Exploring patient role behaviors for health care services: the assertive, activated and passive patient

Several conceptual models describing how patients ought to behave have been discussed in the literature. Less attention has been devoted to classifying and profiling the primary types of actual patient behavior. This study develops and tests a patient role behavior scale which is used to group patients into three behavioral categories: assertive, activated, and submissive. Patient groups were found to differ significantly with respect to the kind of interaction they received from their physician during their office visits. However, perceptions of the amount of time spent with their doctor were not significantly different. These findings suggest that patients differ with respect to how they view their role in health care service encounters and that physicians may be able to accommodate differing patient roles without unduly influencing productivity.