Article Figures & Data
Figures
- Figure 1
Overview of Patient-Doctor Depth-of-Relationship Scale development and validation.
a Of 189 patients, 93 were younger than 16 years; 45 did not attend/did not wait; 30 unable to complete questionnaire; 14 nonqualifying consultations; 7 other reasons.
- Figure 2
Patient-Doctor Depth-of-Relationship Scale.
- Figure 3
Distribution of patient-doctor depth-of-relationship scores.
- Figure 4
Predicted probability (unadjusted quadratic logistic regression model) of deep patient-doctor relationship with number of consultations.
Tables
- Table 1
Characteristics of Patients That Took Part in Patient-Doctor Depth-of-Relationship Scale Development and Validation
Employment, No. (%)a Education, No. (%) Stage No. of Patients Female No. (%) Mean Age, y (SD, Range) White (%) Employed Unemployed Retired Other None Primary Secondary Graduate Interviews (n=11) 5 (45.5) 61.5 (15.1, 33–79) 11 (100) 2 (18.2) 1 (9.1) 6 (54.5) 2 (18.2) 3 27.3) 7 (63.6) 1 (9.1) 0 (0) Pilot round 1 (n=375) 240 (65.2) 47.9 (19.1, 16–89) 351 (94.9) 196 (53.9) 10 (2.8) 83 (22.8) 75 (20.6) 92 (26.2) 163 (46.4) 49 (14.0) 47 (13.4) Pilot round 2 (n=154) 87 (56.9) 45.8 (16.7, 17–82) 147 (96.1) 78 (50.7) 3 (2.0) 26 (16.9) 47 (30.5) 47 (32.6) 76 (52.8) 14 (9.7) 7 (4.9) Main study (n=490) 285 (58.2) 52.6 (19.8, 16–93) 461 (96.2) 202 (42.0) 18 (3.7) 167 (34.7) 94 (19.5) 157 (33.3) 165 (35.0) 73 (15.5) 77 (16.3) Follow-up questionnaire (n=154) 90 (58.4) 55.2 (17.8, 17–87) 148 (96.7) 68 (44.4) 3 (2.0) 54 (35.3) 28 (18.3) 44 (29.5) 50 (33.6) 33 (22.2) 22 (14.8) -
↵a Employed = full or part-time, including self-employed; Other = looking after home or family, long-term career, unable to work due to long-term sickness or “other.”
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The Article in Brief
Patient-Doctor Depth-of-Relationship Scale: Development and Validation
Matthew J. Ridd, and colleagues
Background The ongoing relationship, or continuity, between doctor and patient is a key element of family medicine/general practice. Tools to measure the impact of continuity have tended to look at duration, rather than depth, of the relationship. This report presents a new patient self-completion instrument designed to measure the depth of the patient-doctor relationship.
What This Study Found The Patient-Doctor Depth-of-Relationship Scale can be used to evaluate the value of personal continuity. It has an eight-item scale with good internal reliability. Application of the scale finds an association between seeing the same doctor and a deep patient-doctor relationship, although the relationship appears to be nonlinear.
Implications
- Future research is needed to further establish the validity of the scale and examine a possible association between patient-doctor depth of relationship and improved patient care.
Supplemental Figure & Tables 1-2
Supplemental Figure 1. Test-retest data (Bland Altman plot).
Files in this Data Supplement:
- Supplemental data: Figure & Tables 1-2 - PDF file, 3 pages, 176 KB
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