Associations Between Patient, Physician, and Practice Characteristics and the Study Physician's Decision to Intensify Therapy to Treat Blood Pressure, Glycemia, Lipids, or Any of These Three Conditions After Viewing the Patient Vignette (n = 192)*
Medication Changes | Intensified According to Vignette Patient Characteristics (%) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Male | Female | P | 35 years old | 65 years old | P | |
Blood pressure | 52 | 46 | .44 | 44 | 54 | .20 |
Glycemia | 24 | 25 | .88 | 22 | 27 | .46 |
Lipids | 18 | 13 | .32 | 14 | 17 | .55 |
Any of the 3 | 55 | 50 | .52 | 48 | 57 | .24 |
Higher SES† | Lower SES† | P | White | Black | Hispanic | P | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Blood pressure | 51 | 47 | .61 | 48 | 52 | 47 | .89 |
Glycemia | 29 | 20 | .18 | 28 | 27 | 19 | .51 |
Lipids | 20 | 10 | .08 | 17 | 17 | 11 | .53 |
Any of 3 | 55 | 50 | .52 | 55 | 52 | 52 | .94 |
Intensified According to Physician Characteristics (%)‡ | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Male | Female | P | Less Experienced | More Experienced | P | |
Blood pressure | 46 | 52 | .44 | 51 | 47 | .61 |
Glycemia | 23 | 26 | .66 | 26 | 23 | .66 |
Lipids | 14 | 17 | .55 | 13 | 18 | .32 |
Any of 3 | 49 | 56 | .36 | 52 | 53 | .90 |
Intensified According to Practice Factors (%)§ | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
For profit (n = 135) | Other (n = 57) | P | Solo (n = 65) | Small (n = 105) | Large (n = 22) | P | |
Blood pressure | 47 | 53 | .42 | 45 | 52 | 46 | .58 |
Glycemia | 24 | 25 | .68 | 25 | 27 | 14 | .39 |
Lipids | 14 | 18 | .15 | 20 | 12 | 14 | .68 |
Any of 3 | 50 | 58 | .30 | 49 | 56 | 46 | .47 |
* Numbers are proportions of respondents indicating that they would prescribe medications for each or any of the three diabetes-related risk factors; Numbers of physicians per practice variables are indicated in the table. Due to the factorial experimental design, numbers within each patient and physician variable category are equal.
† Socioeconomic status (SES) depicted by occupation of lawyer versus janitor.
‡ Physician experience groups divided as ≤12 years vs ≥22 years of clinical experience.
§ Practice sizes defined by number of physicians (1, ≤10, or >10).