Something we hate, no doubt.

Despite the explosion of research into the effect of medical advice on patient behaviour, only about 50% of patients comply with long-term drug regimens. And when it comes to changes in lifestyle, the percentage of patients who comply with medical advice often falls to single figures. Review articles on compliance have traditionally concentrated on factors that make it easier for patients to adhere to medical advice. However, recent articles urge clinicians to be more understanding of the wider implications of compliance in their patients' lives. This article focuses on how clinicians' consulting methods can affect patients' behaviour. Specifically, the authors consider the patient-centred clinical method as well as insights from and consulting techniques pioneered in the addictions field that can help to bring ambivalent patients closer to decisions about change. Instead of seeing resistance to change as rooted entirely in the patient, the authors view it as stemming partly from the way clinicians talk to patients. An advice-giving approach is usually inadequate to motivate people to embark on major lifestyle changes. Instead, the authors propose a negotiation-based framework that harnesses patients' intrinsic motivation to make their own decisions. This approach also promotes clinicians' acceptance of patients' decisions, even if these decisions run counter to current medical wisdom.

Attitude↗

PubMed1996

Practicality of recording patient ethnicity in general practice: descriptive intervention study and attitude survey.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the feasibility of recording patient ethnicity in primary care using the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys classification. DESIGN: A descriptive intervention study and attitude survey in random samples of adults and primary care staff in randomly selected practices. SETTING: Eight practices in Lincolnshire and seven in Leicester. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: When patients were asked their ethnicity by general practitioners, nurses, or receptionists data were collected for 863 of a possible 880 patients. Of 750 patients sent a questionnaire about their attitudes towards the collection of such data 489 responded. Ninety five primary care staff completed a similar questionnaire. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Time taken to record a patient's ethnicity; attitudes of patients and staff towards such recording, including who should ask, who can respond for others, and whether data can be shared with secondary care. RESULTS: Recording the data took less than a minute for three quarters of patients, but even this would need an average of a week of receptionist time per general practitioner. 72% of patients and 57% of staff agreed that ethnic data could be shared with secondary care, and 73% of patients and 60% of staff felt that the data should probably be collected in general practice. CONCLUSIONS: Ethnicity recording in general practice is feasible and acceptable. Nevertheless, the role of ethnic data in assessing health need in primary care, an adequate recording system, and evidence that recording offers benefits greater than the costs need to be established.

Attitude↗