Patient and Provider Opinions Regarding Chaperones for Sensitive Exams

Recommendations for chaperone use during sensitive exams have been left mostly to individual institutions, despite a paucity of data providing guidance. The purpose of this study was to survey patients and medical providers on their attitudes toward chaperone use and explore factors that may influence these attitudes.

A survey was administered at a single tertiary military medical center to providers and patients across multiple specialties, and further sub-analysis of the data were completed. For patients, sub-analysis was done for gender, age, history of sexual abuse, and clinic seen. For providers, sub-analysis was done for provider gender and training status. Before data collection, this study was deemed exempt from institutional review board approval by the Eisenhower Army Medical Center Human Research and Protections Office.

A total of 319 patient surveys and 61 provider surveys were collected. Fifty seven percent of patients have no preference regarding chaperone use, 19% prefer having a chaperone, and 24% prefer to not have a chaperone. Female patients and patients with a history of sexual abuse are more likely to prefer a chaperone. Forty two percent of providers always use a chaperone, 79% are more likely to use a chaperone if a patient is of the opposite gender, and 43% select a chaperone based on the gender of the patient. Male providers and providers still in training are more likely to use a chaperone.

The majority of patients do not have a preference regarding chaperone presence during sensitive exams; however, female gender and history of sexual abuse increase the likelihood of a patient preferring to have a chaperone present. These factors should be considered when creating an institutional policy regarding chaperone use. Future research should focus on homosexual and transgender patient preferences as this has yet to be explored.