Table 1.
Characteristics of Primary Care Physicians Who Are Consistent Nonscreeners, Variable Screeners, and Consistent Prostate-Specific Antigen Screeners
| Characteristic of Physicians | Consistent Nonscreeners (n = 517) |
Variable Screeners (n = 1064) |
Consistent Screeners (n = 2333) |
P Valuea |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age, x̄ (s) | 45.2 (9.8) | 46.3 (10.4) | 48.8 (11.1) | < 0.0001 |
| Male, n (%) | 351 (67.9) | 782 (73.5) | 1837 (78.7) | < 0.0001 |
| Race, no. (%) | 0.003 | |||
| White | 377 (72.9) | 764 (71.8) | 1774 (76.0) | |
| Black | 24 (4.6) | 54 (5.1) | 99 (4.2) | |
| Asian | 79 (15.3) | 184 (17.3) | 288 (12.3) | |
| Native | 3 (0.5) | 3 (0.3) | 12 (0.5) | |
| Other | 8 (1.6) | 11 (1.0) | 28 (1.2) | |
| Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, n (%) | 26 (5.0) | 48 (4.5) | 132 (5.7) | 0.30 |
| Specialty, n (%) | 0.05 | |||
| Family practice | 207 (40.0) | 382 (35.9) | 828 (35.5) | |
| Internal medicine | 289 (55.9) | 635 (59.7) | 1378 (59.1) | |
| General practice | 21 (4.6) | 47 (4.4) | 127 (5.4) | |
| Board certified, no. (%) | 450 (87.6) | 863 (81.7) | 1844 (79.7) | < 0.0001 |
| Foreign medical graduate, n (%) | 105 (20.3) | 267 (25.1) | 553 (23.7) | 0.32 |
| Type of practice, n (%) | < 0.0001 | |||
| Solo, 2, or group physician practice | 215 (41.6) | 611 (67.4) | 1481 (63.5) | |
| Hospital or medical school | 48 (9.3) | 74 (7.0) | 166 (7.1) | |
| HMO | 155 (30.0) | 226 (21.2) | 395 (16.9) | |
| Other | 99 (19.4) | 153 (14.4) | 291 (12.5) | |
| No. of years in practice, x̄ (s) | 13.1 (10.2) | 14.1 (10.2) | 17.0 (11.3) | < 0.0001 |
| Salaried, n (%) (n = 2876) | 349 (67.5) | 626 (58.8) | 1172 (50.2) | 0.02 |
| Annual net income in 1997, x̄ (s) | 123,011 (58,567) | 125,561 (58,966) | 139,464 (65,631) | < 0.0001 |
| Source of practice revenue, x̄ (s) | ||||
| Medicare | 33.2 (21.4) | 35.9 (20.7) | 34.9 (21.3) | 0.38 |
| Medicaid | 15.4 (15.3) | 14.9 (15.4) | 10.3 (13.5) | < 0.0001 |
| Managed care | 51.4 (30.1) | 45.1 (27.4) | 48.2 (27.6) | 0.66 |
| No charity care provided in previous month, n (%) | 169 (32.7) | 280 (26.3) | 746 (32.0) | 0.28 |
| How large an effect does your use of formal, written practice guidelines such as those generated by physician organizations, insurance companies or HMOs, or government agencies have on your practice of medicine? n (%) |
||||
| No effect | 38 (7.4) | 65 (6.1) | 216 (9.2) | |
| Very small effect | 55 (10.6) | 120 (11.3) | 315 (13.5) | |
| Small effect | 112 (21.7) | 300 (28.3) | 630 (27.0) | |
| Moderate effect | 216 (41.8) | 390 (36.8) | 757 (32.5) | |
| Large effect | 68 (13.2) | 149 (14.0) | 324 (13.9) | |
| Very large effect | 28 (5.4) | 37 (3.5) | 90 (3.9) |
Note: HMO = health maintenance organization. In some cases, percentages do notaddup to 100% because of rounding.
a
P values are based on np trend.