Health communication

When it comes to health communication, people have very different preferences and competences. We have used a family of instruments to help people describe what type of communication they find important. The measurements include a rating of the importance of open communication and emotionally supportive communication. We have also assessed two indicators of competence in health communication. These measurements include both objective communication competences and the patients’ belief in their competence (self-efficacy). These measurements are relatively new, but have been validated for low back pain patients, patients with cancer, patients with fibromyalgia syndrome and now, patients who undergo major surgery. For more information about the measurement you may refer to the original research papers (see references).