Table 4.

Patients’ Need for Contact With Their Physician in Relation to Patient Characteristics

	Patients’ Need for Contact*
	Home Scenarios†		Hospital Scenarios‡
Characteristics	Mean Score	PValue	Mean Score	PValue
Age, y
18–40	4.98		11.67
41–60	4.81	<.001	13.43	.040
61–80	4.25		14.23
81–100	3.22		14.14
Sex
Male	4.26	.399	13.33	.226
Female	4.38		13.78
With children
Yes	4.99	<.001	13. 68	.440
No	3.65		13.06
Years in the practice
<1	4.65		14.69
1–2	4.44		13.60
3–4	3.90	.053	12.36	.169
5–10	4.57		14.12
>10	4.03		12.09
Physician contacts in the past year
1–2	4.18		14.86
3–4	4.21	.019	13.79	.069
5–10	4.35		12.60
>10	4.54		12.23
Chronic illness
Yes	4.22	.191	13.48	.742
No	4.42		13.26
Distance from hospital (km)
<5	4.19		13.33
5–9	4.21	.680	13.28	.933
10–20	4.35		12.96
>20	4.54		13.92
Hospital admission in past year
Yes	4.28	.552	13.05	.313
No	4.36		13.68
Serious life event last five years
Yes	4.39	.335	13.30	.787
No	4.24		13.46
Serious psychosocial problem past 5 years
Yes	4.27		13.64
No	4.37	.580	13.10	.491
Variance explained by model, %	16		8

* A higher sum score means more need for contact.

† Eigenvalue component 1.37; mean sum score 5.3 (SD 1.64).

‡ Eigenvalue component 3.21; mean sum score 13.9 (SD 7.10).