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Table 4 Effect of primary care physicians’ characteristics on 3-year mean costs (in Euros) of primary and specialist healthcare

From: Morbidity and doctor characteristics only partly explain the substantial healthcare expenditures of frequent attenders: a record linkage study between patient data and reimbursements data

  

Primary care difference in costs (SE)

Specialist care difference in costs (SE)

Male sex of PCP¶, n(%)

15 (38) a

−10 (20) a

−100 (66) a

Involvement in education of medical students and/or vocational PCP training, n(%)

32 (82)

−5 (36)

59 (91)

General characteristics b

   

Practice sizec

2.4 (1.1)

−23 (9)

−35 (32)

Experience (years)d

17 (9)

−1 (1.1)

−0.2 (4)

Mean number of active problems per patient on problem list

1.7 (0.5)

−73 (17)

−289 (51)

Mean number of contacts (adjusted for age and sex of the patient)

2.8 (0.3)

13 (39)

−80 (131)

Mean percentage of all problems that was psychological or social

12 (3)

−1 (93)

2 (11)

Special interest in managinge

   

Diabetes mellitus

3.2 (0.7)

0 (16)

24 (52)

COPD f/Asthma

3.1 (0.7)

−23 (14)

−50 (45)

Cardiovascular disease

3.0 (0.5)

−20 (18)

−146 (58)

Anxiety

2.9 (0.8)

−11 (13)

−80 (41)

Depression

3.0 (0.7)

−15 (14)

−68 (46)

Medically Unexplained Symptoms

4.0 (0.7)

10 (14)

33 (47)

  1. ¶PCP indicates primary care physician.
  2. aNumbers in brackets are standard errors, unless indicated otherwise.
  3. bIn Euros per unit of the scale of the characteristic.
  4. cDivided in 4 classes: class 1:0–1000 patients; class 2:1001–1250 patients; class 3:1251–1500 patients; class 4:>1500 patients. Range 312–2,714 patients.
  5. dPer (additional) year experience.
  6. eFive levels of interest (from 1 (no special interest) to 5 (very much interest)) and 5 levels of percentage of patients treated by the GP (0%-100%). See Additional file 2.
  7. fChronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.