase patient's perceived satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the prominent themes arising from clinician-patient conversations on the caregiver's perceived quality of communication during paediatric dental visits. 162 video recordings of clinical dental consultations for 62 cases attending the Paediatric Dentistry Clinic of The Prince Philip Dental Hospital in Hong Kong were captured and transcribed. The patients' demographic information and the caregiver's perceived quality of communication with the clinicians were recorded using the 16-item Dental Patient Feedback on Consultation skills questionnaires. Visual text analytics (Leximancer™) indicated five prominent themes 'disease / treatment', 'treatment procedure related instructions', 'preparation for examination', 'positive reinforcement / reassurance', and 'family / social history' from the clinician-patient conversation of the recorded videos, with 60.2% of the total variance in concept words in this study explained through principal components analysis. Significant variation in perceived quality of communication was noted in five variables regarding the prominent theme 'Positive reinforcement / reassurance': 'number of related words' (p = 0.002), 'number of related utterances' (p = 0.001), 'percentage of the related words in total number of words' (p = 0.005), 'percentage of the related utterances in total number of utterances' (p = 0.035) and 'percentage of time spent in total time duration' (p = 0.023). Clinicians were perceived to be more patient-centered and empathetic if a larger proportion of their conversation showed positive reinforcement and reassurance via using related key words. Care-giver's involvement, such as clinicians' mention of the parent, was also seen as critical to perceptions of quality clinical experience. The study reveals the potential of the application of visual text analytics software in clinical consultations with implications for professional development regarding clinicians' communication skills for improving patients' clinical experiences and treatment satisfaction.
authors.affiliation: Paediatric Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Prince Philip Dental Hospital, Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Hai Ming
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3411-6442
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Education/Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Susan Margaret
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Bridges
authors.affiliation: Public Health, Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Prince Philip Dental Hospital, Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Colman Patrick
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: McGrath
authors.affiliation: Paediatric Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Prince Philip Dental Hospital, Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Cynthia Kar Yung
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Yiu
authors.affiliation: School of English, Faculty of Arts, Centennial Campus, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Olga A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Zayts
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Centennial Campus, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Terry Kit Fong
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Au
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D017028:Caregivers; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D003729:Dental Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003815:Dentists; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D010358:Patient Participation; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010372:Pediatrics; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014741:Video Recording; D055815:Young Adult