Language use in the informed consent discussion for emergency procedures.

BACKGROUND: The field of health literacy has closely examined the readability of written health materials to optimize patient comprehension. Few studies have examined spoken communication in a way that is comparable to analyses of written communication.

PURPOSE: The study objective was to characterize the structural elements of residents' spoken words while obtaining informed consent.

METHODS: Twenty-six resident physicians participated in a simulated informed consent discussion with a standardized patient. Audio recordings of the discussions were transcribed and analyzed to assess grammar statistics for evaluating language complexity (e.g., reading grade level). Transcripts and time values were used to assess structural characteristics of the dialogue (e.g., interactivity).

RESULTS: Discussions were characterized by physician verbal dominance. The discussions were interactive but showed significant differences between the physician and patient speech patterns for all language complexity metrics.

CONCLUSIONS: In this study, physicians spoke significantly more and used more complex language than the patients.