Background: Patient adherence to treatment regimens may be a critical mediator between
physician recommendations and patient outcomes, but levels of adherence have not been …

ContextDirect-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs in the United States is
both ubiquitous and controversial. Critics charge that it leads to overprescribing, while …

Evidence‐based medicine is the application of scientific evidence to clinical practice. This
article discusses the difficulties of applying global evidence (“average effects” measured as …

Background: Patients' expectations and the role they play in medical care are increasingly
considered to be important, but the factors that influence these expectations have not been …

OBJECTIVE: To profile patients likely to have unmet expectations for care, examine the
effects of such expectations, and investigate how physicians’ responses to patients’ requests …

Patients seeking help for symptoms frequently worry about the underlying causes of their
symptoms; have specific expectations for care; and request (or demand) time, information, and …

ContextDespite the substantial amount of health-related information available on the Internet,
little is known about the accessibility, quality, and reading grade level of that health …

The goal of patient-centered communication (PCC) is to help practitioners provide care that
is concordant with the patient's values, needs and preferences, and that allows patients to …

Examined the influence of physicians' attributes and practice style on patients' adherence to
treatment in a 2-yr longitudinal study of 186 physicians and their diabetes, hypertension, …

Background: Patients vary in their willingness and ability to actively participate in medical
consultations. Because more active patient participation contributes to improved health …