Patient preferences for medical doctors.

A sample of 395 white, native English-speaking adults were asked to rate eight medical doctors (general practitioners (GPs) and consultants), representing all permutations of the following three attributes: age (<35 versus >50), training location (UK versus Asia) and gender. Approximately half the participants were allocated in a group with a condition involving an intimate type of health problem and the rest in a group with a non-intimate condition. Participants showed a preference for UK-trained doctors, although it was unclear whether this was due to the homogeneous composition of the sample. There were significant two-way interactions involving patient gender and doctor gender in the first case and doctor age and training location in the second. Additional interactions were specific to either the general practitioner or the consultant ratings. Overall, there were more significant effects in general practitioner ratings, suggesting that people de-emphasize their preferences when selecting consultants.