BALTIMORE, Sep 8, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Communication between doctors and
patients with high blood pressure is worse for blacks than for whites,
researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore say.
"This is an important finding because poorer communication is associated with
worse patient satisfaction, adherence to therapy and blood pressure control,
which in turn may lead to worse disease outcomes for black patients compared to
white patients," Dr. Crystal Wiley Cene, now of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, said in a statement.
Cene led the study while completing a fellowship at Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine.
Study participants included 226 high blood pressure patients and 39 physicians
from 15 primary care practices in Baltimore. Coders listened to recordings of
patient visits and found black patients had shorter office visits, less
biomedical and psychosocial exchange and less rapport-building with their
doctors than white patients.
The study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, says the
differences were statistically significant for psychosocial exchange and
rapport-building but not for biomedical exchange.
URL: www.upi.com
Copyright 2009 by United Press International