Association between discontinuity of care and patient trust in the usual rheumatologist among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: a cross-sectional study

Résumé fourni par la source

BACKGROUND: Patient trust plays a central role in the patient-physician relationship. This study aimed to determine whether the number of outpatient visits with a covering rheumatologist is associated with patient trust in their usual rheumatologist. METHODS: Japanese adults with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who met the 1997 revised classification criteria of the American College of Rheumatology and had outpatient visits with a covering rheumatologist in the past year were included. We used the 11-item Japanese version of the modified Trust in Physician Scale (range 0-100) to assess patient trust. A general linear model with cluster-robust variance estimation was used to evaluate the association between the number of outpatient visits with covering rheumatologists and the patient's trust in their usual rheumatologist. RESULTS: Of the 515 enrolled participants, 421 patients with SLE were included in our analyses. Patients were divided into groups according to the number of outpatient visits with a covering rheumatologist in the past year as follows: no visits (59.9%; reference group), one to three visits (24.2%; low-frequency group), and four or more visits (15.9%; high-frequency group). The median Trust in Physician Scale score was 81.8 (interquartile range: 72.7-93.2). Both the low-frequency group (mean difference: -3.03; 95% confidence interval [CI] -5.93 to -0.80) and high-frequency group (mean difference: -4.17; 95% CI -7.77 to -0.58) exhibited lower trust in their usual rheumatologist. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that the number of outpatient visits with a covering rheumatologist was associated with lower trust in a patient's usual rheumatologist.

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