Table 1.

Item Parameters for the Original 14 Items on the Family Medicine Attitudes Questionnaire (n=549)

Item	a	b1	b2	b3	b4
*1. Family physicians provide only a small fraction of all health care delivered in the United States.	1.14	−5.53	−2.82	−2.11	0.69
2. Family physicians can usually decide how much they want to work.	0.19	−19.52	−5.57	0.07	17.23
3. The United States would provide better for its people if more medical students chose primary care.	0.96	−5.19	−3.23	−1.79	0.65
4. To give good care, it is important to consider each patient in the context of his or her family.	1.51	-	−3.62	−2.39	0.06
5. Family medicine requires knowledge that a subspecialist practice may not.	1.40	−4.41	−2.84	−2.05	0.44
6. The United States has a very serious shortage of primary care physicians.	0.99	−5.79	−4.41	−2.76	0.11
*7. Research-oriented students should probably not consider family medicine careers.	1.32	−2.99	−1.25	−0.48	2.09
8. Family medicine provides a physician with enough income to live well.	1.03	−3.67	−2.21	−1.15	1.57
9. The US health care system can only work well with family physicians playing an integral part.	1.64	−4.72	−2.84	−1.74	0.29
10. Research to improve health happens very often in primary care settings.	1.09	−5.05	−2.22	−0.60	2.17
11. Family physicians’ work is complex and interesting.	1.84	−2.42	−1.04	−0.62	1.31
*12. In the United States, people don’t rely on family physicians when they are very sick.	0.74	−4.47	−1.75	−0.81	3.04
13. Knowledge of family interactions is important in treating individual patients.	1.43	-	−3.33	−2.31	0.43
14. Family physicians enjoy their work.	1.02	−5.36	−3.36	−1.25	2.08

a=item discrimination (slope) parameter; b=item difficulty (location) parameter.

^*Reverse-coded items