title: Patients' attitude toward consultations by a physician without a white coat in Japan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To know how Japanese patients perceive their physicians without a white coat during consultations.
  
  
  METHODS
  The patients who visited a university clinic were divided into two groups: those seen by a physician in a white coat (the white-coat group) and those seen by a physician in private clothes (the private-clothes group). Questionnaires were distributed to the patients, which asked the tension and satisfaction of consultations as well as their preference for physician's attire. The answers of the white-coat group were compared with those of the private-clothes group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The percentage of new patients who felt tense during consultations was greater in the white-coat group (42%) than in the private-clothes group (33%). Seventy-one percent of the patients in the white-coat group preferred physicians in a white coat whereas only 39% preferred so in the private-clothes group (p<0.0001). However, the degree of patients' satisfaction for the consultation showed no statistical difference between the groups. Sixty-nine percent of the patients older than or equal to 70 years preferred a white coat while 52 percent of the patients younger than 70 years preferred so (p=0.002).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Physician's white coats did not influence the satisfaction with the consultations for most Japanese patients in a university clinic, although elderly patients as well as those seen by a physician in a white coat tended to prefer the white coat to the private clothes. Furthermore, practice without a white coat might reduce patients' tension during their first consultation.
authors.affiliation: Division of General Internal Medicine, Saint Marianna University Hospital, Kawasaki, Kanagawa.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ikusaka
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kamegai
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sunaga
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Narita
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yonenami
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Watanabe
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D003020:Clothing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires