Central Portuguese doctors’ agreement with the “ten commandments for patient-centred treatment”

Abstract

Background. The “Ten Commandments for patient-centred treatment” suggest a different approach to therapy. Objectives. To ascertain the level of agreement with the “Ten Commandments for patient-centred treatment” by physicians in Central Portugal, exploring differences by age group, sex and medical speciality. Material and methods. An online questionnaire in September of 2016, sent to doctors registered in the Central Regional Section of the Portuguese Medical Association, with weekly reminders to non-respondents. The English wording was translated to Portuguese, a questionnaire with a four-grade answer was created and its reliability determined. Variables such as sex, age group and medical specialty were considered. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed. Results. A representative yet convenient sample of 811 doctors participated. Their description is as follows: ≤ 35 years n = 203, ≥ 36 and ≤ 55 years n = 217 and ≥ 56 years n = 373, women n = 391 (49.2%), General Practice/Family Medicine (GP/FM) n = 301, medical specialty n = 303 and medico-surgical specialty n = 173. By medical specialty, for commandment 1, there is higher prevalence of “Disagree/Completely Disagree” in the GP/FM specialty (p < 0.001). By gender, for commandment 1, women vs men doctors “Disagree/Completely Disagree” proportion of 11.7% vs 6,4% (p = 0.003). For the younger age groups, there is a greater proportion of “Disagree/Completely Disagree” for Commandment 1 (p = 0.016), for Commandment 4 (p = 0.007), for Commandment 6 (p = 0.001), for Commandment 7 (p = 0.001) and for Commandment 8 (p = 0.020). Conclusions. There is vast agreement with the “Ten Commandments for patient-centred treatment” in central Portugal. For Commandments 1, 3 and 6, the proportion of “Disagree/Completely Disagree” is higher than for the remaining. There is a need for future investigations to explain the present results.