Study: Doctors Should Set Personal Example With Medical Procedures

A recent comprehensive study conducted by Israeli and Canadian researchers has shown just how much doctors can lead by example.

The study showed that if doctors undergo a certain medical procedure, which they then also recommend to their patients, patients are more likely to go through with it themselves. Researchers isolated eight such procedures in the study.

The empiric part of the study was done in Israeli Health Maintenance Organization “Clalit.” Nearly 1,500 doctors were surveyed alongside 1.9 million patients. Procedures reviewed included vaccinations, blood-pressure tests, colonoscopies, mammograms and more.

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When it came to patients adhering to their doctor’s recommendations, the study found that patients whose doctors underwent the procedure they recommended were more likely to undergo the procedure themselves.

“We found a consistent, positive relation between physicians’ and patients’ preventive health practices,” the researchers wrote. “Objectively establishing this healthy doctor-healthy patient relation should encourage prevention-oriented health care systems to better support and evaluate the effects on patients of improving the physical health of medical students and physicians.

The study was conducted by Israelis Yizchak Dresner, Michal Shani and Shlomo Vinker and Canadian Erica Frank. The findings were published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Photo: andyde