NEW PRESCRIPTION: LISTEN TO WHAT YOUR DOCTOR SAYS.

Byline: Angela La Voie Medical Tribune News Service

Listen up: a new study suggests that patients frequently forget what their doctors tell them - or that they aren't listening in the first place.

In a study of 566 patients ages 18 to 92 who underwent comprehensive physical examinations at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., 68 percent of patients failed to report the conditions they were diagnosed with on questionnaires completed only weeks after their visit to the doctor.

Patients were least likely to recall being diagnosed with conditions such as arthritis, obesity and an underactive thyroid gland, according to the findings, published in the December issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

The researchers said that the poor patient-doctor agreement about the patients' health observed in the study probably stems from a variety of factors, including patient misunderstanding of the medical terminology doctors use, ``selective listening'' by the patient, and patient denial of the presence of health issues such as obesity and tobacco use.

To ensure better patient-doctor communication, the researchers, led by Dr. Sidna M. Scheitel, a general internist in the division of community internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic, recommended that doctors send patients letters summarizing the condition of their health or take other measures to boost patients' knowledge of their health.

To better manage health problems, ``patients must be more involved in decisions about their own medical care, including the important aspect of defining their problems,'' said Dr. Barbara Starfield, a researcher in the department of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and Hygiene in Baltimore, who wrote an accompanying editorial.

It's just as important for doctors to listen to patients as it is for patients to listen to doctors, she said, adding that doctors overlook 25 percent of complaints raised by patients.

When patients' concerns are not addressed by a doctor, a patient may dismiss whatever else the doctor is saying, she said.

One means of better involving patients in the management of their health is having patients write down their medical complaints for the doctor to review during an office visit, Starfield said.

``But nothing can really substitute for the long-term doctor-patient relationship,'' she added.

``The better people know their doctors, and the better their doctors know them, the more a patient is likely to disclose and the more understanding the doctor and patient are likely to share,'' she explained.