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Biomedical subjects

P Ley

Publications and source records attributed to P Ley.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1979

Memory for medical information.

The frequency with which patients fail to recall advice presented by their doctors is discribed. The amount forgotten is shown to be a linear function of the amount presented, to be correlated with the patient's medical knowledge, anxiety level and possibly age, but not with intelligence. It is probable that instructions and advice are more often forgotten than other information, and that this is the result of their low perceived importance, and their being presented late in the series of statements presented-there being (a) a primacy effect in recall of medical information, and (b) a tendency for statements perceived as more important to be better recalled. Experiments to control the content and amount of forgetting are described. Control of content can be obtained by use of the primacy and importance effects, while control of amount forgotten can be achieved by use of (a) simpler language, (b) explicit categorization, (c) repetition, and (d) concrete-specific rather than general-abstract advice statements.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

A method for decreasing patients' medication errors.

Eighty anxious and eighty depressed patients were assigned randomly to receiving one of three versions of an information leaflet about their medication, or to receiving no leaflet at all. Mean medication errors were reduced from 15 to 4% by provision of suitably constructed leaflets. The results show the practical importance of informing patients about their medication and of paying attention to the difficulty level of any leaflets issued.

Antidepressive Agents↗
PubMed1976

Increasing patients' satisfaction with communications.

This paper reports a successful experimental attempt to increase satisfaction with communications amongst general medical patients. A group of patients who received extra interviews designed to increase their understanding of what they had been told about their illnesses showed significantly greater satisfaction than patients treated in the usual manner, and patients who received extra placebo interviews about their hospital stay. Changes in satisfaction with communications over the period following discharge from hospital are also described and possible reasons for them are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Recall of medical advice: comprehensibility and specificity.

Two laboratory experiments are described in which volunteer subjects read advice on how to develop self-control over eating behaviour. Formulating the communications in terms of specific instructions rather than general rules and the use of simple language as determined by a readability formula led to increased recall of the advice. These findings were confirmed in a naturalistic setting in which the same material was presented orally to patients receiving treatment for obesity. The results of these investigations are believed to have implications for improving communications between doctors and their patients and possibly for increasing the degree to which patients comply with medical recommendations.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Patients' satisfaction and reported acceptance of advice in general practice.

Patients' views were sought by questionnaires and home visits on how satisfied they were with the care they received from their general practitioners and how much of the advice received they were prepared to accept. The results showed a high degree of satisfaction and a higher level than has been found in hospital. Studies like this may identify difficulties which some patients may have and help doctors to make difficult advice easier to follow.

Consumer Behavior↗