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Facilitating Patient Understanding in the Treatment of Growth Delay

Brian Stabler

Randall W. Williams

Louis E. Underwood

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Effective physician-patient communication is often critical to the success of therapy of an illness. It has been shown that childrens' understanding of their illness is related to their stage of cognitive development, emotional maturity, and the level of communication between doctor and patient. Using a simple visual technique, we have demonstrated that nearly 45 percent of growth delayed children and their families overestimated their height in relation to peers and nearly 80 percent have unrealistic expectations of hGH therapy. This could be corrected to a significant degree by using the same visual aid in combination with family conferences. The results of this study have implications for the nature of physician-patient communications in other disorders.

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