An Empirical Investigation of Factors Influencing Career Satisfaction of Primary Care Physicians

Article Figures & Data

Table 1.

Operational Definitions of Study Variables

Variables	Items	Scale
Career satisfaction	1	5 = Very satisfied
		1 = Very dissatisfied
Ownership	1	2 = Full owner
		1 = Part owner
		0 = Employee and independent contractor
Information technology use	16	3 = IT available and used
		2 = IT available and not used
		1 = IT not available
Private practice	1	1 = Yes
		0 = No
Inadequate quality care	8	3 = Major problem
		2 = Minor problem
		1 = Not a problem
Threat of malpractice	5	5 = Strongly agree
		1 = Strongly disagree
Patient interaction	1	5 = Strongly agree
		1 = Strongly disagree
Income	1	6 = >$300,000
		5 = $250,001-$300,000
		4 = $200,001-$250,000
		3 = $150,001-$200,000
		2 = $100,001-$150,000
		1 = <$100,000
Benefits of drug companies	1	1 = Yes
		0 = No
Sex	1	1 = Male
		0 = Female
Race	1	1 = Hispanic
		2 = White
		3 = Black
		4 = Asian or Pacific Islander
		5 = Other/mix
Experience	1	8 = 2005 or later
		7 = 2001–2004
		6 = 1996–2000
		5 = 1991–1995
		4 = 1986–1990
		3 = 1981–1985
		2 = 1976–1980
		1 = 1975 or earlier

Table 2.

Descriptive Statistics for Dependent and Independent Variables for the 3 Primary Care Specialties

Variables	Internal Medicine (n = 504)	Family/General Medicine (n = 693)	Pediatrics (n = 363)
Career satisfaction	3.857 (1.147)	3.971 (1.068)	4.320 (0.921)
Ownership	0.891 (0.873)	0.812 (0.865)	0.788 (0.784)
Information technology use	2.033 (0.573)	1.981 (0.590)	1.926 (0.554)
Private practice	0.756 (0.430)	0.799 (0.401)	0.774 (0.419)
Inadequate quality care	2.030 (0.360)	2.034 (0.337)	1.961 (0.394)
Threat of malpractice	3.607 (0.958)	3.689 (0.977)	3.233 (0.970)
Patient interaction	3.157 (1.402)	3.195 (1.380)	3.603 (1.231)
Income	2.706 (1.290)	2.622 (1.290)	2.523 (1.357)
Benefits of drug companies	0.307 (0.189)	0.320 (0.171)	0.292 (0.171)
Sex	0.706 (0.456)	0.727 (0.446)	0.482 (0.500)
Race	2.500 (0.944)	2.270 (0.789)	2.340 (0.930)
Experience	4.647 (1.936)	4.527 (1.984)	4.730 (2.077)

Table 3.

Regression Results for Environmental Issues, Practice Quality, Compensation, and Demographics for the 3 Primary Care Specialties

Variable	Internal Medicine (n = 504)	Family/General Medicine (n = 693)	Pediatrics (n = 363)
Environmental issues
Ownership	−0.168 (0.064)^*	−0.059 (0.049)	−0.114 (0.065)^†
Information technology use	0.046 (0.086)	−0.003 (0.065)	−0.026 (0.086)
Private practice	−0.011 (0.130)	−0.020 (0.106)	−0.066 (0.136)
Practice quality
Inadequate quality care	−0.080 (0.147)	−0.044 (0.120)	−0.102 (0.117)^†
Threat of malpractice	−0.177 (0.053)^*	−0.153 (0.039)^*	−0.146 (0.047)^*
Patient interaction	0.242 (0.038)^*	0.321 (0.029)^*	0.346 (0.038)^*
Compensation
Income	0.132 (0.038)^*	0.151 (0.031)^*	0.170 (0.035)^*
Benefits of drug companies	0.051 (0.266)	0.067 (0.229)	0.096 (0.284)
Demographics
Sex	−0.064 (0.110)	0.011 (0.091)	0.025 (0.095)
Race	−0.007 (0.052)	−0.007 (0.048)	−0.030 (0.049)
Experience	0.019 (0.027)	0.012 (0.021)	−0.026 (0.022)
F	9.881^*	13.475^*	9.713
Adjusted R²	0.16	0.17	0.21