How does oncologists’ communication affect patients’ well-being and online health information seeking? – A randomized experiment

IF 3.1 2区医学 Q2 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

Patient Education and Counseling Pub Date : 2025-09-13 DOI:10.1016/j.pec.2025.109352

Tanja Henkel , Chamoetal Zeidler , Annemiek J. Linn , Julia C.M. van Weert , Ellen M.A. Smets , Marij A. Hillen

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objective

Patients with cancer increasingly rely on online information about their disease. However, the impact of clinicians’ responses to patients presenting this information remains unclear. This randomized experiment tested the effects of oncologists’ communication approaches on patients’ trust, satisfaction, and intentions to seek and discuss online information. Additionally, we explored moderating effects of patients’ psychological characteristics.

Methods

In an online vignette experiment, we manipulated clinicians' communication approaches (patient-centered vs. clinician-centered) in hypothetical oncology consultations. (Former) cancer patients (N = 270, 62 ± 13 years, 55 % female) were randomly assigned to one out of eight conditions. We performed 1-way ANOVA’s, independent samples t-tests and multiple regressions.

Results

Participants exposed to a patient-centered approach reported higher satisfaction with the consultation (d =0.62, p < .001), stronger trust in the clinician (d =0.49, p < .001), and stronger intentions to seek (d =0.40, p < .001) and discuss online information (d =0.69, p < .001) compared to participants exposed to a clinician-centered approach. Moderation analyses indicated that the effect of communication approach on intention to discuss online information depended on participants‘ trait anxiety (b =-0.43, p = .017) and uncertainty intolerance (b =-0.35, p = .041). Uncertainty intolerance further moderated patient satisfaction with the consultation (b =-0.33, p = .049). Participants‘ monitoring coping style moderated the effect of communication approach on online information seeking (b =0.23, p = .036).

Conclusion

Clinicians’ patient-centered responses to online information seeking may positively affect patient satisfaction with the consultation, trust in the consultation, and online information seeking behavior. We provide initial evidence that these effects do not apply equally to every patient: levels of trait anxiety, uncertainty intolerance and monitoring coping style influence the relationship between the applied communication approach and patient outcomes.

Practice implications

Clinicians are advised to emphasize collaborative information exchange and guide patients to trustworthy online sources.

查看原文本刊更多论文

肿瘤学家的沟通如何影响患者的健康和在线健康信息搜索？-随机实验。

目的：癌症患者越来越依赖于关于他们疾病的在线信息。然而，临床医生对患者提出这一信息的反应的影响尚不清楚。这个随机实验测试了肿瘤学家的沟通方式对患者的信任、满意度和寻求和讨论在线信息的意愿的影响。此外，我们还探讨了患者心理特征的调节作用。方法：在一个在线小插曲实验中，我们在假设的肿瘤会诊中操纵临床医生的沟通方式（以患者为中心vs.以临床医生为中心）。（前）癌症患者（N = 270,62 ± 13岁，55 %女性）被随机分配到8种情况中的一种。我们进行了单因素方差分析、独立样本t检验和多元回归。结果：以患者为中心的受访对象对会诊的满意度较高（d =0.62, p ）。结论：临床医生以患者为中心的在线信息查询响应可能对患者对会诊的满意度、对会诊的信任以及在线信息查询行为产生积极影响。我们提供的初步证据表明，这些影响并不同样适用于每个患者：特质焦虑、不确定性不耐受和监控应对方式的水平影响应用沟通方法和患者结果之间的关系。实践启示：建议临床医生强调协作信息交换，并引导患者使用值得信赖的在线资源。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Patient Education and Counseling 医学-公共卫生、环境卫生与职业卫生

CiteScore

5.60

自引率

11.40%

发文量

384

审稿时长

46 days

期刊介绍： Patient Education and Counseling is an interdisciplinary, international journal for patient education and health promotion researchers, managers and clinicians. The journal seeks to explore and elucidate the educational, counseling and communication models in health care. Its aim is to provide a forum for fundamental as well as applied research, and to promote the study of organizational issues involved with the delivery of patient education, counseling, health promotion services and training models in improving communication between providers and patients.