Cognitive and emotional dimensions of the physician-patient relationship (working alliance) were examined in relation to patients' beliefs about the usefulness of treatment (perceived utility), patients' beliefs about being able to adhere to treatment (adherence self-efficacy beliefs), patients' follow through on their treatment plan (adherence), and patients' satisfaction.
Participants were 51 men and 67 women who averaged 38.9 years of age (S.D.=12.28). Seventy-two were Euro-American, 23 African-American, 6 Asian-American, 11 Hispanic, and 6 "Other." They reported an average of 7.3 years (S.D.=7.48) since being diagnosed with a chronic medical illness and an average of 7.1 (S.D.=4.88) visits to their doctor within the last year. Patients' conditions included HIV+/AIDS, hypertension, diabetes, asthma, and cancer.
Results show moderate to strong relationships between working alliance and perceived utility (r=0.63, P<0.001), self-efficacy (r=0.47, P<0.001), adherence (r=0.53, P<0.001), and satisfaction (r=0.83, P<0.001). Regression analyses showed that ratings of the working alliance (SB=0.25, P<0.005) and self-efficacy beliefs (SB=0.48, P<0.001) predicted patient adherence and that working alliance ratings (SB=0.83, P<0.001) also predicted patient satisfaction.
The working alliance can be measured in medical care and appears to be strongly associated with patients' adherence to and satisfaction with treatment.
The working alliance is important in medical treatment, as it is associated with patient adherence and satisfaction. Patients' self-efficacy ought to be assessed and promoted as it is also associated with treatment adherence.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 11. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 26 May 2025.
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#18,539
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Outputs of similar age from Patient Education & Counseling
#3
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Altmetric has tracked 34,410,315 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 87th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,782 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.6. This one has done well, scoring higher than 85% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 19 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 84% of its contemporaries.
