Are doctors in white coat more trustworthy?

Patient trust does not depend on what doctors wear, according to a study.

“When evaluating the impact of physician attire in the setting of an inpatient patient encounter, we found no association between patient trust and physicians wearing traditional attire with a white coat and surgical scrubs without a white coat,” the researchers said.

A prospective quasi-experimental study was conducted using the Modified Trust in Physician Scale (TIPS) survey administered to 274 hospitalized patients aged 18‒80 years at the time of patient discharge or upon completion of physician shift.

Five full-time physicians alternated their weekly attire: 1 week wearing the traditional attire with white coat and the following week surgical scrubs with no white coat. The researchers also examined the patients’ age, gender, ethnicity, level of education, and duration of time attended by the physician.

After a mean of 3 hospital days, no difference was noted in patient trust in physicians wearing traditional attire with white coat (TIPS mean score 2.00, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.90‒2.09) compared with those wearing surgical scrubs (TIPS mean score 2.08, 95 percent CI, 1.95‒2.21; p=0.26).

“The physician white coat has traditionally been symbolic of patients’ trust in their physicians,” the researchers said. “Recently, use of surgical scrubs has expanded as an alternative to traditional physician attire.”