Trial reportBMC family practice2021
Effect of physician attire on patient perceptions of empathy in Japan: a quasi-randomized controlled trial in primary care.
Trial report in BMC family practice, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Impact of Scrub Color on Patient Perceptions of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons: A Cross-Sectional Study.Patient preference and adherence · 2026Article
- Perception and Decision-Making in Virtual Telepsychology Spaces and Professionals.Vision (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Beyond appearance: patient perspectives on the role of physician attire in trust.Journal of medical ethics and history of medicine · 2025Article
- Cultural competence in critical care nurses and its relationships with empathy, job conflict, and work engagement: a cross-sectional descriptive study.BMC nursing · 2023Article
- A 2-item version of the Japanese Consultation and Relational Empathy measure: a pilot study using secondary analysis of a cross-sectional survey in primary care.Family practice · 2022Article
- Clothes Make the Man-What Impact Does the Dress of Interprofessional Teams Have on Patients?Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- The role of spiritual intelligence in predicting the empathy levels of nurses with COVID-19 patients.Archives of psychiatric nursing · 2021Article
- The influence of active listening on parents' perceptions of clinical empathy in a stuttering assessment: A preliminary study.Journal of communication disordersArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThere is limited quantitative research on the effect of physician attire on patient-physician relationships. This study aimed to measure the influence of Japanese family physicians' attire on the "human" aspects of medical care in terms of patient-perceived relational empathy.
methodsThis was a multicenter, prospective, controlled trial conducted in primary clinics in Japan. We explored the effects of family physician attire (white coat vs. casual attire) on patient-perceived empathy. Family physicians were allocated to alternate weeks of wearing a white coat or casual attire during consultations. Patients' perceptions of physician empathy were evaluated using the self-rated Japanese Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) Measure. We used a linear mixed model to analyze the CARE Measure scores, adjusting for cluster effects of patients nested within doctor, age, and sex of patients, and doctors' sex and years of clinical experience. We used the same method with Bonferroni adjustment to analyze patient sex differences in perceived empathy.
resultsA total of 632 patients of seven family physicians were allocated to white coat-wearing consultations (n = 328), and casual attire-wearing consultations (n = 304). There was no difference in CARE Measure scores between white coat and casual primary care consultations overall (p = 0.162). Subgroup analysis of patient sex showed that CARE Measure scores of male patients were significantly higher in the Casual group than in the White coat group (adjusted p-value = 0.044). There was no difference in female patient scores between White coat and Casual groups (adjusted p-value = 1.000).
conclusionsThis study demonstrated that physician attire (white coat or casual attire) in a primary care setting did not affect patient-perceived relational empathy overall. However, male patients of physicians wearing casual attire reported higher physician empathy. Although empathy cannot be reduced to simple variables such as attire, white coats may have a negative effect on patients, depending on the context. Family physicians should choose their attire carefully.
trial registrationJapanese University Hospital Medical Information Network (UMIN-ICDR). Clinical Trial identifier number UMIN000037687 (Registered August 14, 2019, https://upload.umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/ctr_e/ctr_view.cgi?recptno=R000042749 ). The study was prospectively registered.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.