Abstract
ObjectiveTo assess the quality of the doctor-patient relationship (DPR) in China and possible influencing factors during the COVID-19 period from the patient’s perspective.MethodsAn online survey was carried out nationwide from March 12, 2020 to March 30, 2020 in China via a convenience sampling strategy. Patients who met the inclusion criteria were invited to complete a questionnaire regarding the quality of DPR, including sociodemographic information, the Patient-Doctor Relationship Questionnaire (PDRQ-9), and influencing factors for DPR during the pandemic.ResultsA total of 1903 patients were included. Our result showed that participants had a higher PDRQ-9 score during the COVID-19 pandemic (4.18 ± 0.51) than that before the COVID-19 pandemic (3.86 ± 0.67). Importance-performance analysis (IPA) revealed that doctor-patient communication, patient satisfaction, consultation time, doctor’s attitude, and medical knowledge were specific aspects that needed to be prioritized to improve the DPR. Multiple linear regression analysis suggested that positive media reports, telemedicine, and national policies had a significantly positive effect on the DPR during the pandemic (P < 0.05).ConclusionIn general, the DPR had been improved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research found the key points that needed to be prioritized to improve the DPR during the pandemic, which may provide effective suggestions for building a harmonious DPR in the future.
Highlights
The doctor-patient relationship (DPR) plays a crucial role in health care, as it is closely associated with treatment adherence, patient satisfaction, and treatment outcome [1,2,3,4]
Differences in DPR before and during the pandemic The results showed that the score of each item and the total average score of the Patient-doctor relationship questionnaire (PDRQ-9) before and during the pandemic were at a level of about 4 points, indicating the respondents generally believed that the DPR in China was at a good level
Paired-sample t test revealed significant differences in scores of almost all the items and the average total score before and during COVID-19 (P < 0.05), indicating that the respondents believed that the DPR during the pandemic was better than before the pandemic (Table 2)
Summary
The doctor-patient relationship (DPR) plays a crucial role in health care, as it is closely associated with treatment adherence, patient satisfaction, and treatment outcome [1,2,3,4]. It is believed that DPR can be restricted or promoted in different dimensions, i.e., the quality and type, which might affect how both the medical staff and patients view a given medical event [6]. The. Zhou et al BMC Family Practice (2021) 22:255 disease caused by SARS CoV2 soon spread across many countries [8] and caused over-whelming challenges in healthcare service delivery globally in many ways [9,10,11,12,13], including limited resources, appropriate priority setting, availability of medical care, isolation of doctors and patients, information sharing, etc., resulting in disproportional psychological [14] and well-being concerns [15] on both medical staff and patients. We may infer that the DPR during the pandemic might have been altered
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