Communication quality predicts patients’ colorectal cancer screening behavior

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the quality of patient/clinician communication as one potential factor that impacts colorectal cancer screening behavior. As part of a larger randomized controlled trial conducted between 2011 and 2016 in the setting of community and academic family medicine or internal medicine practices in Michigan, USA, patients completed a pre-encounter survey, completed their regularly scheduled visit with their primary care clinician (which was audio-recorded), completed a post-encounter survey, and allowed 6-month follow-up chart audit. We trained 10 coders to rate 216 of the audio-recorded conversations between 216 patients and their primary care physicians for 6 specific features of communication quality (using 7-point scales), including the extent to which participants enacted attention to medical content, engagement, emotional expression, relationships, face, and accommodation. At least 3 coders rated each conversation, and intraclass correlations (i.e., reliability assessment) were in the good to excellent range. We found that patient and clinician attention to face (an identity goal) was a significant predictor of colorectal cancer screening at 6 months follow up. Measuring communication in terms of attention to multiple goals reveals unexpected findings about the aspects of communication that impact colorectal cancer screening behavior. The focus of many interventions to improve colorectal cancer screening rates is on the content (i.e., task goals) of clinicians' communication (such as presenting the different options for screening), yet the content of communication was not a significant predictor of screening in the present study. Rather, clinicians' and patients’ attention to identity goals predicted screening behavior, which suggests that interventions may not need to be overly complex and that simply improving the quality of attention to identity goals in clinician communication might be one of the most straightforward yet impactful ways to improve colorectal cancer screening uptake among patients.