Table 3.
Physicians' ability (c = 58) to correctly guess the diagnosis for different patients' factors (n = 626).
| Mean physicians' predictive ability | Odds Ratio adjusted for cluster effects | Differences between GP | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| % (SD) | ORCE (95% CI) | p-value | ρ* | |
| Patients' age | ||||
| <50 yrs (n = 257) | 56.4% (1.8%) | 1.4 (0.98 to 2.0) | p = 0.066 | ρ = 0.096 |
| ≥50 yrs (n = 369) | 50.4% (1.3%) | - | - | |
| Patients' gender | ||||
| Men (n = 304) | 50.7% (1.5%) | 0.93 (0.67 to 1.3) | p = 0.680 | ρ = 0.089 |
| Women (n = 322) | 55.0% (1.5%) | - | - | |
| Known patient | ||||
| Yes (n = 569) | 53.1% (0.9%) | 1.3 (0.72 to 2.4) | p = 0.386 | ρ = 0.088 |
| No (n = 57) | 47.4% (4.9%) | - | - | |
| New Complaint | ||||
| Yes (n = 301) | 48.5% (1.5%) | 0.78 (0.56 to 1.1) | p = 0.158 | ρ = 0.088 |
| No (n = 325) | 54.2% (1.2%) | - | - | |
| Patient feeling anxious | ||||
| Yes (n = 348) | 44.8% (1.3%) | 0.46 (0.33 to 0.65) | p < 0.0001 | ρ = 0.090 |
| No (n = 278) | 62.9% (1.5%) | - | - | |
| Life threatening | ||||
| Yes (n = 104) | 65.4% (3.5%) | 1.8 (1.1 to 2.8) | p = 0.015 | ρ = 0.087 |
| No (n = 522) | 50.3% (0.1%) | - | - | |
* ρ is the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) which corresponds to the proportion of the total observed variance which is related to the lack of independence between measures taken from the same physician. A value of 0 indicates no differences between physicians whereas a value of 1 indicates that the associations are totally dependent on physicians.