Department of Psychology, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA.
School of Systems and Enterprises, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, USA.
Med Decis Making. 2024 Aug;44(6):617-626. doi: 10.1177/0272989X241262241. Epub 2024 Aug 2.
Health care interactions may require patients to share with a physician information they believe but is incorrect. While a key piece of physicians' work is educating their patients, people's concerns of being seen as uninformed or incompetent by physicians may lead them to think that sharing incorrect health beliefs comes with a penalty. We tested people's perceptions of patients who share incorrect information and how these perceptions vary by the reasonableness of the belief and its centrality to the patient's disease.
We recruited 399 United States Prolific.co workers (357 retained after exclusions), 200 Prolific.co workers who reported having diabetes (139 after exclusions), and 244 primary care physicians (207 after exclusions). Participants read vignettes describing patients with type 2 diabetes sharing health beliefs that were central or peripheral to the management of diabetes. Beliefs included true and incorrect statements that were reasonable or unreasonable to believe. Participants rated how a doctor would perceive the patient, the patient's ability to manage their disease, and the patient's trust in doctors.
Participants rated patients who shared more unreasonable beliefs more negatively. There was an extra penalty for incorrect statements central to the patient's diabetes management (sample 1). These results replicated for participants with type 2 diabetes (sample 2) and physician participants (sample 3).
Participants believed that patients who share incorrect information with their physicians will be penalized for their honesty. Physicians need to be educated on patients' concerns so they can help patients disclose what may be most important for education.
Understanding how people think they will be perceived in a health care setting can help us understand what they may be wary to share with their physicians.People think that patients who share incorrect beliefs will be viewed negatively.Helping patients share incorrect beliefs can improve care.
医疗保健互动可能需要患者向医生提供他们认为但不正确的信息。虽然医生的一项主要工作是教育患者，但人们担心被医生视为无知或无能，这可能使他们认为分享不正确的健康信念会带来惩罚。我们测试了人们对分享不正确信息的患者的看法，以及这些看法如何因信念的合理性及其与患者疾病的相关性而有所不同。
我们招募了 399 名美国 Prolific.co 工作人员（排除后保留了 357 名），200 名报告患有糖尿病的 Prolific.co 工作人员（排除后保留了 139 名）和 244 名初级保健医生（排除后保留了 207 名）。参与者阅读描述 2 型糖尿病患者分享与糖尿病管理相关或不相关的健康信念的案例。信念包括合理或不合理的真实和不正确陈述。参与者对医生如何看待患者、患者管理疾病的能力以及患者对医生的信任进行了评分。
参与者对分享更不合理信念的患者评价更差。对于与患者糖尿病管理相关的不正确陈述（样本 1），会有额外的惩罚。这些结果在 2 型糖尿病患者（样本 2）和医生参与者（样本 3）中得到了复制。
参与者认为，与医生分享不正确信息的患者将因诚实而受到惩罚。医生需要接受有关患者担忧的教育，以便帮助患者披露可能对教育最重要的信息。
了解人们如何看待他们在医疗保健环境中的看法可以帮助我们了解他们可能对与医生分享的信息有所警惕。人们认为，分享不正确信念的患者将受到负面评价。帮助患者分享不正确的信念可以改善护理。
