You are here

Article Text

Article menu
XML
General practice / Family practice
Original research
What attributes do patients prefer in a family physician? A cross-sectional study in a northern region of Portugal
  1. Joana Nuno1,2,
  2. Susana Fernandes1,
  3. Teresa Rei Silva3,
  4. Ana Catarina Guimarães4,
  5. Bernardo Morais Pereira5,
  6. Sara Laureano-Alves5,
  7. Isabel Cristina Vieira de Sousa6,
  8. Dinis Brito1,2,
  9. João Firmino-Machado7,8
  1. 1Family Health Unit 7fontes, Northern Regional Health Administration, Braga, Portugal
  2. 2ICVS/3B’s - PT Government Associate Laboratory, Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
  3. 3Family Health Unit Gualtar, Northern Regional Health Administration, Braga, Portugal
  4. 4Family Health Unit +Carandá, Northern Regional Health Administration, Braga, Portugal
  5. 5Family Health Unit Ruães, Northern Regional Health Administration, Braga, Portugal
  6. 6Family Health Unit Viatodos, Northern Regional Health Administration, Barcelos, Portugal
  7. 7EPIUnit -The Epidemiology Research Unit, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
  8. 8Western Oporto Public Health Unit, Northern Regional Health Administration, Porto, Portugal
  1. Correspondence to Dr Joana Nuno; joanamnuno{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Objectives To determine which modifiable and non-modifiable attributes patients prefer in a family physician, as well as to analyse participants’ characteristics associated with their choices.

Design Cross-sectional study.

Setting Family healthcare units (FHU) in the city of Braga and Barcelos (Northern Portugal).

Participants Adults aged 18 years or more, enrolled in the selected FHU.

Main outcome measures The preferred attributes were assessed with a questionnaire delivered in the FHU. These attributes included gender, age and nationality and the importance of being Portuguese, of greeting with a handshake, of welcoming in the waiting area, of using an identification badge and of wearing a white coat.

Results A total of 556 questionnaires were included in the analysis; 66% and 58% of the participants had no preference for the gender or age of the family physician, respectively. Using a multinomial logistic regression, male participants were 3.8 times more likely to have a preference for a male physician than having no preference, in comparison to female participants (OR 3.864, 95% CI 1.96 to 7.61). More than 69% of the participants considered greeting with a handshake, using an identification badge and wearing a white coat important or very important. There was a statistically significant association between being Portuguese and the major importance given to the use of an identification badge (β=0.68, 95% CI 0.23 to 1.12).

Conclusions Our data show that modifiable attributes of the family physician (greeting, presence of an identification badge and wearing a white coat) are important for patients. Potential changes in family physician attitude in consultation could ultimately affect patient–physician relationship.

  • primary care
  • social medicine
  • quality in health care
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-035130

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Supplementary materials

    • Supplementary Data

      This web only file has been produced by the BMJ Publishing Group from an electronic file supplied by the author(s) and has not been edited for content.

    Footnotes

    • Contributors JN, SF, ACG, TRS, SL-A, BMP, ICVdS and DB designed the study concept, wrote the protocol and collected the data. All authors contributed to the questionnaire validation (only face validity) and data collection. JN, SF and JF-M conducted the analyses. JN and SF drafted the first version of the manuscript. All authors helped to draft the manuscript, read and approve the final manuscript. All authors had full access to all data (including statistical reports and tables) in the study and can take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Ethics approval The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Northern Health Region of Portugal (number 55/2018).

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as online supplemental information. The questionnaire is available on request to the corresponding author.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.