The Article in Brief

Background: Do cultural factors affect trust in the relationship between patient and doctor? This study examined a variety of factors related to trust in the patient-doctor relationship for Japanese individuals from Japan and for Japanese Americans.
What This Study Found: Among Japanese and Japanese Americans, the following characteristics are related to having more trust in their doctor: being married, being more religious, having a longer relationship with a doctor, and being less interested in making independent medical decisions. For Japanese Americans, adapting to Western culture and being of an ethnic background similar that of the doctor were related to having more trust, while having to change doctors because of insurance was related to less trust.
Implications:
• These characteristics can alert doctors to patients who might have lower levels of trust.
• Doctors may need to make special efforts to build trust with patients who are of different ethnic backgrounds.
• Training doctors to understand and accept different cultural norms may help them build trust with patients of different ethnic backgrounds.