The relevance of personal characteristics for predicting
communication preferences seems to be limited, given that
we achieved a maximum explanation of variance of only
19%, despite considering many sociodemographic, medical,
pain-related, and psychologic variables. Therefore, physicians
will generally have to gain an idea of the patient’s
expectations in the respective treatment situation. The results
of our study show that, for older patients, a higher preference
for a personal communication style and a lower preference
for effective, open, and participatory communication can
be expected; however, the size of this effect is rather small,
and most patients aged over 70 years rate open and patientcentered
communication positively.
Providers must consider the fact that those with known
psychologic risk factors (eg, fear avoidance beliefs), extroverted
patients, and patients who are very self-confident in
their interaction with the physician demand the communicative
behavior measured with the KOPRA questionnaire to
a greater extent, ie, they prefer a physician who simultaneously
uses patient-centered and open communication, is
emotionally supportive, and occasionally discusses personal
circumstances with the patient