Do Patients Perceive Surgeons Who Provide Personal Information as More Trustworthy and Empathetic?

Do Patients Perceive Surgeons Who Provide Personal Information ("Self-disclosure") as More Trustworthy and Empathetic?

Prior studies have shown that patient trust in their physician is associated with better health outcomes and lower levels of emotional distress. Patients who have low levels of trust in their physician are less satisfied and less likely to adhere to their physician recommendations. As such, there is a need to better understand factors related to patient trust in their physician.

Purpose: To understand whether patient awareness of a surgeon's personal background improves patient trust in their surgeon.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Trust
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Surgeon Personal Background

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 98
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 89 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients (age 18 years or greater) visiting a single orthopaedic hand surgeon
• English fluency and literacy
• Ability to take informed consent

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control Group; Information sheet with only their surgeon's educational background.
Experimental: Intervention; Experimental group will receive an information sheet with their surgeon's educational and personal background.	Other: Surgeon Personal Background; Experimental group will receive an information sheet with their surgeon's educational and personal background. Personal Background; Favorite outdoor activity/form of exercise; Favorite hobby; Family information (children, pets); Single sentence about how the clinician conceptualizes excellent patient care

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Wake Forest -Trust in Physician score	Before the clinic visit, the research assistant will give patients a sheet that gives them info on their surgeon. Control group will receive an information sheet with only their surgeon's educational background. Experimental group will receive an information sheet with their surgeon's educational and personal background. Immediately after the clinic visit, the research assistant will ask patients to complete Wake Forest Trust in physician survey. Response choices (coding) are: Strongly Agree (5), Agree (4), Neutral (3), Disagree (2), Strongly Disagree (1). Responses are summed (range 5-25) with higher scores indicating more trust.	Immediately after the clinic visit, patients are given the survey to complete.
Jefferson Scale of Perceived Physician Empathy	Before the clinic visit, the research assistant will give patients a sheet that gives them info on their surgeon. Control group will receive an information sheet with only their surgeon's educational background. Experimental group will receive an information sheet with their surgeon's educational and personal background. Immediately after the clinic visit, the research assistant will ask patients to complete the Jefferson Scale of Patient Perceptions of Physician Empathy. Each item is answered on a 7-point Likert-type scale (from Strongly Disagree = 1 to Strongly Agree = 7), with higher score indicating more empathy.	Immediately after the clinic visit, patients are given the survey to complete.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Texas at Austin

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Anticipated): January 1, 2020
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): April 1, 2020
• Study Completion (Anticipated): July 1, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 23, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 25, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): December 30, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 30, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 25, 2019
• Last Verified: December 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 2019-06-0047

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No