Trial reportJournal of general internal medicine2004
Patient-centered communication: do patients really prefer it?
Trial report in Journal of general internal medicine, 2004. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 82 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
82 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 276 citations in OpenAlex.
- Measures to evaluate clinician communication in the intensive care unit: A systematic review of measurement properties.Patient education and counseling · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- The validity of using analogue patients in practitioner-patient communication research: systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of general internal medicine · 2012Pooled it
- A systematic review of interventions to improve recall of medical advice in healthcare consultations.Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2009Pooled it
- Effects of Patient Portal Message Framing on Treatment Preferences and Expectations for Degenerative Meniscus Tears: Randomized Exploratory Cross-Sectional Survey Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Trial
- Sexism Interacts with Patient-Physician Gender Concordance in Influencing Patient Control Preferences: Findings from a Vignette Experimental Design.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2020Trial
- Weight-related genomic information and provider communication approach: looking through the lens of patient race.Personalized medicine · 2019Trial
- How Experts' Use of Medical Technical Jargon in Different Types of Online Health Forums Affects Perceived Information Credibility: Randomized Experiment With Laypersons.Journal of medical Internet research · 2018Trial
- Shared Decision Making in mental health care using Routine Outcome Monitoring as a source of information: a cluster randomised controlled trial.BMC psychiatry · 2015Trial
- Evaluating Approaches for Communication About Genomic Influences on Body Weight.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2015Trial
- "Until the trial is complete you can't really say whether it helped you or not, can you?": exploring cancer patients' perceptions of taking part in a trial of acupressure wristbands.BMC complementary and alternative medicine · 2013Trial
- The impact of patient-centered communication on patients' decision making and evaluations of physicians: a randomized study using video vignettes.Patient education and counseling · 2011Trial
- Choosing how to decide: empowering patients for shared decision-making in end-of-life care.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2026Article
- Higher and Middle Management Perspectives on Patient-Centered Care in an Oncology Setting: A Qualitative Study.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2024Article
- Patient Perceptions of Weight Stigma Experiences in Healthcare: A Qualitative Analysis.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2024Article
- Time for health change: promoting community-based diabetes screening and prevention with video vignettes and social marketing.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Patients' motives and considerations on treatment decision-making for heavy menstrual bleeding: a qualitative study.BMC women's health · 2024Article
- Creating and administering video vignettes for a study examining the communication of diagnostic uncertainty: methodological insights to improve accessibility for researchers and participants.BMC medical research methodology · 2023Article
- 'The way you talk, do I have a choice?' Patient narratives of medication decision-making during hospitalization.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2023Article
- Review
22 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo investigate patient preferences for a patient-centered or a biomedical communication style.
designRandomized study.
settingUrgent care and ambulatory medicine clinics in an academic medical center.
participantsWe recruited 250 English-speaking adult patients, excluding patients whose medical illnesses prevented evaluation of the study intervention.
interventionParticipants watched one of three videotaped scenarios of simulated patient-physician discussions of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Each participant watched two versions of the scenario (biomedical vs. patient-centered communication style) and completed written and oral questionnaires to assess outcome measurements. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN
resultsMain outcome measures were 1) preferences for a patient-centered versus a biomedical communication style; and 2) predictors of communication style preference. Participants who preferred the patient-centered style (69%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 63 to 75) tended to be younger (82% [51/62] for age < 30; 68% [100/148] for ages 30-59; 55% [21/38] for age > 59; P < .03), more educated (76% [54/71] for postcollege education; 73% [94/128] for some college; 49% [23/47] for high school only; P= .003), use CAM (75% [140/188] vs. 55% [33/60] for nonusers; P= .006), and have a patient-centered physician (88% [74/84] vs. 30% [16/54] for those with a biomedical physician; P < .0001). On multivariate analysis, factors independently associated with preferring the patient-centered style included younger age, use of herbal CAM, having a patient-centered physician, and rating a "doctor's interest in you as a person" as "very important."
conclusionsGiven that a significant proportion of patients prefer a biomedical communication style, practicing physicians and medical educators should strive for flexible approaches to physician-patient communication.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.