Effects of Patient-Physician Relationship on Withholding Information Behavior and Its Trend: Findings From Health Information National Trends Survey 2011-2018

Background Patients’ withholding information from doctors can undermine medical treatment, create barriers for appropriate diagnoses, and increase systemic cost in health care systems. To date, there is limited literature detailing the association between trends of patients withholding information behavior (WIB) and the patient-physician relationship (PPR). Objective The aim of this study was to explore the prevalence trend of WIB after 2011 and examine the effects of PPR on WIB and its time trend. Methods A total of 5 iterations of data from the Health Information National Trends Survey (years: 2011-2018; n=11,954) were used to explore curvilinear trends of WIB among the US population. Multiple logistic regression models were used to examine curvilinear time trends of WIB, effects of PPR on WIB, and moderation effects of PPR on the WIB time trend. Results The WIB prevalence has an increasing trend before 2014, which has the highest rate of 13.57%, and then it decreases after 2014 to 8.65%. The trend of WIB is curvilinear as the quadratic term in logistic regression model was statistically significant ( P =.04; beta=−.022; SE=0.011; odds ratio [OR] 0.978, 95% CI 0.957-0.999). PPR is reversely associated with WIB ( P <.001; beta=−.462; SE=0.097; OR 0.630, 95% CI 0.518-0.766) and has a significant moderation effect on time trends ( P =.02; beta=−.06; SE=0.025; OR 0.941, 95% CI 0.896-0.989). In general, poor quality of PPR not only significantly increased the WIB probability but also postponed the change of point for WIB curvilinear trend. Conclusions Findings suggest that the time trend of WIB between 2011 and 2018 is curvilinear and moderated by the quality of the PPR. Given these results, providers may reduce WIB by improving PPR. More research is needed to confirm these findings.