What is it about?
The doctor asks targeted questions to elicit the patient’s motivations, strengths, internal resources, and to focus the interview around these. The quality and quantity of the patient’s change talk is related to better outcomes. In addition, the interview allows the patient to express ambivalent feelings and doubts about the change. The doctor should use various communication strategies to resolve this ambivalence. Furthermore, establishing a good doctor–patient relationship is the cornerstone of the motivational interview. An optimal relationship can evoke change talk and reduce the patient’s resistance, which can also result in a better outcome.
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Why is it important?
Public health data show that early mortality could be prevented by smoking cessation, reduced alcohol consumption, regular exercise, healthy diet and increased adherence. Doctor–patient encounters often highlight these aspects of health behavior.
Perspectives
The goal of the motivational interviewing is to focus on the ‘why’ to change health behavior rather than the ‘how’, and to utilize internal motivation instead of persuasion. This is the reason why motivational interview has become a widely-accepted evidence based approach.
David Pócs
University of Szeged, Faculty of Medicine
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Magatartás-változtatás az egészségügyben: a motivációs interjú, Orvosi Hetilap, August 2017, Akademiai Kiado,
DOI: 10.1556/650.2017.30825.
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