The communication and memory of oral instructions in a medical context : patients' memory for physicians' instructions

The communication and memory for oral medical instructions was examined in three studies. Study one involved two surveys, a survey of 200 Knoxville, TN, laypersons and a survey of 350 general practice/family physicians chosen at random from the physician directories of Knoxville, TN, Boston-Cambridge, MA, Chicago, IL, Seattle, WA, and Houston, TX. These surveys revealed that 96% of responding physicians and 47% of responding laypersons perceive that remembering and comprehending medical information is a serious problem. Study two was conducted in the University of TN student health clinic. Thirty-four volunteer student subjects recalled the medical instructions given during routine clinic visits either immediately or 3-4 days following their medical consultation. Overall recall of instructions was 57%, with no effect for gender, physician, or condition (delayed or immediate). Physicians primarily used repetition and lay terminology to reinforce their instructions. Study three involved a 3 X 2 design in which three methods of presenting medical instructions were given in both immediate and delayed recall conditions. The three presentation formats were traditional, repetition, and categorization. Subjects were 215 student volunteers from undergraduate psychology classes at the University of TN. There was no effect for gender. Across all conditions, however, non-native English speakers had significantly less recall. In the immediate recall conditions, subjects in the repetition group remembered significantly more (M = 70%) than subjects in either the typical group (M = 60%) or the categorical group (M = 50%). In the delayed recall conditions, subjects in the repetition group also remembered significantly more (M = 61%) than subjects in the typical group (M = 49%) and in the categorical group (M = 35%). Across all three modes of presentation, subjects in the immediate recall condition performed significantly better than those in the delayed recall condition.