Table 2.
Variables Associated With Emerging Agendas
| Explanatory Variable | Explained Variance % (PartialR2) | Direction of Association* | Adjusted Odds Ratio (CI)† |
| Biomedical factor | |||
| Full model | 42.3 | ||
| Patient prior biomedical expectation | 27.4 | − | 0.02 (0.01–0.04) |
| Patient prior psychosocial expectations | .3 | − | 1.8 (1.24–2.7) |
| Biomedical discourse content | 1.2 | + | 2.2 (1.5–3.1) |
| Physician perceived psychosocial reason for encounter | 0.6 | − | 0.8 (0.6–1.2) |
| Region | 1.0 | Variable | NA |
| Practice dummy variable nested within region | 7.9 | Highly variable | NA |
| Psychosocial factor | |||
| Full model | 29.3 | ||
| Patient prior psychosocial expectations | 13.2 | + / −‡ | 3.3 (2.3–4.7)‡ |
| Age | .1 | + | 2.0 (1.3–3.1) |
| Physical fitness | .2 | + | 1.3 (0.9–1.9) |
| Patient education | .1 | − | 0.7 (0.5–1.1) |
| Bothered by emotional problems | 1.6 | + | 1.9 (1.3–2.8) |
| Patient perceived psychosocial reason for consultation | .2 | + | 1.1 (0.7–1.8) |
| Physician perceives underlying psychosocial problem | .8 | + | 2.0 (1.4–2.9) |
| Affective or psychosocial discourse | .8 | + | 1.5 (1.0–2.1) |
| Proportion of consultation time physician is listening | .2 | + | 1.1 (0.8–1.6) |
| Region | .9 | Variable | NA |
| Practice dummy variable nested within region | 7.4 | Highly variable | NA |
* Direction of association: the – sign denotes a negative association, the + sign denotes a positive association. For region and for the practice dummy variable, associations varied.
† Adjusted odds-ratio (OR): To illustrate the magnitude of the effects, the adjusted odds-ratio for emerging biomedical or psychosocial agenda are computed for a patient scoring in the highest quartile on the respective scale compared with a patient scoring in the lowest quartile. Odds ratios are adjusted for all other variables that were significant in the multivariable analysis of the continuous outcome measure. The model predicting an emerging psychosocial agenda performed well (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was α = 0.76) and the Hosmer-Lemeshow statistics showed an excellent fit with a P = .77. The confidence interval (CI) is provided in parenthesis. Odds ratios for region and practice dummy variables are not shown (NA).
‡ Comparison of the third quartile with the lowest quartile. Patients with very high psychosocial expectations were less likely to report emerging psychosocial agenda (adjusted OR = 0.66, 95% CI, 0.45 – 0.97), suggesting possible ceiling effects of the instrument.