Doctor, Ease My Mind! Associations between Cancer Patients’ Emotional Distress and Their Perception of Patient-Centeredness during Oncology Consultations

Abstract

Objective: To investigate whether perceived patient-centered communication during oncology consultations relates to patient satisfaction and degree of emotional distress following the medical encounter. Methods: 226 cancer patients attending an oncology outpatient clinic completed questionnaires before and after a consultation including the Physician-Patient Relationship Inventory, the brief Profile of Mood States, and the Information satisfaction questionnaire. Results: Patients who perceived the communication during the consultations to be highly patient-centered were more likely to be maximally satisfied with information provided by the oncologist. Additionally, adjusting for pre-consultation distress, as well as sociodemographic, clinical, and consultation-related variables, patients who perceived the oncologist to communicate in a highly patient-centered manner, experienced lower levels of emotional distress after the consultation. Conclusion: Patient-centered communication may be an important quality in oncology as an approach to positively influence patient outcomes, including emotional distress. However, the findings in the present study of an effect of PCC on patient satisfaction and emotional distress are modest, and no firm conclusions can thus be drawn. Practice Implications: Oncology settings may benefit from the positive effects of patient-centered care and physicians should acknowledge the potential of their own relational competence in order to facilitate patient-centered communication.