Challenges and Attitudes of Clinicians Concerning the Communication of Risk and Lifestyle Advice for Hypertension and Diabetes: A Qualitative Study.
India is witnessing an epidemiological shift from infectious to noncommunicable diseases. Traditional patient education and counseling methods fail to motivate patients to make desirable changes to manage their disease. This study explores clinicians' perceived challenges and their attitudes toward communication practices, particularly risk communication and lifestyle advice for hypertension, diabetes, and related behavioral risk factors.
In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 clinicians, including consultants and residents from the Departments of Cardiology, General Medicine, and Family Medicine at a tertiary care hospital in India. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using the framework method of thematic analysis. A hybrid deductive-inductive coding approach was employed to identify emerging themes related to clinicians' perceptions, communication practices, and barriers to risk communication.
Five major themes emerged: perceptions of the burden of noncommunicable diseases, challenges in language and patient understanding, patient-related barriers, clinician communication practices, and awareness of risk communication. Clinicians routinely provided medication and lifestyle advice based on standard guidelines and tailored their communication according to patients' literacy, age, and socioeconomic background. However, high patient load and limited consultation time restricted detailed communication, resulting in reliance on informal rather than structured risk communication methods. Participants expressed interest in formal training and standardized approaches for communicating disease risk.
Clinicians recognized the importance of communicating advice on disease risk and lifestyle modification but largely relied on informal communication practices rather than structured methods. Time constraints, language barriers, and patient-related factors were perceived as major challenges. The findings suggest a need for developing and evaluating standardized, context-specific risk communication strategies and training programs to strengthen patient-centered care in the management of hypertension and diabetes.
In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 clinicians, including consultants and residents from the Departments of Cardiology, General Medicine, and Family Medicine at a tertiary care hospital in India. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using the framework method of thematic analysis. A hybrid deductive-inductive coding approach was employed to identify emerging themes related to clinicians' perceptions, communication practices, and barriers to risk communication.
Five major themes emerged: perceptions of the burden of noncommunicable diseases, challenges in language and patient understanding, patient-related barriers, clinician communication practices, and awareness of risk communication. Clinicians routinely provided medication and lifestyle advice based on standard guidelines and tailored their communication according to patients' literacy, age, and socioeconomic background. However, high patient load and limited consultation time restricted detailed communication, resulting in reliance on informal rather than structured risk communication methods. Participants expressed interest in formal training and standardized approaches for communicating disease risk.
Clinicians recognized the importance of communicating advice on disease risk and lifestyle modification but largely relied on informal communication practices rather than structured methods. Time constraints, language barriers, and patient-related factors were perceived as major challenges. The findings suggest a need for developing and evaluating standardized, context-specific risk communication strategies and training programs to strengthen patient-centered care in the management of hypertension and diabetes.
Authors
Singhal Singhal, Bhaskar Bhaskar, Gupta Gupta, Modi Asati Modi Asati, Prasad Prasad
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