Table 2.
Practice Characteristics and Behaviors of Physicians by Training and Self-assessed HIV Expertise
| Self-rated “Expert in HIV” | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Infectious Diseases–trained | General Medicine and Others | |||
| No (n = 6) | Yes (n = 146)* | No (n = 83) | Yes (n = 144)†,‡ | |
| HIV-related experience | ||||
| Current case load, median (±SD) | 22.5 (98) | 150 (209)‖ | 5 (73) | 200 (259)¶,+ |
| With fewer than 20 current cases, n (%) | 2 (33.3) | 5 (3.4)¶ | 61 (73.5) | 6 (4.2)¶ |
| Cumulative case load, median (±SD) | 100 (237) | 400 (1,300)¶ | 20 (256) | 500 (1,423)¶ |
| HIV patient population risk factors, % | ||||
| Majority of cases with IV drug use as a risk factor | 0 | 16.4 | 20.5 | 13.9 |
| Majority of cases with homosexual contact as a risk factor | 83.3 | 65.8 | 55.4 | 72.2‖ |
| Majority of cases with heterosexual contact as a risk factor | 16.7 | 11.6 | 21.7 | 11.8‖ |
| Practice characteristics, mean (±SD)§ | ||||
| Half days per week in patient care | 2.0 (2.0) | 4.9 (3.0)‖ | 7.0 (3.0) | 7.5 (2.7)++ |
| Outpatients per week | 15.5 (18.0) | 40.0 (33.5)‖ | 79.9 (54.3) | 72.2 (40.4)++ |
| Hours in direct patient care per week | 12.5 (15.1) | 30.7 (20.8)‖ | 35.5 (18.2) | 34.2 (14.4) |
*
‖ or ¶ in this column indicates significant test (t or χ2) for column 3 versus column 2.
†
‖ or ¶ in this column indicates significant test for column 5 versus column 4.
‡
+ or ++ indicates significant test for column 5 versus column 3‖, or + for P < .05, and ¶ or ++ for P < .01.
§
Practice characteristics refers to the physician's entire practice.