Table 1.

Characteristics of included studies

Reference number	Year	Country	Design	Participants	Source population and response rate	QS
[14]	2006	USA	Database	GPs & internists	505 patients aged 75 years or older, not previously diagnosed with prostate cancer who underwent a PSA test between 1998 and 2004	4
[24]	2000	Spain	Database	GP	94 patients not previously diagnosed with prostate cancer with a PSA ≥ 4 in 1998, selected from the pertinent laboratory	6
[21]	1998	USA	Database	Internists	1,448 patients not previously diagnosed with prostate cancer who in 1993 underwent a PSA test	5
[23]	2008	UK	Database & survey	GPs	Database: 709 patients pre-guideline launch and 1,040 men post-guideline launch with PSA ≥ 3 ng/ml and ≥ 1 PSA test by GPs	7 (survey)
					515 patients pre-guideline launch and 607 post-guideline launch with normal test-result (< 3) (random 25% sample of normal PSA tests by GP)
					Questionnaire: 69 GPs from England and Wales, registered for PSA testing with the National External Quality Assessment Service, 48 responded, response rate 70%
[18]	2008	France	Survey	GPs	All 1,339 GPs in Auvergne (France) registered with the Urssaf in 2006, 658 responded, response rate 49,1%	5
[26]	2008	UK	Survey	GPs	502 PCPs in West Suffolk and Ipswich Hospital area (UK), 192 responded, response rate 38%	6
[7]	2005	Denmark	Survey	GPs	325 GPs in Northern Denmark (23% woman), 291 responded, response rate 90%	8
[6]	2003	Ireland	Survey	GPs	400 GPs from Northern Ireland randomly selected by computer, 282 responded, response rate 71%	6
[15]*	2002	UK	Survey	GPs	200 GPs registered in the East Surrey region, 118 responded, response rate 59%	2
[19]	1995	USA	Survey	GPs	All 149 OAFP GPs from the Oklahoma City area and 151 randomly selected OAFP physicians outside this area, 152 responded, response rate 53%	9
[22]	1995	UK	Survey	GPs/general surgeons/ geriatricians/FHSA	500 GPs, associated with the Western General Infirmary in Edinburgh, Scotland, 118 responded, response rate 23,6%	4
					373 general surgeons, 85 responded, response rate 22,8%
					712 geriatricians, 160 responded, response rate 22,5%
					115 FHSAs, 58 responded, response rate 50,4% (and 320 urologists, results excluded from this SR)
[17]	2007	Japan	Survey	Internists/general surgeons (PCP)	935 PCPs (internist and general surgeons not in hospital and no urologist) in South metropolitan Tokyo, 281 responded, mean response rate 30% (varying per question)	5
[16]	1998	USA	Survey	GPs/internists (PCP)	All physicians from the AMARP, listing themselves in general internal medicine, family medicine (or urology, results excluded in this SR). 444 PCPs responded, response rate 51%	6
[20]	1996	USA	Survey	GPs/internists (PCP)	1.816 PCPs randomly selected from all Arizona-licensed physicians from the BMESA who selfreported to be GP, family practitioner or internist. 68 were subsequently excluded (various reasons) and 57 were unreachable. Overall, 141 eligible physicians completed the survey, response rate 42,9%	10
[25]	1996	USA	Survey	Internists/medical subspecialists (PCP)	All PCPs in Brooklyn, New York with the MSSNY, 311 PCPs responded, response rate 28%, including 134 GPs (43,1%) and 177 internists/medical subspecialists (56,9%)	4

Table order according to study design (database or survey studies), participants (starting with GPs) and year of publication (starting with most recent publications)

Abbreviations: QS Quality Score; PCP Primary Care Physician; GP General Practitioner; OAFP Oklahoma Academy of Family Physicians; SR Systematic Review; FHSA Family Health Service Advisor; AMARP American Medical Association Registry of Physicians; BMESA Board of Medical Examiners of the State of Arizona; MSSNY Medical Society of the State of New York.

* abstract only.