Primary Care Physicians' Discussion of Emotional Distress and Patient Satisfaction

Objectives: To assess: a) the prevalence and determinants of self-reported emotional distress in the Israeli population; b) the rate of self-reported discussion of emotional distress with family physicians; and c) the association between such discussions and patient satisfaction with care. Method: D...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of psychiatry in medicine 2007-01, Vol.37 (3), p.331-345
Main Authors: Gross, Revital, Brammli-Greenberg, Shuli, Tabenkin, Hava, Benbassat, Jochanan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Arabs
Biological and medical sciences
Chronic illnesses
Communication
Cross-Sectional Studies
Emotional disorders
Ethnicity
Family physicians
Federal court decisions
Female
Health Care Costs
Health Status
Humans
Interviews as Topic
Israel - epidemiology
Logistic Models
Male
Medical sciences
Mental health care
Middle Aged
Patient Satisfaction
Physician-Patient Relations
Physicians
Physicians, Family - statistics & numerical data
Primary care
Primary Health Care - standards
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Quality of care
Retrospective Studies
Sex Factors
Stress, Psychological - epidemiology
Therapeutical relation and framework
Treatments
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Objectives: To assess: a) the prevalence and determinants of self-reported emotional distress in the Israeli population; b) the rate of self-reported discussion of emotional distress with family physicians; and c) the association between such discussions and patient satisfaction with care. Method: Design: Retrospective, cross-sectional survey that was conducted through structured telephone interviews in Hebrew, Arabic, and Russian. This study was part of a larger study assessing patients' perceptions of the quality of health services. Participants: A representative sample of 1,849 Israeli citizens aged 22 to 93 (response rate: 84%). Independent variables: Gender, age, ethnicity (spoken language), education, income, self-reported chronic disease, self-reported episode(s) of emotional distress during the last year, and having discussed emotional distress with the family physician. Outcome measure: satisfaction with care. Results: 28.4% reported emotional distress and 12.5% reported discussion of emotional distress with a primary care physician in the past year. Logistic regression identified female gender, Arab ethnicity, low income, and chronic illness as independent correlates of emotional distress. These as well as Russian speakers and having experienced emotional distress during the past year were identified as independent correlates of discussion of emotional distress with the family physician. Patients who reported discussion of emotional distress with their family physician were significantly more satisfied with care. Conclusions: Encouraging physicians to detect and discuss emotional distress with their patients may increase patient satisfaction with care, and possibly also improve patients' well-being and reduce health care costs.
ISSN:0091-2174
1541-3527
DOI:10.2190/PM.37.3.i