Patients' attitude toward consultations by a physician without a white coat in Japan.
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.
Ikusaka
M
M
Division of General Internal Medicine, Saint Marianna University Hospital, Kawasaki, Kanagawa.
Kamegai
M
M
Sunaga
T
T
Narita
N
N
Kobayashi
H
H
Yonenami
K
K
Watanabe
M
M
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