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. 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. 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. This study revealed that the number of outpatient visits with a covering rheumatologist was associated with lower trust in a patient’s usual rheumatologist.

中文翻译：

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系统性红斑狼疮患者护理不连续性与患者对常规风湿病学家信任之间的关联：一项横断面研究


患者信任在医患关系中起着核心作用。本研究旨在确定覆盖风湿病学家的门诊就诊次数是否与患者对他们通常的风湿病学家的信任有关。包括符合美国风湿病学会 1997 年修订分类标准并在过去一年中与覆盖风湿病学家进行门诊就诊的日本系统性红斑狼疮 （SLE） 成人患者。我们使用改良的 11 项日本版医师信任量表 （范围 0-100） 来评估患者信任度。使用具有聚类稳健方差估计的一般线性模型来评估覆盖风湿病学家的门诊就诊次数与患者对通常风湿病学家的信任之间的关联。在 515 名入组参与者中，421 名 SLE 患者被纳入我们的分析。根据过去一年内风湿病科负责人门诊的就诊次数将患者分为以下几组：无就诊 （59.9%;参考组）、1 至 3 次就诊 （24.2%;低频组） 和 4 次或以上就诊 （15.9%;高频组）。信任医师量表得分中位数为 81.8 （四分位距： 72.7–93.2）。低频组 （平均差： -3.03;95% 置信区间 [CI] -5.93 至 -0.80） 和高频组 （平均差： -4.17;95% CI -7.77 至 -0.58） 对他们通常的风湿病学家的信任度较低。这项研究表明，覆盖风湿病学家的门诊就诊次数与对患者通常的风湿病学家的信任度较低有关。