Table 3.

Comparison of evaluations of students’ letters to patients by three expert physicians and patients for three identical categories in the scoring instrument

Evaluated categories	Score (mean ± SD)*		t (P)†
	Experts	Patients
Adequacy and clarity of description of disease/state	1.51 ± 0.34	1.85 ± 0.39	5.86 (<0.001)
Adequacy of recommendations	1.55 ± 0.34	1.87 ± 0.37	6.01 (<0.001)
Courtesy and respect	1.80 ± 0.29	1.93 ± 0.25	3.15 (0.002)
Total score	4.87 ± 0.79	5.65 ± 0.79	6.75 (<0.001)

*The scale ranged from 0 to 2 points for individual categories and 0 to 6 point for the total score. SD standard deviation.

†Student t-test.