RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Rural Patients' Interests In Preventive Medical Care
JF The Journal of the American Board of Family
                Practice
JO J Am Board Fam Med
FD American Board of Family Medicine
SP 11
OP 18
DO 10.3122/jabfm.4.1.11
VO 4
IS 1
A1 Joseph B. Stanford
A1 Leif I. Solberg
YR 1991
UL http://www.jabfm.org/content/4/1/11.abstract
AB A number of national studies have reported patients' interests in preventive medical care, but rural populations have not been well studied. We surveyed patients from a major clinic in rural central Minnesota to determine their interests in preventive medical care and their physicians' perceptions of those interests. Of 270 patients who responded to a questionnaire, 63–93 percent agreed that physicians should perform a wide variety of primary and secondary preventive medical services, such as periodic health examinations and counseling about smoking, exercise, and diet. Study physicians recommended most preventive medical services at least as often as did their patients, but physicians consistently underestimated patients' wishes for these services. Our results indicate that this rural clinic population is interested in a broad range of preventive medical services, which was not fully appreciated by the physicians.