ArticleBMC health services research2015
Exploring physiotherapists' personality traits that may influence treatment outcome in patients with chronic diseases: a cohort study.
Article in BMC health services research, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Profiling health professionals' personality traits, behaviour styles and emotional intelligence: a systematic review.BMC medical education · 2023Pooled it
- Observational
- Association Between Physical Therapists' Attitudes and Beliefs and the Functional Outcomes of Patients With Low Back Pain: A Multilevel Analysis Study.Physical therapy · 2025Article
- Do personal and behavioural characteristics of physiotherapy students predict performance during training and course completion?BMC medical education · 2023Article
- Impact of Physicians' Personalities and Behavioral Traits on Treatment-Related Decision-making for Elderly Acute Myeloid Leukemia.Journal of general internal medicine · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDuring treatment of patients with Chronic Diseases (CD) the therapist-patient interaction is often intense, and the strategies used during treatment require physiotherapists to assume a coaching role. Uncovering therapist factors that explain inter-therapist variation might provide tools to improve treatment outcome and to train future therapists. The purpose of this study was to explore the so-called 'therapist-effect', by looking at the influence of intrinsic therapist factors, specifically personality traits, on treatment outcome in patients with CD.
methodsA cohort study was performed using data from the NIVEL Primary Care Database (NPCD) in 2011-2012 and an additional questionnaire. Patients with CD (n = 393) treated by Dutch physiotherapists working in outpatient practices (n = 39) were included. Patient and treatment outcome variables were extracted from NPCD. The course of complaint was measured using the Numeric Rating Scale. Therapist variables were measured using a questionnaire consisting of demographics and the Big Five traits: Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Openness to experiences. Data were analysed using multilevel linear regression.
resultsOnly Neuroticism was found to be significant (Neuroticism F = 0.71, P = 0.01; therapist gender F = 0.72, P = 0.03; life events F = -0.54, P = 0.09; patient gender F = -0.43, P = 0.10; patient age F = 0.01, P = 0.27). Subgroup analyses of 180 patients with Osteoarthritis and 30 therapists showed similar results.
conclusionsThere are indications that patients with CD who are treated by therapists who tend to be calmer, more relaxed, secure and resilient have a greater reduction in severity of complaints compared to patients treated by therapists who show less of these traits. Being a male therapist and having experienced life events influence outcome positively. However, more extensive research is needed to validate the current findings.
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