Judging a book by its cover: descriptive survey of patients' preferences for doctors' appearance and mode of address.

OBJECTIVE To document patients' preferred dress styles of their doctors and modes of address. DESIGN Descriptive survey. SETTING Inpatients and outpatients at a tertiary level hospital, New Zealand. PARTICIPANTS 202 inpatients and 249 outpatients, mean age 55.9 (SD 19.3) years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Ranking of patients' opinions of photographs showing doctors wearing different dress styles. A five point Likert scale was used to measure patient comfort with particular items of appearance. RESULTS Patients preferred doctors to wear semiformal attire, but the addition of a smiling face was even better. The next most preferred styles were semiformal without a smile, followed by white coat, formal suit, jeans, and casual dress. Patients were more comfortable with conservative items of clothing, such as long sleeves, covered shoes, and dress trousers or skirts than with less conservative items such as facial piercing, short tops, and earrings on men. Many less conservative items such as jeans were still acceptable to most patients. Most patients preferred to be called by their first name, to be introduced to a doctor by full name and title, and to see the doctor's name badge worn at the breast pocket. Older patients had more conservative preferences. CONCLUSIONS Patients prefer doctors to wear semiformal dress and are most comfortable with conservative items; many less conservative items were, however, acceptable. A smile made a big difference.