Physician-patient communication: Patterns of resident speech and patient satisfaction.

The objectives of this study were to quantify and examine patterns of speech among 1st and 2nd year family practice residents and their patients, to measure patient satisfaction, and elucidate significant correlations between them. 5 female and 4 male residents took part in the study and provided 40 audiotapes of interviews (10 of each dyad type: F/F, F/M, M/M, and M/F) for analysis. The communicative behavior of both residents and patients was analyzed using the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS). Positive talk and biomedical-information giving were the major speech categories for both residents and patients. Residents asked four times as many questions as patients, whereas patients made an average of four times the amount of psychosocial comments than residents. Male residents made twice as many psychosocial comments as female residents and conducted longer interviews. Only resident positive-talk was negatively correlated with patient overall satisfaction and communication satisfaction.