Influence of patients' self-respect on their experience of feeling respected in doctor–patient interactions

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the effect of patients' self-respect on their experience of feeling respected in doctor–patient interactions. It also explored influences of different behaviours of doctors on patients' experience of feeling respected. Forty-five participants were invited to identify with either a respect worthy or non-respect worthy self-description in random order and subsequently, to watch a series of ten video clips of doctor–patient interactions, while imagining they were the patients depicted. The video clips were designed to illustrate five behaviours of doctors that varied in terms of respectfulness. After watching each one, participants indicated how respected they felt on a visual analogue scale. Results showed a significant main effect of self-description on participants' feelings of being respected. Differences between the effects of doctors' behaviours on participants' feelings of being respected were also observed. The study thus showed that patients' self-respect is likely to have an impact on how respected they feel when interacting with their doctor. Implications of this for the quality of the doctor–patient relationship and patient health outcomes are raised. Implications of the respect shown by doctors are also discussed.

Keywords:

• self-respect
• doctor–patient
• feeling respected

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge assistance from Dr Jonathan Silverman and Dr Moira Stewart for providing us with communication skills videotapes and Mark Leake for technical support.