<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><xml><records><record><source-app name="HighWire" version="7.x">Drupal-HighWire</source-app><ref-type name="Journal Article">17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Burmeister, James R.</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Rubino, Ida J.</style></author></authors><secondary-authors></secondary-authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">US Trends in Lacking a Personal Doctor, by Educational Attainment, 2016–2023</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">The Journal of the American Board of Family
                Medicine</style></secondary-title></titles><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2026</style></year><pub-dates><date><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2026-09-01 00:00:00</style></date></pub-dates></dates><elocation-id><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">168433</style></elocation-id><doi><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">10.3122/jabfm.2025.250314R1</style></doi><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">39</style></volume><issue><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">1</style></issue><abstract><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Background Having a personal doctor is a cornerstone of primary care and is associated with improved preventive service use, chronic disease management, and patient satisfaction. Educational attainment is a key social determinant of health and access to care.Methods We analyzed national trends in the percentage of US adults lacking a personal doctor from 2016 to 2023 using the State Health Compare tool (SHADAC) based on the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Adults were classified by educational attainment: less than high school, high school graduate, some college/associate’s degree, and bachelor’s degree or higher. The SHADAC “no personal doctor” measure is based on self-report: respondents answering “no” to the BRFSS question “Do you have one person you think of as your personal doctor or health care provider?” were considered to lack a personal doctor. Only descriptive statistics were used; no inferential testing was performed.Results Nationally, the share of adults without a personal doctor declined from 21.9% in 2016 to 17.1% in 2023 (absolute change −4.8 percentage points; relative change −21.8%). Reductions occurred across all education groups, but disparities persisted. In 2023, 30.8% of adults with less than a high school diploma reported lacking a personal doctor, compared with 9.7% among those with a bachelor’s degree or higher—a gap of over 21 percentage points. Improvements were largest for college-educated adults (−36.0% relative change) and smallest for those without a high school diploma (−2.9%).Conclusions Despite overall improvement, large and persistent education-related disparities remain. Interventions such as care-navigation support, insurance literacy programs, and payment models that fund outreach may help address these gaps. The persistent 21-point gap highlights the ongoing challenge for equity in primary care access in the United States.</style></abstract></record></records></xml>