Social science & medicine
-
Social science & medicine · Nov 2001
Relationship between outpatients' perceptions of physicians' communication styles and patients' anxiety levels in a Japanese oncology setting.
For life-threatening illnesses such as cancer that require a long-term treatment regimen, communication is particularly important between doctors and patients. While it is assumed that the more serious the illness, the greater the need to relieve patients' anxiety, physicians' communication styles can directly influence patients' anxiety levels. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between outpatients' perceptions of physicians' communication styles and the patients' anxiety levels in oncology settings. ⋯ The effect of the physician's communication style on patients' post-consultation anxiety levels was small among the patients with an advanced disease status. Also, the findings showed that patients' post-consultation anxiety levels remained low even among those patients with unfavorable examination results if the patients evaluated their physician's communication style as high. This study suggested that the physician's communication style is important not only for moderating patients' anxiety, but could also be helpful for moderating physicians' own stress levels when communicating bad news to patients.