Factors Affecting Physician Fear of Malpractice and Defensive Medicine Practices: A Cross-sectional Study

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the attitudes of a group of physicians toward defensive medicine, their fears of malpractice and the affecting factors. Methods: Data was collected between April and July 2022 in this cross-sectional study. The sample size was 248 physicians. Data was collected using the Defensive Medicine Attitude Scale and Malpractice Fear Scale. Data was analyzed using frequency tables, descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test (Z-table value) and the Kruskal-Wallis H test (chi 2-table value). Results: Most participants 99.2% (n=246) thought that a doctor's professional liability insurance should be taken out and 72.6% (n=180) avoided giving treatment to difficult patient groups. In our study, the mean score on the Defensive Medicine Attitude Scale was moderate (32.12 +/- 6.12), and the mean score on the Malpractice Fear Scale was high (24.31 +/- 2.86). A weak positive correlation was found between the Malpractice Fear Scale score and the scores for positive defensive medicine, negative defensive medicine, avoidance, and the Defensive Medicine Attitude Scale total score (p<0.05). Conclusion: Our study determined that the fear of malpractice increased the tendency toward defensive medicine practice. Most physicians adopted the defensive behavior in medicine and were afraid of facing malpractice lawsuits in near future.