Moore Malcolm, Chaudhary Ritesh
Broken Hill Department of Rural Health, University of Sydney, PO Box 457, Broken Hill, NSW 2880, Australia.
BMC Res Notes. 2013 Jan 29;6:31. doi: 10.1186/1756-0500-6-31.
Many people in western countries assume that privacy and confidentiality are features of most medical consultations. However, in many developing countries consultations take place in a public setting where privacy is extremely limited. This is often said to be culturally acceptable but there is little research to determine if this is true. This research sought to determine the attitudes of patients in eastern Nepal towards privacy in consultations. A structured survey was administered to a sample of patients attending an outpatients department in eastern Nepal. It asked patients about their attitudes towards physical privacy and confidentiality of information.
The majority of patients (58%) stated that they were not comfortable having other patients in the same room. A similar percentage (53%) did not want other patients to know their medical information but more patients were happy for nurses and other health staff to know (81%). Females and younger patients were more concerned to have privacy.
The results challenge the conventional beliefs about patients' privacy concerns in Nepal. They suggest that consideration should be given to re-organising existing outpatient facilities and planning future facilities to enable more privacy. The study has implications for other countries where similar conditions prevail. There is a need for more comprehensive research exploring this issue.
西方国家的许多人认为隐私和保密是大多数医疗咨询的特点。然而，在许多发展中国家，咨询是在公共环境中进行的，隐私极其有限。人们常说这在文化上是可以接受的，但几乎没有研究来确定这是否属实。这项研究旨在确定尼泊尔东部患者对咨询中隐私的态度。对尼泊尔东部一家门诊部的患者样本进行了结构化调查。调查询问了患者对身体隐私和信息保密的态度。
大多数患者（58%）表示，他们不希望其他患者在同一房间。类似比例（53%）的患者不希望其他患者知道他们的医疗信息，但更多患者愿意让护士和其他医护人员知道（81%）。女性和年轻患者更关注隐私。
研究结果挑战了关于尼泊尔患者隐私问题的传统观念。结果表明，应该考虑重新组织现有的门诊设施，并规划未来的设施，以实现更多的隐私。该研究对其他存在类似情况的国家具有启示意义。有必要进行更全面的研究来探讨这个问题。
