Abstract
Objectives: Patient recall of medical information is usually poor. Healthcare providers can employ affect-oriented (i.e., showing care) or cognition-oriented communication styles (i.e., structuring information) to enhance recall, but research evidence is limited especially among clinical and/or older patient populations. This video-vignette study manipulated provider caring and information structuring to examine effects on recall and trust among cancer patients/survivors.
Methods: In an online survey, 148 participants (Mage = 62) were randomized to one of four video conditions in a two (standard communication vs. enhanced caring) by two (standard vs. enhanced structuring) design, and completed measures of active recall, recognition, and trust.
Results: Increased caring or structuring did not enhance active recall or recognition, instead both were higher among younger, female, or highly educated participants. The caring condition induced higher perceived trust in the provider within the whole sample, but trust was significantly correlated with decreased recall (r = −.268) among younger participants.
Conclusions: Provider caring can strengthen the patient-provider relationship by enhancing trust. Yet, increased trust may impair recall among younger patients. Structuring treatment information did not enhance recall and recognition, but additional research is needed.
Practice implications: Providers may use additional ways of structuring/organizing information to help enhance recall (e.g., written information).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 55-62 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Patient Education and Counseling |
| Volume | 103 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 10 Jul 2019 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2020 |
Funding
This work was supported by the Dutch Cancer Society ( AMCUVA-2014-6777 , PI: Smets). All authors state that the content and views expressed in this manuscript are our own and not an official position of our affiliated institutions or the external funder. The authors would further like to thank Aranka Akkermans for her valuable contribution to coding recall data, as well as Dick Johan van Spronsen and other members of the INSTRUCT group (i.e., Robert Hulsman, Sebastiaan Stuij, Noor Christoph, and Stans Drossaert) for participating in the expert panel during this study’s planning and design. We confirm all patient/personal identifiers have been removed or disguised so the patients described are not identifiable.
Keywords
- Analogue patient
- Cancer
- Hematology/oncology
- Information recall
- Information structuring
- Provider caring
- Provider communication
- Recognition
- Video-vignettes
