Table 3.

A comparison of patient and physician characteristics with litigation in the negligent and non-negligent groups regarding the physicians’ duty to explain

	Court decision with respect to a physicians’ duty to explain
	Obstetrics and gynecology			Internal medicine			Surgery
	Negligent	Non-negligent	p-value *	Negligent	Non-negligent	p-value *	Negligent	Non-negligent	p-value *
Patient characteristics
Age (years ± SD)	21.3 ± 20.6	11.7 ± 18.6	0.082	39.5 ± 23.9	37.7 ± 30.1	0.793	47.1 ± 18.0	44.4 ± 22.7	0.531
Gender: Male only/Male + Female or Female only	5/20	11/20	0.164	25/10	19/18	0.081	27/22	39/33	0.919
Type of treatment: Elective or not urgently necessary/Othera	4/21	1/30	0.117	3/32	0/37	0.110	2/47	0/74	0.157
Severity of injury: Death/Otherb	11/14	6/25	0.046	17/18	16/21	0.650	29/20	32/42	0.083
Physician characteristics
Type of medical facility: Clinic/Hospital	11/14	7/24	0.088	8/27	5/32	0.235	6/43	5/69	0.233
Gender: Male only/Male + Female, Female only	17/3	23/5	0.558	29/1	23/8	0.015	40/4	66/3	0.264
Number of physicians: 1/2 or more	18/7	21/10	0.730	28/7	16/21	0.001	16/33	23/50	0.854
Medical standard: Standard care/Not standard care	23/2	11/20	<0.001	31/4	26/11	0.051	45/4	70/4	0.400
Acknowledgement of physicians’ fault: yes/no	16/9	7/24	0.002	17/18	21/16	0.016	17/32	18/55	0.230
Litigation
The judgment year: 1979–1996/1997–2008	10/15	26/5	0.001	10/25	26/11	<0.001	20/29	41/33	0.113
Introduction of a medical expert witness: yes/no	12/13	4/27	0.005	13/22	10/27	0.358	25/24	30/44	0.252
Type of plaintiff: patient only/ patient & family, family only	5/20	2/29	0.132	7/28	3/34	0.132	20/29	25/49	0.428
Number of issue in litigation: 0–3/4+	16/9	11/20	0.034	30/5	19/18	0.002	33/16	32/42	0.009

* t-test or χ² test; results printed in bold are significant (p < 0.05)

^a“Other” includes “treatment is urgently necessary”

^b“Other” includes temporary or permanent injury