Abstract
An important aspect of healthcare use and outcomes lies in the quality of the physician-patient relationship with better perceived quality leading to better outcomes (Deniz et al., 2021; Kelley et al., 2014; Olaisen et al., 2020; Samuel et al., 2020). There is a growing body of research suggesting a more active involvement of patients in medical decision-making, such as shared decision-making to improve the quality of physician-patient interactions (Deniz et al., 2021). Though patients report preferences to be involved in medical decision-making (Chewning et al., 2012), and research highlights the variability of these preferences across individual-specific factors (Say et al., 2006), it remains unclear how the general population is actually involved in medical decision-making and how the actual role and the preferences of this role in physician-patient relationships is influenced by social factors.
For instance, social norms surrounding the physician-patient relationship – such as expectations about how the physician-patient relationship ought to be (injunctive norm) and is perceived to be (descriptive norm) in society – may shape these preferences (Reid et al., 2010) and may either facilitate or hinder the active participation and involvement in medical decision-making by influencing how patients perceive their role in healthcare decisions and how physicians navigate their professional responsibilities and authority (Brabers et al., 2016). Given the challenges in directly observing physician-patient interactions across the population, these social norms may often be subject to significant misperception (Bursztyn & Yang, 2022).
The underlying study aims to gain a deeper understanding of how social norms shape the dynamics of the physician-patient relationship by investigating (i) the perception about the descriptive and injunctive norms regarding the physician-patient relationship, (ii) the actual norms regarding the role of patients in medical encounters, (iii) the preferences regarding this role and (iv) how the actual norms may affect these preferences among the general population.
References
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