Effect of patient-centered communication training on discussion and detection of nonadherence in glaucoma

Purpose: To assess communication about adherence and to determine the impact of communication skills training on physicians' approach to nonadherence.

Design: Sociolinguistic analysis of videotaped community ophthalmologists' encounters with patients with glaucoma before and after training. Patients in both phases and physicians in phase I knew communication was being studied but not what the focus of the study was. In phase II, physicians knew the targeted communication behaviors.

Participants: Twenty-three ophthalmologists and 100 regularly scheduled patients with glaucoma (50 per phase).

Methods: An educational program with videotaped vignettes of simulated patient encounters using audience response and role play to teach patient-centered communication skills, including a 4-step adherence assessment and the use of open-ended questions in ask-tell-ask sequences.

Main outcome measures: Physician eliciting an acknowledgment of nonadherence during a clinical encounter compared with acknowledgment of nonadherence during a postvisit research interview (primary outcome), and performance of targeted communication and substantive discussion of adherence.

Results: After intervention, physicians increased the proportion of open-ended questions (15% vs 6%; P = 0.001) and specifically about medication taking (82% compared with 18% of encounters; P<0.001). Compared with the absence of ask-tell-ask communication, 32% of phase II encounters included a complete ask-tell-ask sequence, 78% included an ask-tell sequence, and 32% a tell-ask sequence (P<0.001). Three of 4 steps for assessment of adherence were more common in phase II, and substantial discussions of adherence occurred in 86% versus 30% of encounters (P<0.001). In phase II, physicians elicited acknowledgment of nonadherence in 78% (7/9) of those who acknowledged nonadherence in the postvisit interview compared with 25% in phase I (3/12; P = 0.03).

Conclusions: This study demonstrates that experienced community physicians significantly improved their communication strategies and ability to detect and address nonadherence after a 3-hour educational program.

Financial disclosure(s): Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found after the references.