Patient-Doctor Depth of Relationship Scale validation and its influence on the outcomes: what is the importance of emotional intelligence when approaching the patient?

Abstract

Background: The patient-doctor relationship (DPR), promotes shared decision-making and patient-centered care, implying emotional intelligence and good communication, leading to positive health outcomes. Objective: To culturally adapt the Patient-Doctor Depth of Relationship Scale (PDDR) and convergently validate with the Patient Enablement Instrument (PEI) to ascertain the correlation between PDR and enablement. Methods: Cross-cultural adaptation process of the PDDR questionnaire to European Portuguese, through translation, linguistic verification, and reverse translation and also its understandability. Convergent validation with the Patient Enablement Instrument (PEI), after their doctor’s appointment, in a general practice/family medicine health unit. Context information, such as gender, age, living status, educational level, monthly income, Socioeconomic Deprivation Index (SEDI), and clinical appointment with the usual doctor, was also collected. Results: PDDR showed good understandability and acceptance and strong internal consistency (Cronbach’s α=0.785; intraclass correlation coefficient=0.785). A total of 81 patients participated in the study, most of them female (70.4%). There was a significant difference in the PDDR total score depending on whether the appointment had been with the usual doctor (p<0.001). Both a weak positive non-significant correlation between PDDR and SEDI total scores (ρ=0.300; p=0.790) and a moderate significant negative correlation between PDDR total score and PEI (ρ=-0.396; p<0.001) were found. Conclusion: The cross-cultural adaptation of the PDDR questionnaire to European Portuguese was carried out. PDDR proved to be a reasonable measure of the patient-doctor relationship, allowing greater patient enablement when a deeper patient-doctor relationship exists.