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AIDS and Behavior
Published in: AIDS and Behavior 10/2019

01-10-2019 | Care | Original Paper

Emotional Communication in HIV Care: An Observational Study of Patients’ Expressed Emotions and Clinician Response

Authors: Jenny Park, Somnath Saha, Dingfen Han, Stéphanie De Maesschalck, Richard Moore, Todd Korthuis, Debra Roter, Amy Knowlton, Tanita Woodson, Mary Catherine Beach

Published in: AIDS and Behavior | Issue 10/2019

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Abstract

Emotional support is essential to good communication, yet clinicians often miss opportunities to provide empathy to patients. Our study explores the nature of emotional expressions found among patients new to HIV care, how HIV clinicians respond to these expressions, and predictors of clinician responses. Patient-provider encounters were audio-recorded, transcribed, and coded using the VR-CoDES. We categorized patient emotional expressions by intensity (subtle ‘cues’ vs. more explicit ‘concerns’), timing (initial vs. subsequent), and content (medical vs. non-medical). Emotional communication was present in 65 of 91 encounters. Clinicians were more likely to focus specifically on patient emotion for concerns versus cues (OR 4.55; 95% CI 1.36, 15.20). Clinicians were less likely to provide space when emotional expressions were repeated (OR 0.32; 95% CI 0.14, 0.77), medically-related (OR 0.36; 95% CI 0.17, 0.77), and from African American patients (OR 0.42; 95% CI 0.21, 0.84). Potential areas for quality improvement include raising clinician awareness of subtle emotional expressions, the emotional content of medically-related issues, and racial differences in clinician response.
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Metadata
Title
Emotional Communication in HIV Care: An Observational Study of Patients’ Expressed Emotions and Clinician Response
Authors
Jenny Park
Somnath Saha
Dingfen Han
Stéphanie De Maesschalck
Richard Moore
Todd Korthuis
Debra Roter
Amy Knowlton
Tanita Woodson
Mary Catherine Beach
Publication date
01-10-2019
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
AIDS and Behavior / Issue 10/2019
Print ISSN: 1090-7165
Electronic ISSN: 1573-3254
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-019-02466-z

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