Table 1 Frequencies of communication categories per consultation by GPs and hypertensive patients between 1986 and 2002.
1986 (n = 102) | 2002 (n = 108) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Category | Example | e μ | 95% CI | e μ | 95% CI | P-value |
All GP talk | 129 | 119.7–139.7 | 119 | 113.4–124.1 | 0.26 | |
Task-oriented talk | ||||||
biomedical questions | "Did you feel dizzy lately?" | 9.1 | 8.3–9.9 | 7.1 | 6.6–7.6 | 0.05 |
biomedical info & counselling | "Your blood pressure went down." | 26.7 | 24.5–29.1 | 34.7 | 32.5–37.0 | 0.02 |
psychosocial questions | "Are you anxious about this?" | 2.9 | 2.4–3.5 | 3.7 | 3.4–4.1 | 0.18 |
psychosocial info & counselling | "You need to get out and meet more people." | 6.7 | 5.5–8.0 | 6.2 | 5.4–7.1 | 0.38 |
Affect-oriented talk | ||||||
social talk | "Your daughter is in 2nd grade now, isn't she?" | 9.3 | 8.4–10.3 | 10.5 | 9.6–11.6 | 0.27 |
concern/optimism | "I'm really worried about your blood pressure." | 5.5 | 5.0–5.9 | 1.4 | 1.2–1.6 | < 0.001 |
rapport building, verbal attentiveness | "I can understand that this is distressing for you." | 37.8 | 33.4–42.8 | 37.2 | 35.0–39.6 | 0.40 |
Process-oriented talk | ||||||
instructions, directions | "Now I'm going to take your blood pressure." | 16.5 | 14.9–18.2 | 10.3 | 9.6–11.0 | < 0.001 |
partnership building, dialogue seeking | "If I understand correctly,..." | 4.3 | 3.7–4.9 | 1.5 | 1.3–1.7 | < 0.001 |
disagreements | "No, you really should take the pills every day." | 1.0 | 0.8–1.2 | 0.3 | 0.2–0.4 | < 0.001 |
All patient talk | 139 | 127.7–151.8 | 109 | 103.6–114.9 | 0.02 | |
Task-oriented talk | ||||||
biomedical questions | "Can this be a side-effect of the medicines I take?" | 6.0 | 5.4–6.5 | 4.3 | 4.0–4.7 | 0.01 |
biomedical info | "I don't have those headaches anymore." | 36.8 | 33.6–40.4 | 33.1 | 30.9–35.5 | 0.27 |
psychosocial questions | "How does stress influence my blood pressure?" | 0.5 | 0.4–0.7 | 0.5 | 0.4–0.6 | 0.40 |
psychosocial info | "I have been worrying about losing my job" | 24.8 | 21.1–29.1 | 21.4 | 19.1–24.0 | 0.31 |
Affect-oriented talk | ||||||
social talk | "How were your holidays?" | 10 | 8.6–11.7 | 11.8 | 10.5–13.2 | 0.28 |
concern/optimism | "These results got me pretty scared!" | 12.3 | 11.2–13.4 | 1.0 | 0.8–1.2 | < 0.001 |
rapport building, verbal attentiveness | "This must be a tough job." | 24.9 | 22.6–27.4 | 29.4 | 27.8–31.1 | 0.13 |
Process-oriented talk | ||||||
Instructions, directions | "I want to talk about the consequences of this." | 5.1 | 4.2–6.0 | 0.9 | 0.8–1.2 | < 0.001 |
partnership building, dialogue seeking | "Let me see if I got this right,..." | 3.2 | 2.9–3.5 | 0.4 | 0.4–0.5 | < 0.001 |
disagreements | "No, I don't think the pills do much good" | 1.0 | 0.8–1.2 | 0.4 | 0.3–0.5 | 0.02 |