Table 2. Number of Primary Care Physician Encounters and Pharmacy Visits per Person-Year for the Overall Sample and by Subgroups.
| Variable | No. of encounters/visits per person-year, median (IQR) | P value for comparison between primary care physician encounters and pharmacy visits | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary care physician encounters | Pharmacy visits | ||||
| Defined using 13-d window | Defined using 10-d window | Defined using 13-d window | Defined using 10-d window | ||
| Overall | 7 (4-14) | 13 (9-17) | 14 (9-19) | <.001 | <.001 |
| Subgroup analyses demographics | |||||
| Age, y | |||||
| <65 | 7 (3-13) | 15 (10-18) | 16 (11-21) | <.001 | <.001 |
| 65-74 | 7 (3-13) | 12 (8-16) | 13 (8-18) | ||
| ≥75 | 8 (4-15) | 13 (9-17) | 14 (10-19) | ||
| Sex | |||||
| Male | 7 (3-13) | 13 (8-17) | 14 (9-19) | <.001 | <.001 |
| Female | 8 (4-14) | 13 (9-17) | 14 (9-19) | ||
| Race | |||||
| White | 7 (4-14) | 13 (9-17) | 14 (9-19) | <.001 | <.001 |
| Black | 7 (3-14) | 13 (9-17) | 15 (10-20) | ||
| Hispanic | 8 (4-15) | 13 (9-17) | 14 (9-19) | ||
| Other | 7 (4-14) | 12 (7-15) | 13 (8-17) | ||
| Region of residence | |||||
| By degree of urbanizationa | |||||
| Metropolitan area | 8 (4-14) | 13 (8-17) | 14 (9-19) | <.001 | <.001 |
| Nonmetropolitan area | |||||
| Urban | 6 (3-12) | 14 (10-17) | 15 (10-20) | <.001 | <.001 |
| Rural | 5 (2-11) | 14 (10-17) | 15 (10-20) | ||
| By access to health careb | |||||
| Medically underserved area | 8 (4-14) | 13 (8-17) | 14 (9-19) | <.001 | <.001 |
| Nonmedically underserved area | 7 (3-13) | 14 (9-17) | 15 (10-20) | ||
| Clinical characteristicsc | |||||
| Acute myocardial infarction | 14 (7-26) | 15 (12-19) | 17 (12-21) | .60 | <.001 |
| Asthma | 12 (6-21) | 16 (12-19) | 18 (13-22) | <.001 | |
| Atrial fibrillation | 13 (7-23) | 16 (12-19) | 18 (13-22) | ||
| Chronic kidney disease | 11 (5-20) | 15 (12-19) | 17 (12-22) | ||
| COPD | 12 (6-21) | 16 (12-19) | 18 (13-22) | ||
| Depression | 10 (5-18) | 16 (12-19) | 18 (13-22) | ||
| Diabetes | 10 (5-17) | 15 (11-18) | 17 (12-21) | ||
| Heart failure | 10 (5-19) | 15 (11-18) | 17 (12-21) | ||
| Hyperlipidemia | 9 (5-16) | 14 (10-17) | 15 (11-20) | ||
| Hypertension | 9 (5-16) | 14 (10-18) | 15 (11-20) | ||
| Osteoporosis | 11 (6-18) | 14 (10-18) | 15 (10-20) | ||
| Rheumatoid arthritis/osteoarthritis | 10 (5-18) | 14 (11-18) | 16 (11-21) | ||
| Stroke or transient ischemic attack | 13 (7-23) | 15 (11-18) | 17 (12-21) | ||
Abbreviations: COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; IQR, interquartile range.
a
We used Rural-Urban Continuum Codes from the US Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service to categorize metropolitan areas (codes 1-3), nonmetropolitan urban areas (codes 4-7), and nonmetropolitan rural areas (codes 8-9).9
b
We used data from the Health Resources & Services Administration to identify medically underserved areas.10
c
We used the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Chronic Condition Data Warehouse definitions of priority conditions.11