Patient-rated physicians' empathy and its determinants in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: Patients' perception of their physician's empathy influences their compliance with treatment and the resulting quality of life. We aimed to measure the patient-rated empathy of physicians and to determine patient-level factors associated with it. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This hos...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Family & Community Medicine 2019-09, Vol.26 (3), p.199-205
Main Authors: Alzayer, Zainab, Abdulkader, Rizwan, Jeyashree, Kathiresan, Alselihem, Ahmad
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ambulatory care facilities
Behavior
Empathy
Family medicine
Health aspects
Influence
Medical care quality
Original
Outpatients
Patient compliance
patient rated
Patient satisfaction
physician empathy
Physician-patient relations
Saudi Arabia
Social aspects
Surgery
Surveys
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Summary:BACKGROUND: Patients' perception of their physician's empathy influences their compliance with treatment and the resulting quality of life. We aimed to measure the patient-rated empathy of physicians and to determine patient-level factors associated with it. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This hospital-based cross-sectional study enrolled adult (≥18 years) patients attending the outpatient clinics of the departments of family medicine, internal medicine, and surgery. We measured patients' rating of their physician's empathy using the Jefferson Scale of Patient's Perception of Physician Empathy questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS v 23.0; categorical variables were presented as frequencies and percentages, and all quantitative variables were presented as mean and SD. Associations were explored by Chi-square test and Student's t-test. Regression analysis was performed to identify factors significantly associated with the empathy score; P< 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Of a total of 390 patients with a mean (standard deviation [SD]) age of 40.5 (13.6) years, 189 (48.5%) were male. The mean (SD) total patient-rated physician empathy score was 26.6 (6.0). Multilevel linear regression modeling revealed that having a health professional in the family, suffering from an acute illness (as compared to chronic illness), consulting a physician recommended by relatives/friends, trusting the physicians' expertise, shorter (
ISSN:2230-8229
1319-1683
2229-340X
2229-340X
DOI:10.4103/jfcm.JFCM_66_19