Mutual Role Expectations by Patients and General Practitioners-A Mixed Methods Study on Complementarity.

Patients and general practitioners differ in their understanding of patients' roles. These data suggest that a considerable proportion of the population lacks a clear and tangible idea of the active role they could play in consultations. Targeted information on the identified aspects of patient-provider communication may facilitate participatory behavior and positively impact the longitudinal quality of the patient-general practitioner relationship.