Dataset Information

Deciding if lifestyle is a problem: GP risk assessments or patient evaluations? A conversation analytic study of preventive consultations in general practice.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

The aim of this study is to analyse the interaction between patients and GPs in preventive consultations with an emphasis on how patients answer GPs' questions about lifestyle, and the conditions these answers impose on the process of establishing agreement about lifestyle as a problem or not.

Design

Six general practitioners (GPs) video-recorded 15 annual preventive consultations. From these, 32 excerpts of discussions about lifestyle were analysed using conversation analysis (CA).

Results

GPs used an interview format to assess risk in patients' lifestyles. In some cases patients adhered to this format and answered the GPs' questions, but in many cases patients gave what we have termed "anticipatory answers". These answers indicate that the patients anticipate a response from their GPs that would highlight problems with their lifestyle. Typically, in an anticipatory answer, patients bypass the interview format to give their own evaluation of their lifestyle and GPs accept this evaluation. In cases of "no-problem" answers from patients, GPs usually encouraged patients by adding support for current habits.

Conclusion

Patients anticipated that GPs might assess their lifestyles as problematic and they incorporated this possibility into their responses. They thereby controlled the definition of their lifestyle as a problem or not. GPs generally did not use the information provided in these answers as a resource for further discussion, but rather relied on standard interview procedures. Staying within the patients' frame of reference and using the patients' anticipatory answers might provide GPs with a better point of departure for discussion regarding lifestyle.

SUBMITTER: Guassora AD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4750723 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Deciding if lifestyle is a problem: GP risk assessments or patient evaluations? A conversation analytic study of preventive consultations in general practice.

Guassora Ann Dorrit AD Nielsen Søren Beck SB Reventlow Susanne S

Scandinavian journal of primary health care 20150101 3

<h4>Objective</h4>The aim of this study is to analyse the interaction between patients and GPs in preventive consultations with an emphasis on how patients answer GPs' questions about lifestyle, and the conditions these answers impose on the process of establishing agreement about lifestyle as a problem or not.<h4>Design</h4>Six general practitioners (GPs) video-recorded 15 annual preventive consultations. From these, 32 excerpts of discussions about lifestyle were analysed using conversation an ...[more]

PMID: 26467342

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Research on the use of video-mediated technology for medical consultations is increasing rapidly. Most research in this area is based on questionnaires and focuses on long-term conditions. The few studies that have focused on physical examinations in video consultations indicated that it poses challenges for the participants. The specific activity of wound assessment through video in postsurgery consultations has not yet been studied. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of face-to-face and video settings on the moment-to-moment organization of such an activity is original. OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to examine the impact of video technology on the procedure of postsurgery wound assessment and its limits. METHODS:We recorded 22 postoperative video consultations and 17 postoperative face-to-face consultations. The primary purpose of the consultation was to inform the patient about the final pathology results of the resected specimen, and the secondary purpose was to check on the patient's recovery, including an assessment of the closed wound. The recordings were transcribed in detail and analyzed using methods of conversation analysis. RESULTS:The way that an assessment of the wound is established in video consultations differs from the procedure in face-to-face consultations. In the consultation room, wound assessments overwhelmingly (n=15/17) involve wound showings in the context of surgeons reporting their observations formatted with evidentials ("looks neat") and subsequently assessing what these observations imply or what could be concluded from them. In contrast, wound assessments in video consultations do not tend to involve showing the wound (n=3/22) and, given the technological restrictions, do not involve palpation. Rather, the surgeon invites the patient to assess the wound, which opens up a sequence of patient and physician assessments where diagnostic criteria such as redness or swollenness are made explicit. In contrast to observations in regular consultations, these assessments are characterized by epistemic markers of uncertainty ("I think," "sounds...good") and evidentials are absent. Even in cases of a potential wound problem, the surgeon may rely on questioning the patient rather than requesting a showing. CONCLUSIONS:The impact of video technology on postoperative consultations is that a conclusive wound assessment is arrived at in a different way when compared to face-to-face consultations. In video consultations, physicians enquire and patients provide their own observations, which serve as the basis for the assessment. This means that, in video consultations, patients have a fundamentally different role. These talking-based assessments are effective unless, in cases of a potential problem, patient answers seem insufficient and a showing might be beneficial.

Project description:Background: Enhancing client autonomy requires close coordination of interactional practices between nurse and client, which can cause challenges when interaction takes place in video-mediated settings. While video-mediated services have become more common, it remains unclear how they shape client autonomy in telehomecare. Research aim: To analyse how video mediation shapes client autonomy when nurses guide medicine taking remotely through video-mediated home care. Research design: This is a conversation analytic case study using video recordings of telehomecare encounters. The theoretical approach draws on ethnomethodology and empirical ethics. Participants and research context: Four home-dwelling older adults and three nurses participated in the data collection; data extracts include one client and two nurses. The study was conducted in Finland. Ethical considerations: Special attention was given to protect the rights of home care clients. An ethical statement for the study was given by the Ethics Committee of the Tampere Region Findings: Video mediation complicates interacting remotely with care-relevant artefacts because of nurses' limited visual access to the medicine and client's need to simultaneously engage in vocal interaction and medicine taking. This can be overcome by dividing the guidance into manageable steps which invite the client to explicate their readiness to take the medicine and situating the video-mediation equipment and medicine close together. Different interactional practices and ways of situating video-mediation equipment and medicine have consequences for client autonomy. Discussion: Understanding client autonomy in digitalised settings demands empirical examination that recognises the importance of different human and non-human aspects of care that shape client autonomy. Conclusions: To harness the benefits of video-mediated home care, communication technologies' reliance on home space and interactional practices should be recognised. Empirical ethics research is needed in order to make normative suggestions that fit a wide variety of care situation.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Little is known about whether a more comprehensive health assessment, performed by a general practitioner (GP) during a clinical encounter, could influence patients' lifestyle. We aimed to investigate whether health assessments, performed by GPs, are more important than the presence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) or cardiometabolic risk factors (obesity, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidaemia) for engagement in lifestyle change. METHODS:Cross-sectional, population-based survey conducted in South Australia (September-December 2017) using face-to-face interviews and self-reported data of 2977 individuals aged 15+ years. The main outcome was engagement in four lifestyle changes: 1) increasing fruit/vegetable intake, 2) increasing physical activity level, 3) reducing alcohol consumption, and 4) attempts to stop smoking. Health assessments performed by a GP in the last 12 months included clinical/laboratory investigations (weight/waist circumference, blood pressure, glucose levels, lipid levels) and questions about lifestyle/wellbeing (current diet, physical activity, smoking status, alcohol intake, mental health, sleeping problems). Results were restricted to individuals aged 35+ years because of the low prevalence of CVD or their risk factors among younger participants. Logistic regression was used in all associations, adjusted for sociodemographic, lifestyle, mental health, and clinical variables. RESULTS:Of the 2384 investigated adults (mean age 57.3 ± 13.9 years; 51.9% females), 10.2% had CVD and 49.1% at least one cardiometabolic risk factor. Clinical/laboratory assessments performed by the GP were 2-3 times more frequent than assessments of lifestyle, mental health status, or sleeping problems, especially among those with CVD. Individuals with CVD or a cardiometabolic risk factor were no more likely to be increasing their fruit/vegetable consumption (33.6%), physical activity level (40.9%), reducing alcohol consumption (31.1%), or trying to quit smoking (34.0%) than 'healthy' participants. However, lifestyle changes were between 30 and 100% more likely when GPs performed three or more health assessments (either clinical/laboratory or questions about lifestyle/wellbeing) than when individuals did not visit the GP or when GPs performed no any assessment during these clinical encounters (p < 0.05 in all cases). CONCLUSION:More frequent and comprehensive CVD-related assessments by GPs were more important in promoting a healthier lifestyle than the presence of CVD or cardiometabolic risk factors by themselves.

Project description:BackgroundUse of telephone, video and e-consultations is increasing. These can make consultations more transactional, potentially missing patients' concerns. This study aimed to develop a complex intervention to address patients' concerns more comprehensively in general practice and test the feasibility of this in a cluster-randomised framework.The complex intervention used two technologies: a patient-completed pre-consultation form used at consultation opening and a doctor-provided summary report provided at consultation closure. This paper reports on the development and realist evaluation of the pre-consultation questionnaire.MethodsA person-based approach was used to develop the pre-consultation form. An online questionnaire system was designed to allow patient self-completion of a form which could be shared with GPs. This was tested with 45 patients in three rounds, with iterative adjustments made based on feedback after each round.Subsequently, an intervention incorporating the pre-consultation form with the summary report was then tested in a cluster-randomised framework with 30 patients per practice in six practices: four randomised to intervention, and two to control. An embedded realist evaluation was carried out. The main feasibility study results are reported elsewhere.ResultsIntervention Development: 15 patients were recruited per practice. Twelve patients, six GPs and three administrators were interviewed and 32 changes were made iteratively in three rounds. Recruitment rates (proportion of patients responding to the text) increased from 15% in round one to 50% in round three.Realist evaluation: The pre-consultation form was most useful for people comfortable with technology and with hidden concerns or anxiety about the consultation. It resulted in more issues being discussed and support provided, more effective use of time and greater patient satisfaction.ConclusionsThe person-based approach was successful. The pre-consultation form uncovers more depth and improves satisfaction in certain consultations and patients. Technological improvements are required before this could be rolled out more widely.

Dataset Information

Deciding if lifestyle is a problem: GP risk assessments or patient evaluations? A conversation analytic study of preventive consultations in general practice.

Objective

Design

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Deciding if lifestyle is a problem: GP risk assessments or patient evaluations? A conversation analytic study of preventive consultations in general practice.

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