Table 1.
Personal and practice characteristics of the participating German primary care physicians, n = 1719
| Level | Responder | Sample | Official statistics | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | 1 719 | 12 004 | 54 741 a | |
| Gender (%) | male | 755 (44.6) | 6 063 (50.5) | 30 201 (55.2) a |
| female | 936 (55.4) | 5 940 (49.5) | 24 540 (44.8) a | |
| Medical specialty (%)d | General medicine | 1 134 (67.4) | 6 960 (58.0) | 34 751 (62.0) a |
| Internal medicine | 429 (25.5) | 3 543 (29.5) | 15 417 (27.5) a | |
| Other or none | 77 (4.6) | 1 501 (12.5) | 4 852 (8.7) a | |
| General and internal medicine | 42 (2.5) | - | 1 047 (1.9) b | |
| Years of experience as PCP (%) | 0–10 years | 454 (27.4) | - | |
| 11–20 years | 540 (32.5) | - | ||
| 21–30 years | 454 (27.4) | - | ||
| > 30 years | 211 (12.7) | - | ||
| Practice setting (%) | Own practice | 836 (50.1) | - | 26 823 (49.0) c |
| Collaborative practice | 834 (49.9) | - | 27 918 (51.0) c | |
| Number of patients (%) | less than 500 | 53 (3.2) | - | 1 642 (3.0) c |
| 500–1000 | 654 (39.7) | - | 11 879 (21.7) c | |
| more than 1000 | 942 (57.2) | - | 37 224 (68.0) c | |
| - | ||||
| Practice region (%) | Rural (max. 4 999 Inh.) | 321 (19.6) | - | |
| Small town (5 000 to 19 999 Inh.) | 369 (22.5) | - | ||
| Medium town (20 000 to 99 999 Inh.) | 351 (21.4) | - | ||
| Large town (above 100 000 Inh.) | 599 (36.5) | - | ||
| Additional qualification (%) | Psychotherapy | 98 (5.7) | - | |
| Basic psychosomatic care | 1 163 (67.7) | - | ||
| other or none | 458 (26.6) | - | ||
| Weekly proportion of patients with somatoform disorders (%) | 0–10% | 711 (51.4) | - | |
| 11–20% | 342 (24.7) | - | ||
| 21–30% | 208 (15.0) | - | ||
| > 30% | 123 (8.9) | - |
aNational Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians [21]
bGerman Medical Association [22],
cINFAS & National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians [23]
dThe sum of figures in medical specialty of official statistics (56 067) is slightly higher than the count for all PCPs (54 741), because the source gave counts for physicians according to their title “general medicine” and “others or none”. However, some of those are not working as PCPs, but as specialists