Characterizing the impact of verbal communication and health literacy in the patient-surgeon encounter

Patients with limited health literacy (HL) have difficulty understanding written/verbal information. The quality of verbal communication is not well understood. Therefore, our aim was to characterize patient-surgeon conversations and identify opportunities for improvement. New colorectal patient-surgeon encounters were audio-recorded and transcribed. HL was measured. Primary outcomes were rates-of-speech, understandability of words, patient-reported understanding, and usage of medical jargon/statistics. Secondary outcomes included length-of-visit (LOV), conversation possession time, patient-surgeon exchanges, and speech interruptions. Significant variations existed between surgeons in rates-of-speech and understandability of words (p