Physician Clothing Actually Affects Patient Trust (What the Research Says)

Turns high school was right. What you wear does matter.

This one started, as many rabbit holes do, with a sale.

A certain fashionable scrubs brand blew up my inbox and Instagram, and despite not needing new scrubs, I found myself “just looking.” Specifically: the staggering number of colour options available.

Which got me wondering. Does physician clothing scrub colour actually matter to patients?

Short answer: yes. Patients have feelings about what we wear, whether they realize it or not.

What the Research Says About Physician Clothing and Patient Trust

A BMJ Open study found that patients rated physicians as more knowledgeable, trustworthy, and caring when wearing formal attire with a white coat. Scrubs plus white coat came in second. Before you sigh too heavily, the same study found that surgeons and emergency physicians in scrubs ranked equally to formal attire for patient preference. Small wins.

If you’re going scrubs-only, colour appears to matter too. Patients consistently rated physicians in blue scrubs as more caring, trustworthy, skilled, and knowledgeable compared to other colours.

Is any of this fair? That’s a separate conversation. But the data is the data.

Why It’s Worth At Least Thinking About

Here’s where it connects to your practice. Research suggests that patient trust and satisfaction correlate with treatment compliance, which affects outcomes. Better compliance could mean fewer unnecessary follow-up visits. It also means more of the visits that give you energy instead of draining it.

A white coat won’t fix poor communication. It won’t compensate for a rushed appointment or a dismissive tone. But small, compounding changes do add up. If something as low-effort as a colour choice nudges patient trust in your direction, it’s at least worth knowing about.

Wear What Gets You There

First and foremost: what you wear is your choice. If a coral or lavender scrub set is what gets you to work, wear it. A physician who wants to be there is worth more than any colour on the wheel.

Personally, I am not and will never be a white coat person.

And these studies are already a few years old, so they didn’t include the spectrum of awesome colours available today. And with social media being what it is, these colour and scrub vs “real clothes” findings may not hold true still today.

But when I finally caved and ordered those jogger scrub pants, I went with navy.

At the very least, here’s the one upside to all of this patient-perception data we have zero control over: do you know who looks good in navy scrubs? Everyone.