Table 1.
Patient and visit characteristics for all patients and patients prescribed new medications†
| Characteristic | Patients Prescribed New Medications | All Patients | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | n | |||
| Age, mean years (SD) | 180 | 55.6 (15.7) | 905 | 57.0 (15.3) |
| Male, n (%) * | 181 | 92 (50.8) | 908 | 398 (43.8) |
| Caucasian, n (%) | 178 | 147 (82.6) | 904 | 736 (81.4) |
| Educational level, n (%) | 178 | 904 | ||
| High school or less | 35 (19.6) | 208 (23.0) | ||
| Some college education | 86 (48.3) | 423 (46.8) | ||
| College graduate | 57 (32.0) | 273 (30.2) | ||
| Has health insurance, n (%) | 181 | 170 (93.9) | 905 | 869 (96.0) |
| UC-Davis patient, n (%) | 181 | 85 (47.0) | 909 | 443 (48.7) |
| Had prior visit to same doctor, n (%) | 180 | 135 (75.0) | 892 | 714 (80.0) |
| Specialty of physician, n (%) | 181 | 909 | ||
| Family Medicine | 57 (31.5) | 333 (36.6) | ||
| Internal Medicine | 82 (45.3) | 363 (39.9) | ||
| Cardiology | 42 (23.2) | 213 (23.4) | ||
| Number of new medications prescribed during visit, mean (SD) | 181 | 1.3 (0.6) | N/A | |
†
A total of 181 patients were prescribed new medications, and there were 909 total patients in the study. Variations in the n reflect missing data.
*
p<0.05 for comparison between patients prescribed new medications and full sample of 909 patients