Communicating with Clinicians on Fasting during Ramadan: The Patients’ Perspective

Caring for millions of Muslim patients who decide to fast during Ramadan can be challenging for clinicians. Using a theory-guided approach, this study explores Muslim patients’ perspectives on factors influencing communication with clinicians in relation to fasting during Ramadan. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of patients in Egypt (9) and the USA (8). Participants were purposefully sampled to assure variance in age, gender, education, decision to fast and ethnicity. Data emerging from narratives were mapped to constructs within the Linguistic Model of Patient Participation in Care (LMOPPC). Using framework analysis, iterative sampling and analysis continued until saturation. Drawing on LMOPPC, participants’ narratives were mapped and clustered into patient participation and quality of care; predisposing factors (perceptions about fasting and its significance including sense of spiritual benefit when fasting and sense of guilt when not fasting, prior experiences including prior conversations with clinicians on fasting and experience of fasting while sick, patients’ personality and locus of control, belief in the legitimacy of participation, motivations and perception of need to communicate with clinicians about fasting, provider verbal and nonverbal responses, and provider–patient rapport); and enabling factors (knowledge about the topic and repertoire of communicative skills, presence of companions during appointment, and timing of appointments). The LMOPPC framework provided insight into patients’ perspectives on barriers and facilitators for communication with clinicians about fasting during Ramadan. It is important for stakeholders to consider those issues when implementing interventions aiming to adopt a concordant approach in providing care for this group of patients.