Comparison of consultation features postulated to influence recall in telephone and face-to-face patients
| Features | Aspect of consultation | Telephone % (n=50) | Face-to-face % (n=94) | p Value |
| % | % | |||
| Repetition of instructions/advice (% yes) | Diagnosis | 11 | 17 | 0.45 |
| Advice | 28 | 47 | 0.04 | |
| Prognosis | 2 | 7 | 0.37 | |
| Safety-net | 17 | 14 | 0.80 | |
| Did the general practitioner (GP) check patient understanding (% yes) | Diagnosis | 0 | 2 | 0.80 |
| Advice | 8 | 2 | 0.19 | |
| Prognosis | 0 | 0 | – | |
| Safety-net | 0 | 0 | – | |
| Did the GP ask the patient to repeat advice? (% yes) | Advice | 0 | 0 | – |
| Safety-net | 0 | 0 | – | |
| Summarising advice at end of consultation (% yes) | 17 | 15 | 0.96 | |
| Did the GP use technical language without explaining meaning? (% yes) | Diagnosis | 4 | 8 | 0.56 |
| Advice | 0 | 3 | 0.53 | |
| Did the GP use specific (eg, it will clear in 3 days) or general language (eg, it will clear in a few days) or both (no advice/specific/general/both) | Advice | 8/75/17/0 | 8/77/13/2 | 0.70 |
| Prognosis | 83/13/4/0 | 71/11/18/0 | 0.08 | |
| Safety-net | 57/21/21/0 | 60/17/23/0 | 0.82 | |
| Did the GP make use of written material (if mentioned on the audio recording)? (% yes) | 0 | 3 | 0.53 |
Figures shown are percentages of consultations with each feature present, except for the questions on specific or general advice, where the figures are percentages showing no advice/specific/general/both. Some consultations used more than one strategy.