Warmth in the Doctor-Patient Relationship: Analysis of the Effect of Empathy as a Mediating Variable in the Patient's Intention to Adhere to Treatment

The doctor-patient relationship has been identified over time as a key to the success of medical treatment. It has been explored in European, North American, and Latin American contexts with particular socioeconomic, educational, and cultural conditions. This research offers a new perspective on the matter. A model has been developed for the variables influencing the intention to adhere to treatment and the direct and indirect effects of such a relationship through an experimental study. The method involved a random design of two groups of university students, with a sample of 440 participants: 80 to validate the manipulation of the independent variables in the created narratives, 150 for the pilot test, and 210 for the experimental situation. The emerging model revealed a directly proportional relationship between physician warmth and intention to adhere to treatment. The results also show the mediating role of empathy as a predictor of treatment adherence behavior and the concentration of greatest weight on the cognitive component of empathy. The significant predictors of the model confirm that the doctor-patient relationship is a clear example of heterogeneity, in which many patients and physicians with diverse characteristics come together and make each interaction unique, which appears to be more complex and multicausal than studied so far.