Abstract
Medical decision-making processes in primary care are influenced by defensive medical practice. This involves a high possibility for negative consequences on many levels, for example, patient's health, health care system costs and a crisis of trust in the patient-doctor relationship. Aim of this review was to identify factors of defensive medicine-based decision-making in primary care. This scoping review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping reviews(PRISMA-ScR) guidelines and included systematic research on MEDLINE, Google Scholar and two German databases for additional grey literature. References provided further literature. Articles in English and German published from 1 January 1982to 15 June 2022 were assessed. From 911 publications screened, 13 publications [6 qualitative studies and 7 quantitative (3 cross-sectional) studies]were included. In these, four main categories of factors influencing defensive medical practice were identified: (social) media, patients adopting a consumer attitude, health care system based working conditions and physician's tolerance for uncertainty. Pressure deriving from these four different sources is exerted on the general practitioner and may result in a defensive medical decision behaviour. Four categories on influencing factors of defensive medicine could be identified. Strategies to tolerate uncertainty should be trained in under- and postgraduate training.
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
