The Relative Importance of Patient and Physician Characteristics on Physicians’ Likelihood to Provide Self-Management Support to Patients

Abstract

Abstract Background Person-Centered Care (PCC) strives to treat patients as individuals and as equal partners in decision-making. However, PCC faces the barrier of physicians not supporting their patients’ self-management and remaining to adhere to a paternalistic decision-making approach. Physicians sometimes adhere to a paternalistic decision-making style because they underestimate the extent to which patients can take responsibility for their health. This study aimed to investigate the relative importance of two patient characteristics (a patient’s education level and social support) and one physician characteristic (work experience) on physicians’ likelihood to provide self-management support to patients.

Methods The study consisted of a quantitative research design using secondary data from a factorial survey from 2017, administered by University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU). The study sample consisted of 47 General Practitioners (GPs) and 13 GPs in training. A multinominal logistic regression was used to create a model of the relationship between the predictor variables (education level, social support, and work experience) and physicians’ likelihood of providing self-management support to patients.

Results This study shows that a high education level (vs. low education level) is the only patient characteristic in this study that has a significant effect on physicians’ likelihood of providing self-management support to patients, Neutral (p = .025), and Likely (p = .021). While patients’ social support and physician work experience do not significantly affect this likelihood.

Conclusion This study shows that physicians are more likely to provide self-management support to patients with a high education level vs. low education level. The patient's characteristic of social support and the physician's characteristic of work experience had no significant effect.

Implications Suggested future interventions include training for physicians (in training) to familiarize themselves with PCC and become aware of their implicit bias, and decision-making styles concerning patients’ education level. Furthermore, a PCC moment during a consult could be scheduled which allows the patient the opportunity to inform the physician on their circumstances to ensure adherence to PCC.