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Patients' Attitudes Regarding Physical Characteristics of Medical Care Providers in Dermatologic Practices
Matthew H. Kanzler, MD;
David C. Gorsulowsky, MD
Arch Dermatol. 2002;138:463-466.
Objective To assess the present attitudes of patients toward physicians' physical
attributes.
Design Written survey offered to all patients seen during a 1-week period.
Setting Two outpatient dermatologic clinical practices (a county hospital and
a private practice).
Participants Of 315 patients offered the survey, 275 agreed to complete it.
Main Outcome Measures Opinions regarding physicians' demographic characteristics and opinions
regarding desirability of 19 and 18 appearance-related characteristics in
male and female physicians, respectively.
Results Analysis of the responses revealed 25 characteristics that were significantly
desirable or undesirable (defined as being selected desirable or undesirable
by at least 25% of respondents). Further analysis revealed that patients in
a private practice setting typically had more polar opinions about providers'
appearances than did patients from a large county hospital. Most patients
had no preference with regard to the sex, age, or race of their medical care
providers. Age and sex of the patient did not independently contribute significantly
to patient preferences, as determined by cross-tabulation analysis. Clinic
site (private practice vs county hospital clinic) alone was the sole or most
important predictor of preferences in 13 of the 25 significant characteristics.
Conclusions Several characteristics of providers' dress and grooming were important
to patients. There seemed to be little attitudinal change from similar studies
performed 2 decades ago. Cognizance of these preferences may facilitate better
interactions between medical care providers and patients.
From the Departments of Dermatology, Stanford University School of
Medicine, Stanford, Calif (Drs Kanzler and Gorsulowsky), and University of
California at San Francisco (Dr Gorsulowsky); and Division of Dermatology,
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose, Calif (Dr Kanzler).
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