Abstract
Purpose : This study was conducted to assess whether Korean medicine doctors' attire influences patients' preference (confidence, comfortability, neatness) in a university hospital. Materials and Methods : Employing a cross-sectional design, outpatients answered a questionnaire in a university hospital of Korean Medicine. Respondents were asked for completing the questionnaire to estimate their preference of doctor's attire for confidence, comfortability and neatness after watching 4 types of attire in both male and female Korean medicine doctors, including white coat, traditional attire, formal suit and casual clothes. Whether Korean medicine doctors' attire on a patients' preference is important was also asked for the respondents using a 5-point Likert scale. Results : All 175 patients were enrolled, of whom 38.9% were male respondents, 46.3% graduated from a university at least and mean age of responders was 47.1. Most had a tendency for preferring white coat followed by traditional attire and only a small portion of respondents preferred for formal suit and casual clothes. When comparing preferences in confidence between white coat and traditional attire only, male patients preferred white coat more than female patients did with statistical significance. In addition, 85.4% of respondents answered that Korean medicine doctors' attire is important to a clinical situation with higher ratio of female respondents (87.9%) than male respondents (80.9%). Conclusion : Patients preferred white coat and traditional attire mostly for the Korean Medicine doctor's attire with only small preference for formal suit and casual clothes. Also, Patients recognized that Korean medicine doctors' attire is important in the clinical situation.