Receiving the Diagnosis: Influence of Coping Styles on Information Provision by Clinicians during Diagnostic Consultations with Parkinson's Disease Patients

Introduction: Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a progressive neurological disorder that severely affects patients’ lives. How patients cope with the stress of receiving this diagnosis is influenced by information-seeking coping style, which can be classified on two dimensions: monitoring (seeking information) and blunting (avoiding information). Patients’ level of monitoring and blunting may affect their perception of amount of information. Clinicians may not tailor the amount of information to the individual needs of patients, negatively impacting their recall. This study hypothesized that the amount of provided information by clinicians is equal for patients who score high on monitoring and patients who score high on blunting. Additionally, this study hypothesized that patients with high monitoring scores would report receiving too little information, and that patients with high blunting scores would report receiving too much information. Method: This study employed a prospective...Show moreIntroduction: Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a progressive neurological disorder that severely affects patients’ lives. How patients cope with the stress of receiving this diagnosis is influenced by information-seeking coping style, which can be classified on two dimensions: monitoring (seeking information) and blunting (avoiding information). Patients’ level of monitoring and blunting may affect their perception of amount of information. Clinicians may not tailor the amount of information to the individual needs of patients, negatively impacting their recall. This study hypothesized that the amount of provided information by clinicians is equal for patients who score high on monitoring and patients who score high on blunting. Additionally, this study hypothesized that patients with high monitoring scores would report receiving too little information, and that patients with high blunting scores would report receiving too much information. Method: This study employed a prospective observational longitudinal design as part of the DiaMove Project. The sample consisted of newly diagnosed PD patients who completed questionnaires assessing their demographic characteristics, coping styles and perceived amount of information. Diagnostic consultations were video-recorded and subsequently observationally quantitatively coded for duration of information provision per topic. Statistical analyses included equivalence testing, independent t-tests and logistic regression. Results: This study found that the amount of information provided by clinicians is not equivalent for patients (N = 28) with high scores on the monitoring scale and those with high scores on the blunting scale (CI = [-0.26 – 0.37]; CI = [-0.20 – 0.43]). In addition, two independent t-tests were conducted, which showed no significant difference in the amount of information provided for high scores on the different coping styles (p = .288; p = .552). Furthermore, the likelihood of wanting to receive more or less information cannot be predicted by respectively high scores on the monitoring and blunting coping style (p > .05). Discussion: Patients’ level of monitoring or blunting was not a significant predictor for the amount of information provided and did not predict patients’ reported amount of information provided by clinicians. These findings may be influenced by limitations of self-reported questionnaires, such as the length and the small sample size of the study.Show less

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Receiving the Diagnosis: Influence of Coping Styles on Information Provision by Clinicians during Diagnostic Consultations with Parkinson's Disease Patients