Patients' noncompliance and how doctors manage this.

The purpose of this study was to examine doctors' behavior towards patients' noncompliance and to explain it within the framework of frustration theory. Two groups of physicians participated. The first group of 30 was selected from a larger group, based on tape-recordings of patients' visits where obvious examples of noncompliance were found.

Doctor-patient interaction, patients' health behavior and effects of treatment.

Studies of doctor-patient communication and its consequences are usually limited to factors that may determine patients' compliance with doctors' instructions. But many patients besides or instead of following doctors' advice undertake additional activity in order to get well. The purpose of this study was to explore the whole range of patients' health behavior, its connection with the process of doctor-patient interaction (as an independent variable) and with the treatment results (as a dependent variable).