European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 10, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse To your health patients want More information from doctors by Gayle Young United press International generation ago. The women who Pali Nelly Sal in or. Marry s. Jonas s waiting room were largely if Iran or obstetrics and not inclined to question his diagnosis let alone treatment. Their children s generation is not quite so docile. They read medical reports in Ilia popular press and View the la Leal surgical techniques on television they Are much More informed than they were a generation ago even 10 years ago Jonas president Ollie american collage of obstetricians and gynaecologists said in an interview. They ask to stormed questions and want informed answers he said. Mostof them Don t want theold whatever you think Best doctor kind of a virtual explosion of medical news in the popular Media has created tension in Tho doctor s office arid changed probably for Good the Way the medical profession and patients View each other doctors said in interviews. Recent polls show the majority of patients belive doctors do not spend enough we answering their questions while doctors overestimate the time hey spend talking with pallens. In a poll released this month most doctors surveyed said their patients want More information and most admitted they Don t communicate that information very Well. there s real change going on Jonas said. Most think it s a Good thing Asl do. But i imagine there Are a Lew order fas noned physicians who Are having trouble the major problem today Between doctors and their patients May be the amount of time they spend together talking said doctors who study the health Field. In a recent study conducted at the University of California medical school at Irvine doctors overestimated by nine times the amount of Lime they actually spent providing information to heir patients. The study conducted by or. Howard , who teaches Medicine Al the school also showed that doctors Epand More Lime talking to women than men and More time with upper class Well educated Pallente than Wilh those perceived to be of a Tower class. Bill the study indicated All patients no Matte what their min fort to a University study indicates doctors spend More time talking to women than to men. Income or education level wanted More information from their doctors and were equally frustrated by their inability to get answers to their questions. Waitzkin said studies have shown a vast majority of patients from Ell walks of we have always wanted More information from their doctors it is just in the past decade they have been aggressive Abou demanding i. Doctors May be aware there to still a communication problem according to die results of a recent Survey conducted by Miles pharmaceuticals of wast Haven Conn. Almost two thirds of 300 doctors who responded said they did not communicate very Well with their patients and half of those believed it was because they diet not have adequate time to spend answering questions. Jonas and other doctors while conceding communication is beneficial to both patients and physicians also said doctors who spend More Lime with patients May be forced to see fewer patients a Day lessening their income. Meanwhile Waitzkin said prepaid health plans encourage doctors to sea As Many a aliens each Day As possible in order to maximize profits. The result is less time spent Wilh individual patients. The solution May be Lor doctors Logie their a aliens More information via pamphlets books and even videotapes. We Are feeling a lot More pamphlets hat can answer a patient s questions and which the patient can refer Back to As a resource Jonas said he said written material May also give Pali Enla an Opportunity it formulate questions they can ask when next they see their doctors. But Wall Kin said he does not believe pamphlets can Lake the place of Good patient to doctor dialogue and said it is up to the patients to make sure they receive the time they need our studies show most information Exchange is initiated by the doctor not the patient he said patients especially lower income have to speak up and ask-1 think they Are doing that More and More already but it s what they need to do if they really want after infection aids risk rises yearly by Lawrence k. Altman new York times time does not diminish the Chance of developing ads once someone has Bee infected Wilh the virus according to a new analysis of data. The longer one is injected the higher Are the chances of developing said or. George Rutherford of the san Francisco health department. Analysis of blood and data collected in san Francisco since 1978 suggests that the risk of developing aids increases yearly after infection with the virus dampening Hopes that rates of illness might plateau or even drop or so alter infection in fact the findings have led officials to conclude tentatively that the percentage of infected people who develop aids rises steadily Over the seven years alter infection. There does t seem to be anything obvious that people can do to Stop this disease progression said or. Harold s Wafle an aids epidemiologist at the centers for disease control who is working on the study with the san Francisco health department researchers he said had been unable to identify any Factor other than time that triggers the Onset of the disease the study prepared by the san Francisco health department and the Federal centers Tor disease control in Allan a indicates that Only 4 percent of people who become infected with the aids virus will develop the disease within three years but after five years the figure rises to 14 percent and alter seven years to 36 percent. The findings which Are scheduled to be presented this year at conferences on aids Are believed to provide the longest perspective on the progression of aids. Jaffa said the Low studies conducted on other groups had covered Shorter periods of time but their results look More or less the same it s in the same Ballpark he said. The study is rooted in another study of 6.700 homosexual and bisexual men who visited san Francisco health department venereal disease clinics and who agreed to participate in a study of hepatitis b and other infections unusually prevalent among homosexual men. After acquired immune deficiency syndrome was first identified in 1981, researchers realized the blood samples and other data stored irom the existing study would be unusually valuable in the fight against the fatal disease of the immune system the researchers studied a group of 04 men selected irom the 6,700, determining when infection with the aids virus occurred and when the Onset of disease began. The researchers have Confidence in the results because they used a Standard statistical analysis to take account of the Small size of the Sample and subgroups within it As Well As other variables that could have skewed the findings. The subjects were drawn irom a group of 359 men who had been selected in 1960 for a trial of a hepatitis b vaccine. Of the 359, �57 gave permission for ads tests to tuesday. March 10, 1987 be done on their Frozen Brood samples the 104 studied were the ones who showed evidence of aids infection their blood had not in 1980 shown signs of infection with hepatitis a which can be spread through sexual activity. The subjects were therefore assumed to Beless sexually Active than other san Francisco clinic visitors who have been similarly studied said Paul m. O Malley project director of the san Francisco department of health aids research study. Be the researchers findings about the Onset of aids symptoms after infection with the virus were not significantly different for the group presumed to be less sexually Active. Furthermore the just completed analysis provides data for a longer period than similar calculations made for the randomly selected group the results lend Lusher support to government predictions hat the number of cases now totalling 31,036. Will Rise sharply in future years. Officials of the . Public health service have Esli maled that by the end of 1991 270,000 americans will have contracted aids. O Malley said his team hoped to Start the first phase of experiments with two drugs or at and acyclovir to determine if hey will help prevent people infected with ads virus but without any symptoms irom developing the disease. The team is awaiting final approval of the experiments trom the food and drug administration. At has already been approved for experimental use on some classes of aids patients meanwhile plans Are. Being made to expand the san Francisco study to include All who remain alive among the 6,700 original participants the stars and stripes in Page 17
