Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36127665›Full record

ArticleBMC primary care2022

Profiles of GPs with high and low self-reported physician empathy-personal, professional, and antibiotic prescribing characteristics.

Troels Kristensen, Charlotte Ejersted, Peder Ahnfeldt-Mollerup, Jens Søndergaard, Justin A Charles

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC primary care, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
1.0field-weighted citation impact, top 24% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Troels KristensenDaCHE, Department of Public Health and Research Unit of General Practice, University of Southern Denmark, J.B. Winsløws vej 9, 5000, Odense C, Denmark. trkristensen@health.sdu.dk.
Charlotte EjerstedDepartment of Endocrinology, Odense University Hospital, J.B. Winsløws vej 4, 5000, Odense C, Denmark.
Peder Ahnfeldt-MollerupDepartment of Public Health, Research Unit of General Practice, University of Southern Denmark, J.B. Winsløws Vej 9, 5000, Odense C, Denmark.
Jens SøndergaardDepartment of Public Health, Research Unit of General Practice, University of Southern Denmark, J.B. Winsløws Vej 9, 5000, Odense C, Denmark.
Justin A CharlesDepartment of Family Medicine and Public Health, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive MC 0965, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
University of Southern Denmark · DKOdense University Hospital · DKUniversity of California, San Diego · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundGeneral Practitioners' (GPs) professional empathy has been hypothesized to have substantial impact on their healthcare delivery and medication prescribing patterns. This study compares profiles of personal, professional, and antibiotic prescribing characteristics of GPs with high and low empathy.

methodsWe apply an extreme group approach to a unique combined set of survey and drug register data. The survey included questions about demographic, professional, and antibiotic prescribing characteristics, as well as the Jefferson Scale of Empathy for Health Professionals (JSE-HP) to assess self-reported physician empathy. It was sent to a stratified sample of 1,196 GPs comprising 30% of the Danish GP population of whom 464 (38.8%) GPs responded. GPs in the top and bottom decile of empathy levels were identified. All intra- and inter-profile descriptive statistics and differences were bootstrapped to estimate the variability and related confidence intervals. 

results61% of GPs in the top decile of the empathy score were female. GPs in this decile reported the following person-centered factors as more important for their job satisfaction than the bottom decile: The Patient-physician relationship, interaction with colleagues, and intellectual stimulation. High-empathy scoring GPs prescribed significantly less penicillin than the low-empathy GPs. This was true for most penicillin subcategories. There were no significant differences in age, practice setting (urban vs. rural), practice type (partnership vs. single-handed), overall job satisfaction, or GP's value of prestige and economic profit for their job satisfaction. The intra profile variation index and confidence intervals show less prescribing uncertainty among GPs with high empathy.

conclusionsThis study reveals that high empathy GPs may have different personal, professional, and antibiotic prescribing characteristics than low empathy GPs and have less variable empathy levels as a group. Furthermore, person-centered high empathy GPs on average seem to prescribe less penicillins than low empathy GPs.

Indexed as

General PractitionersAnti-Bacterial AgentsCross-Sectional StudiesEmpathyFemaleHumansMalePenicillinsSelf ReportAnti-Bacterial AgentsPenicillinsAntibiotic prescribingBootstrappingExtreme group analysisGeneral practicePhysician empathyProfiles of GPs

Identifiers

PMID36127665
PMCPMC9487092
OpenAlexW4296783496

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.