ArticleBMC primary care2024
The influence of fears of perceived legal consequences on general practitioners' practice in relation to defensive medicine - a cross-sectional survey in Germany.
Article in BMC primary care, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- [Ethical, legal and care-related aspects of the competence to refrain from diagnostics and treatment : Choosing wisely].Die Ophthalmologie · 2026Review
- Title Medico-Legal Preparedness in Dental Education: Training Gaps, Defensive Practice and Curriculum Implications Among Romanian Dental Students and Dentists.Dentistry journal · 2026Article
- Defensive medicine practices and attitudes toward malpractice among physicians in Jordan: a cross-sectional study.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- The Mediating Role of Working Hours in the Effect of Surgical and Internal Medicine Residents' Fear of Malpractice on Defensive Medical Practices.The Eurasian journal of medicine · 2026Article
- 'R/O path' - a quality assurance study of emergency department medical imaging requests during on-call hours.Emergency radiology · 2026Article
- Article
- Online reviews in primary care - a mimicry indicator of quality? A comparative analysis across urban and rural regions in Germany.Research in health services & regions · 2025Article
- Healthcare AI, explainability, and the human-machine relationship: a (not so) novel practical challenge.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Low-value practices in primary care: a cross-sectional study comparing data between males and females in Spain.BMJ open · 2024Observational
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMedical decisions are influenced by a variety of factors also by legal requirements and feelings of uncertainty, which results in the term defensive medicine. The aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of fears of perceived legal consequences on the practice of defensive medicine from the perspective of German general practitioners (GPs).
methodsA cross-sectional study was performed from April to May 2022. GPs were invited via an e-mail newsletter of the Institute for Continuing Education in Family Medicine in the German Association of General Practitioners and via an online platform of the German College of General Practitioners and Family Physicians. The evaluation of legal fears, the general assessment of defensive medicine and reasons for and the frequency of defensive medical measures were surveyed in this study. Beside descriptive analyses, a stepwise linear regression analysis was used to explore potential associations between for the primary outcome variable 'fears of legal consequences' on the practice of defensive medicine.
results413 general practitioners with an average age of 50 years (51% female) responded. The majority rated their fears of legal consequences as low to average whereas for almost a third (27%, n = 113) the fears were strong to very strong. Regarding legal fears, the physician-patient-relationship played a fairly to very large role for 48% (n = 198) of the respondents. One third estimated the probability of being sued civilly in the next 10 years as rather high to very high. 47% (n = 193) of the participants assumed that the risk of being sued could mostly to very much be reduced by defensive medicine. Legal self-protection was for 38% of the responders (n = 157) quite frequently to very frequently a reason for acting defensively. Consequently, half of the respondents stated that they performed unnecessary laboratory tests at least once per week and 40% indicated that they referred patients for radiological diagnostics without medical indication once per month.
conclusionsAs legal fears have an influence on medical practice and legal self-protection being a frequent reason for defensive behaviour, understanding and knowledge of the law should be improved by legal education at university and further training of post-graduate trainees and practicing physicians should be implemented. Additionally, a more in-depth enlightenment of society about the phenomenon of Protective and Defensive Medicine and its consequences could be a possibility to decrease the perceived fears of legal consequences on the physicians' side.
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