Identifying teachable moments for health behavior counseling in primary care.

OBJECTIVE: Situations with potential to motivate positive change in unhealthy behavior have been called 'teachable moments'. Little is known about how they occur in the primary care setting.

METHODS: Cross-sectional observational design. Audio-recordings collected during 811 physician-patient interactions for 28 physicians and their adult patients were analyzed using conversation analysis.

RESULTS: Teachable moments were observed in 9.8% of the cases, and share three features: (1) the presence of a concern that is salient to the patient that is either obviously relevant to an unhealthy behavior, or through conversation comes to be seen as relevant; (2) a link that is made between the patient's salient concern and a health behavior that attempts to motivate the patient toward change; and (3) a patient response indicating a willingness to discuss and commit to behavior change. Additionally, we describe phenomena related to, but not teachable moments, including teachable moment attempts, missed opportunities, and health behavior advice.

CONCLUSIONS: Success of the teachable moment rests on the physician's ability to identify and explore the salience of patient concerns and recognize opportunities to link them with unhealthy behaviors.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: The skills necessary for accomplishing teachable moments are well within the grasp of primary care physicians.