Patient-doctor depth-of-relationship scale: the doctor’s perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32385/rpmgf.v40i4.13787Keywords:
Doctor-patient relationship, General practice, Person-centered medicine, Self-evaluationAbstract
Introduction: The doctor-patient relationship allows the development of a therapeutic alliance based on an environment of trust and shared responsibility and positively impacts prognosis. This relationship must be studied in general practice (GP).
Objectives: To carry out the cultural adaptation and concurrent validation of the Physician-Patient Depth of Relationship scale (PDDR) in European-spoken Portuguese, allowing the doctor-patient retrospective self-assessment from the physician’s standpoint.
Methods: The cultural adaptation process began by translating the PDDR scale into European Portuguese and modifying it to focus on the physician’s perspective. Afterward, the questionnaire was administered to a convenience sample of GP physicians, both in written and oral form, for reliability study purposes. Concurrent validation of the scale was carried out with the Person-Centered Medicine (PCM) scale for physicians through a cross-sectional observational study by administering both scales to GP residents and attending physicians in the Central region. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed, with a probability difference value of p<0.05 considered statistically significant.
Results: The PDDR scale demonstrated good consistency (α=0.840 and α=0.889) and a positive and moderate correlation with the PCM scale for physicians (ρ=0.458, p<0.001). The average score was 21.8±5.51 points, with 36.7% scoring below the 33rd percentile (PDDR≤20), 42.2% scoring above the 67th percentile (PDDR≥24), and 4.4% of physicians scoring the maximum (PDDR=32). Statistically significant differences were found between age groups (p=0.004), career positions (p=0.011), and regularity of patient follow-up (p=0.018), but not for the variables of sex and type of consultation.
Discussion and Conclusion: The PDDR scale for the physician has shown to be a reliable and valid instrument with good internal consistency, quick to complete, and suitable for evaluating the depth of the doctor-patient relationship from the physician’s perspective in GP consultations.
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