Physician trust and the cost of medications

Filed in archive Studies on August 8, 2005

A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that people who trust their doctors are more likely to be compliant with their medications - even in the face of cost pressures:

When physician trust levels are low, patients with higher out-of-pocket costs are more likely to forgo medications because of cost pressures, reported John D. Piette, Ph.D., and colleagues of the Veterans Affairs Ann arbor Health Care Center.

In a survey of 912 patients with diabetes, mostly males over the age of 65, the investigators reported today in the Archives of Internal Medicine on the extent to which patient trust in physicians moderated the impact of economic constraints and other risk factors for noncompliance.

The patients reported their level of physician trust using a standard scale and were stratified into a high trust group (n=557) and a low-trust group (n=355). In addition, patients were stratified according to their household income level and their monthly out-of-pocket prescription drug costs.

As out-of-pocket expenses increased, the rate of cost-related non-compliance increased from 4% to 11% in the high-trust group compared with an increase from 11% to 30% in the low-trust group (P<.001).

(Minerd, "Trust in Physician May Improve Compliance", MedPage Today, Aug.8)