Eye Contact between Physicians and Older-patients in Anxiety-provoking Communication

R Gorawara-Bhat*, D Dethmers** and MA Cook***

* Section of Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine, Department of Medicine,The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637

** School of Social Service Administration,The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637

*** JVC Radiology and Medical Analysis LLC,Clayton, Missouri 63105

The International Conference on Communication in Healthcare 201119 October 2011, Chicago, Illinois, USA

This research was supported by The Section of Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine (RGB) and JVC Radiology (MAC).The original research was supported by AHRQ # (1 RO3 HS01 4088-01A1) (RGB) and NIA Grant # R44 AG15737 (MAC).

The Investigators retained full independence in the conduct of this research.

Eye Contact in Physician-Older patient Interactions

• Routine physician-older patient (> = 65 yrs) interactions:

-- Eye contact most frequently invoked nonverbal dimension (Gorawara-Bhat et al 2007)

-- Eye contact -- “Looking” and “Listening”

Verbal dimension -- “Talking”

-- Characteristics of Eye contact related to Patient-Centered (PC) interaction (Gorawara-Bhat et al 2011)

-- Type of Eye contact (Sustained or Brief); -- Frequency of occurrence

• Literature – Eye contact -- salient nonverbal dimension ofPatient-centered communication (MacDonald, 2009; Mast,

2007)

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Eye Contact in Anxiety-provoking Interactions

• Goals of Present Work: 1) Nature of eye contact in anxiety-provoking

interactions 2) Comparison with Routine Interactions

• Physician and Older-patient anxiety-provoking communication as “naturally occurring” in office visits

• “Looking and Listening” as embedded in “Talking”

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Sample Description

• Secondary analysis -- NIA (National Institute of Aging) videotapes of physician-older patient interactions (2005)

• Search Words: prostate, PSA, mammogram, referral, surgery, cancer, screening, depression, exercise, weight, smoking, and diet

• Identified 58 out of 489 anxiety-provoking visits from NIA database

• Discarded tapes (gaze of physician and/or patient not visible, little info, dysfunctional and/or encrypted tape) (22 out of 58)

• Anxiety-provoking visits -- 4 emergent types: 1) cancer2) depression/suicide3) behavioral issues (e.g. smoking, substance abuse) 4) acute medical visits

• Anxiety-provoking segments coded (n = 37) # of physician older-patient visits: n = 36 ; 3 tapes w multiple segments # of physician older-patient, companion* visits: n = 3(*companion – an extension of older patient)

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Data Analysis – NVivo 9.0 Software

• Qualitative Software -- NVivo 9.0 used to code physician and patient nonverbal (“looking”) and verbal (“talking”) characteristics in anxiety-provoking segments

• NVivo 9.0 — juxtaposition of verbal transcripts alongside visual frames; examined simultaneously

• Each physician - older patient visit reviewed within NVivo 9.0;anxiety-provoking segment(s) identified, and time-stamped

• 8 segments coded independently by 2 investigators (RGB & DD) Results identical -- Inter-Rater reliability established;25 segments coded (DD); 4 segments coded (RGB)

• Segments reviewed, coded for physician and patient “looking” and “talking” behaviors (RGB, DD) (Table 1)

• Comparison w Routine Office visits (n = 8) 5

Results – Thematic Codes

Table 1: Coding Anxiety-provoking segments in physician-older patient visits (n = 37)

A. Codes for physician “looking” & “talking” (nonverbal & verbal communication)

1. Physician Looking and Not Talking (listen)2. Physician Looking and Talking (listen)3. Physician Not Looking and Talking (not listen)4. Physician Not Looking and no responsive Talking (not listen)

B. Codes for patient “looking” & “talking” (nonverbal & verbal communication)

1. Patient Looking and Not Talking (listen)2. Patient Looking and Talking (listen)3. Patient Not Looking and Talking (not listen)4. Patient Not Looking and no responsive Talking (not listen) 6

Results - Demographics

Table 2: Demographic Characteristics of

Physicians & Older-Patients in Anxiety-provoking visits

Physicians (n = 18 ) Older-patients (n = 37)

Average (Range) 52 (34 -82) 74 (65 – 91)

Caucasian 16 36

African-American 2 1

Age (years)

Race

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Anxiety-provoking Communication

Example – Suicidal Ideation

• Frequency of occurrence

of physicians’ gaze is twice

that of patient (96% vs 54%)

• Physician - “sustained” gaze

establishes “engagement frame”

• Patient – “brief” gaze

no reciprocal frame maintenance

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Anxiety-provoking Communication

Example -- Smoking

• Physician’s frequency of gaze

-- high (92%)

• Patient’s frequency

of gaze -- similar (89%)

• Physician initiates

“engagement frame”;

patient reciprocates gaze

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Anxiety-provoking Communication

Example – Acute Medical Issue

• Physician’s frequency of

gaze -- low (72%)

-- Characterized –

“Brief” episode

• Patients frequency of

gaze -- continuous (95%)

-- Characterized as

“Sustained” episode

-- Establish

“engagement frame”

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Anxiety-provoking Communication

Example – Cancer

• Physician -- low

eye contact (60%)

• Patient -- high

eye contact (90%)

- tries to establish

“engagement frame”

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Characteristics of Physician “Looking & Listening”

Table 3: Comparison of Anxiety-provoking & Routine Visits

Avg Segment Length (Range) (minutes)

3.54 (0.17-12.58)

8:01 (1:50-21:00)

3:41 (0:28 - 6:39)

3:53 (1:41 - 6:41)

6.23 (3.36 - 11.00)

Eye contact Duration (minutes) 0.17 1:02 0:25 0:12 3.15

Number of Brief Episodes 47 15 28 58 35

Number of Sustained Episodes 25 17 17 13 15

Number of Brief Episodes/ Visit 3.1 2.5 4 7.25 4.4

Number of Sustained Episodes/ Visit 1.9 2.7 2.3 1.6 1.9

CHARACTERISTICS OF SEGMENTS

TYPE OF EYE CONTACT

ROUTINE VISITS (n= 8)Cancer

(n=14)

Depression/ Suicide (n=7)

Behavioral (n=7)

Acute Medical

EYE CONTACT BY TYPE OF INTERACTION

ANXIETY-PROVOKING VISITS

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Table 4: Nonverbal & Verbal Communication between Physicians and Older-patients in Different Types of Anxiety-provoking Visits

Results – Communication

Communication

Cancer (n =14)

Depression/ Suicide (n = 7)

Behavioral Issues (n =7)

Acute Medical Issues (n =9)

NONVERBAL

Physician 2.7 (73%) 22.5 (96%) 12 (92%) 3 (72%)

Patient 8.5 (90%) 1.2 (54%) 8 (89%) 18 (95%)

VERBAL

Physician 2.3 (70%) 1.1 (51%) 1 (56%) 1.4 (58%)

Patient 1 (48%) 1.4 (48%) 1 (48%) 1.3 (57%)

Ratios of "Looking" and "Talking" (%)

Ratio of frequency of "Looking" to "Not-Looking" (%)

Ratio of frequency of "Talking" to "Not-Talking" (%)

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Results – “Looking” and “Talking”

Table 5: Comparison of “Looking” and “Talking” in Anxiety-provoking and Routine Visits

(n = 8) (n = 8)

Physician 5 ( 83%) 2 (65%)

Patient 2 ( 68%) 60 ( 98%)

Physician 1.4 ( 58%) 2 (66%)

Patient 1.2 (55%) 1 (47%)

CommunicationAnxiety-Provoking

visits (%)Routine visits (%)

Ratio of Looking to Not-looking

Ratio of Talking to Not-talking

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Summary and Conclusions - 1

In Verbal Communication:• In Anxiety-provoking and Routine interactions – Frequency of occurrence of

“talking” for physicians and patients is similar.

Physicians and Patients “accommodate”, i.e. ‘complement’ one another in terms of the functions of their respective utterances (Street, 1991).

In Nonverbal Communication (Eye contact):• In anxiety-provoking interactions—physicians seek patients gaze to

establish ‘engagement frame’

- patients reciprocate to some extent (Table 5).

• In routine interactions, patients seek physicians gaze to establish ‘engagement frame’

- physicians show little reciprocal behavior (Table 5)

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Conclusions and Implications -- 2

• 1. Nonverbal dimension of Eye contact – an essential foundation for patient-centered communication -- used differentially in routine and anxiety-provoking interactions by physicians

• 2. When a prescriptive resolution of patients’ chief complaint is possible, physicians may not invoke eye contact to complement verbal communication. E.g. acute medical issues, routine visits, prostate cancer.

• 3. When no prescriptive resolution of patients’ chief complaint is conceivable, physicians generally invoke eye contact to complement their verbal communication. E.g. suicidal ideation, depression.

• 4. To make interaction patient-centered, physician education should emphasize that physicians’ invoke eye contact to complement verbal communication and establish an ‘engagement frame’ with patients.

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References

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