Dataset Information

Does doctors' personality differ from those of patients, the highly educated and other caring professions? An observational study using two nationally representative Australian surveys.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Personality differences between doctors and patients can affect treatment outcomes. We examine these trait disparities, as well as differences across medical specialities.

Design

Retrospective, observational statistical analysis of secondary data.

Setting

Data from two data sets that are nationally representative of doctors and the general population in Australia.

Participants

We include 23 358 individuals from a representative survey of the general Australian population (with subgroups of 18 705 patients, 1261 highly educated individuals and 5814 working in caring professions) as well as 19 351 doctors from a representative survey of doctors in Australia (with subgroups of 5844 general practitioners, 1776 person-oriented specialists and 3245 technique-oriented specialists).

Main outcome measures

Big Five personality traits and locus of control. Measures are standardised by gender, age and being born overseas and weighted to be representative of their population.

Results

Doctors are significantly more agreeable (a: standardised score -0.12, 95% CIs -0.18 to -0.06), conscientious (c: -0.27 to -0.33 to -0.20), extroverted (e: 0.11, 0.04 to 0.17) and neurotic (n: 0.14, CI 0.08 to 0.20) than the general population (a: -0.38 to -0.42 to -0.34, c: -0.96 to -1.00 to -0.91, e: -0.22 to -0.26 to -0.19, n: -1.01 to -1.03 to -0.98) or patients (a: -0.77 to -0.85 to -0.69, c: -1.27 to -1.36 to -1.19, e: -0.24 to -0.31 to -0.18, n: -0.71 to -0.76 to -0.66). Patients (-0.03 to -0.10 to 0.05) are more open than doctors (-0.30 to -0.36 to -0.23). Doctors have a significantly more external locus of control (0.06, 0.00 to 0.13) than the general population (-0.10 to -0.13 to -0.06) but do not differ from patients (-0.04 to -0.11 to 0.03). There are minor differences in personality traits among doctors with different specialities.

Conclusions

Several personality traits differ between doctors, the population and patients. Awareness about differences can improve doctor-patient communication and allow patients to understand and comply with treatment recommendations.

SUBMITTER: Ammi M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10186421 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Does doctors' personality differ from those of patients, the highly educated and other caring professions? An observational study using two nationally representative Australian surveys.

Ammi Mehdi M Fooken Jonas J Klein Jill J Scott Anthony A

BMJ open 20230424 4

<h4>Objectives</h4>Personality differences between doctors and patients can affect treatment outcomes. We examine these trait disparities, as well as differences across medical specialities.<h4>Design</h4>Retrospective, observational statistical analysis of secondary data.<h4>Setting</h4>Data from two data sets that are nationally representative of doctors and the general population in Australia.<h4>Participants</h4>We include 23 358 individuals from a representative survey of the general Austra ...[more]

PMID: 37094898

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Dataset Information

Does doctors' personality differ from those of patients, the highly educated and other caring professions? An observational study using two nationally representative Australian surveys.

Objectives

Design

Setting

Participants

Main outcome measures

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Does doctors' personality differ from those of patients, the highly educated and other caring professions? An observational study using two nationally representative Australian surveys.

Similar Datasets

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