Patients preferred physicians who wore formal attire in the majority of studies evaluated by researchers conducting a systematic review of published literature. Results were recently published in BMJ Open.
The researchers defined formal attire as a collared shirt, tie and slacks for male physicians and a blouse with or without a blazer, skirt or suit pants for female physicians.
After a thorough review of the medical literature, researchers identified 30 studies involving 11,533 patients that met their eligibility criteria. They included trials that enrolled patients who were at least 18 years old and evaluated physician attire and excluded studies that had only pediatric or psychiatric patients.
In 60 percent of the studies, patients preferred formal attire with or without white coats or white coats when other attire was not specified. The patient preferences were obtained through written questionnaires, face-to-face question and answer sessions, surveys and other measures.
The study also found that patients who received clinical care were less likely to have an attire preference, while older patients and people in Europe or Asia were more likely to prefer formal attire.
“Collectively, these findings shed new light on this topic and suggest that although professional attire may be an important modifiable aspect of the physician–patient relationship, finding a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to optimal physician dress code is improbable,” the researchers wrote. “Rather, ‘tailored’ approaches to physician attire that take into account patient, provider and contextual factors appear necessary.”
The researchers cited a few study limitations, including that it did not assess causality and that only eight of the 30 studies were rated as a low risk-of-bias according to the Downs and Black scale. They also mentioned that they did not measure the risk of infection associated with attire.
Previous research showed patients are more compliant and more likely to discuss important information with doctors they perceive as competent, supportive and respectful.
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.