title: The Psychological Attitude of Patients toward Health Practitioners in Lebanon.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patients often complain about their doctor's attitude toward them. They describe the interaction that they have with some doctors as quick, cold, discourteous, or hardhearted. Although this does not apply to all Lebanese doctors, it does apply to some.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to (1) examine the general perception of satisfaction, trust, and openness that Lebanese patients hold toward the work, office, personal, and social characteristics of their doctors - physician or dentist; and (2) identify the aspects on which a Lebanese health practitioner should focus to improve his/her practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  A convenient sample of 450 individuals from an area housing nine hospitals and hundreds of private clinics in Greater Beirut were surveyed regarding the qualities of their health practitioners. They were asked to complete a nine-page, 85-item, anonymous, and voluntary questionnaire that dealt with the medical and dental practice in Lebanon. Participants were older than 18 years and mentally competent. None was physicians, dentists, or nurses. The questionnaire was open-ended and initially pretested and piloted among a random sample.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four hundred-fifteen (92%) individuals responded. Participants were from different ages, genders, geographical areas, educational backgrounds, and professions. The doctor traits most preferred by the Lebanese public were found to be: Empathy (90%), professionalism (87%), miscellaneous traits (86%), and academics (81%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results support the conventional wisdom that the idealized perception of a doctor as a care-giving, compassionate, knowledgeable, well-appearing, and healthy role model still holds true within the Lebanese community.
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Fouad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ayoub
authors.affiliation: Neurosurgery Department, Neuroscience Research Center, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Youssef
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fares
authors.affiliation: Neurosurgery Department, Neuroscience Research Center, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon ; Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Jawad
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fares
keywords: Dentist; Lebanon; doctor-patient relationship; empathy; physician; professionalism