[Attitudes of family doctors to patients' rights]

To examine the attitudes of family doctors to patients' rights and to ascertain the social and professional variables that influence these views.

Descriptive, cross-sectional study based on a questionnaire.

Primary care, Murcia, Spain.

Two-hundred and twenty-seven family physicians, who filled in a postal questionnaire.

The questionnaire included social and professional variables, evaluation of job satisfaction (by Likert scale 1-5), evaluation of patients' rights (Likert scale 1-5).

The most valued right in the overall view of the doctors questioned was the right to suitable health care within a humane framework (4.86; 95% CI, 4.81-4.91), while the least valued right was the access to medical records (3.91; 95% CI, 3.76-4.05). Mean job satisfaction was 2.79 (95% CI, 2.71-2.87). We found: statistically significant differences in the assessment of patients' rights, which depended on various social and professional factors; direct associations between doctors' satisfaction and their views on patients' rights; and a significant correlation between overall evaluation of rights and total satisfaction (P=.039).

Overall, family doctors attach a lot of importance to patients' rights. However, social and professional characteristics seem to have some influence on their attitudes: older doctors, those working in an urban context, those with few patients on their lists, in teaching centres, and those feeling the greatest professional satisfaction tend to attach greater importance to patients' rights.