Physicians' interpretation of the believability of patients' statements on adherence was another major factor in the communication process.
However, we suggest they be supplemented with an enhanced focus on "de-shaming" techniques, the provision of a broadened palette of question styles, and some conscious strategies for sensibly handling low believability of patient statements on adherence.
It emerged that physicians had individual communication patterns, which were not only determined by their perceptions about patients' adherence, but also strongly influenced by their perceptions about the awkwardness of discussing adherence with patients and their perceptions about the believability of patients' statements on adherence.
Some physicians felt that patient statements on adherence were generally believable: "I actually believe what patients tell me" (Cph1), and physicians could even seem torn between their suspicion of poor adherence and an almost moral obligation to trust patients.
Physicians virtually always believed in statements of poor adherence.
Physicians responded to patients' statements of good adherence with low believability in three ways: Okaying, circumventive dialoguing, and confronting.
Provided that other criteria are complied with, such as providing a clear statement of responsibilities and adherence to the principle of transparency, such compensation will also benefit from the planned increase in legal certainty.
When physicians perceived the believability of a statement on good adherence to be high, they would usually briefly acknowledge the answer, perhaps with praise, a warning about the possible consequences of non-adherence, or a question about side effects.
The CONSORT statement was excluded, as evaluations of adherence to CONSORT had previously been reviewed.
We attempted to decrease social desirability bias with a statement commenting on the difficulty of adherence before asking our questions.
They incorrectly quote the official statement of the American Thoracic Society on CPAP adherence tracking systems as a reference to support this anecdotal evidence (5).
