Doctors’ communication improves patient self-management of metabolic diseases
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Researchers at the University of South Carolina studied 2,942 adults in the United States with cardiometabolic risk conditions, including diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure, to understand how doctor-patient communication affects health behaviours.
The team analysed data from a nationwide survey of patients at community health centres conducted in 2022, finding that patients rated most physicians favourably on communication skills. They measured communication quality using a standard patient experience survey and self-management behaviours across areas like diet, exercise, and smoking.
The study revealed a link between how doctors communicate and patients’ ability to manage their health. Each one-point increase in a physician’s patient-centered communication score correlated with a 1.8-point increase in a patient’s self-management score, even after accounting for factors like income, health literacy, and access to resources. Researchers believe that when doctors listen, explain, and involve patients in decisions, patients gain confidence and ownership over their health plans, leading to lasting changes.
Community health centres, which serve a large number of underserved populations, may be ideal places to implement communication training for doctors. The researchers noted the study design could not definitively prove communication causes better self-management, as it relied on patient reports at one point in time. However, they made the dataset publicly available for further research, and suggest that improving doctor-patient communication is a relatively low-cost way to improve health outcomes for many people.
