title: Patients' attitudes to the relevance of nonmedical problems in family medicine care.
abstract: A questionnaire was designed to document middle-aged patients' attitudes toward their family physicians' approach to their problems of daily living. Middle-aged patients were studied because they face numerous adaptational challenges and receive substantial medical care. Almost 90 percent of 116 patients interviewed indicated that they wanted to be asked about nonmedical problems as measured by life events, with this preference being more common among those under 55 years of age. Physicians expressed comfort in inquiring about life events; however, the patients reported that they were asked about such issues rarely or only occasionally. Although over two thirds of patients felt their physicians were sufficiently aware of their life events, those who recalled frequent questions by their physician were most likely to feel their physician was sufficiently aware. Implications of these findings on the physician-patient relationship are discussed.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires