Assessment of the Influence of Physicians’ Attire on Surgical Patients’ Perception. Across-Sectional Study in Aabet Hospital, AddisAbeba, Ethiopia, 2021

Abstract

Background In Ethiopia, physicians commonly wear formal attire, surgical scrubs, casual attire, or business attire during patient care, but there is no evidence to show which attire is preferred within the patients. So this study aims to assess the influence of physicians’ attire on patients’ perceptions. Methodology After ethical approval, a cross-sectional study was conducted with written informed consent; data were collected and checked for its completeness, later entered into SPSS version 25 for statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics was presented with frequency, percentage, tables, graphs, and texts based on the nature of the data. All the four attires were compared using the Friedman test and pair wise comparisons were conducted with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons, and Mann–Whitney U -test was used to know the preferred attire on patients’ perception about physicians’ skill, with 95% confidence and a p-value of less than 0.05 were considered as statistically significant. Results In this study, out of the total respondents 66.7% are males and 71.9%, 50.3% of the respondents were degree or diploma holders, and aged 18–34 years respectively. Among participants’ 77.1% and 55.9% preferred formal attire and surgical scrub respectively. For male surgeons, formal attire and surgical scrub have an equal preference in surgical patients (p<0.001), but business and casual attire have no statistically significant difference. The patients’ preference in male formal physician attire in surgeon’s confidence, willingness to discuss confidential information and safeties of the surgeon were 76.2%, 75.7%, and 70.5% respectively, and for female surgeons, formal attire on surgical patients’ confidence in the surgeon, safety, and willingness to discuss confidential information were 74.9%, 73.8%, and 71.8% respectively. Conclusion Physician attire is one of the important factors that inspire surgical patient confidence, smartness, surgical skill, discussion of confidential information, and caring ability in physicians. Formal attire and surgical scrub were the most preferred physician’s outfits.

Is the perception of physicians based on the type and colour of attire?

“…Patients perceived women in feminine attire significantly less likely to perform the physical parts of surgery than women wearing scrubs. It is worth mentioning that correspondingly to other studies patients ranked physicians wearing a white coat with any attire as more competent and more likely to give a good surgical outcome than those without [3]. Models in a business attire (including skirts) without white coat were most frequently misidentified as hospital administrators.…”

“…Men were identified as surgeons significantly more frequently than women in similar clothing for all attire types except a business attire without a white coat [3]. A man in a business attire with w white coat was identified as a surgeon 79.4% of the time, whereas a woman wearing a white coat with business pants or skirt was identified as a surgeon 59.7% or 61.4% of the time, respectively [3]. Patients perceived women in feminine attire significantly less likely to perform the physical parts of surgery than women wearing scrubs.…”

“…Additianally, a study by Ejigu et al (2021) revealed similar gender bias. Men were identified as surgeons significantly more frequently than women in similar clothing for all attire types except a business attire without a white coat [3]. A man in a business attire with w white coat was identified as a surgeon 79.4% of the time, whereas a woman wearing a white coat with business pants or skirt was identified as a surgeon 59.7% or 61.4% of the time, respectively [3].…”

“…Models in a business attire (including skirts) without white coat were most frequently misidentified as hospital administrators. Suprisingly, women in scrubs with a white coat were judged more likely to give a good surgical outcome and more trustworthy than men in the same attire (12.8% versus 3.9%, P = 0.018; 14.4% versus 3.1%, P = 0.002, respectively) [3]. Furthermore, Dayani et al (2022) conducted a study with 316 participants regarding the perceptions of plastic surgeons.…”

“…[6]. In any healthcare setting unprofessional physicians' attire may incline patients not to follow physicians' advice, avoid follow-up visits and to feel dissatisfied with the care they received [3].…”