Effects of Interrole Congruence on Pharmacist-Patient Communication

Data from 231 pharmacist-patient encounters in 12 community pharmacies were analyzed to test if there were differences in components of communication under conditions of role congruence and role incongruence. Relations among patient age, new or refill prescription status, and role congruence/incongruence were explored to help understand why role incongruence might occur between pharmacists and patients. Average length and content of communication for encounters with interrole congruence were 74 sec and 4.1 types of information, respectively, compared with only 36 sec and 3.0 types of information for those with interrole incongruence, t(229) = 3.5, p <. 05 and t(229) = 3.7, p <. 05, for each respective comparison. Interrole incongruence was more common between pharmacists and older patients. When patient age was controlled, there was no relation between prescription status and role congruence/incongruence. Older patients may prefer to talk about medications only with their physician and not their phaimacist, which might account for older people comprising the incongruence group.