High referral rates to secondary care by general practitioners in Norway are associated with GPs’ gender and specialist qualifications in family medicine, a study of 4350 consultations

Table 1 Characteristics of the responders ¹

Characteristics	Responders			Non-responders	Population of GPs in Northern Norway
	Male	Female	Total	Total	N=476²
	GP	GP	sample
	n=30	n=14	n=44	n=60
Mean age, year	45.2	44.6	45.1³	50.3³	45.0⁴
Gender, %	68.2	31.8		31.7% female	36.3 % female⁴
Specialists in family medicine, %	50.0	50.0	50.0	40.0	46.5⁴
Private practice, %	63.3	57.1	61.4	51.1⁵	76.5⁴
Mean number of GPs in practices	4.5	4.2	4.4	3.6	3.8
Solo practice⁶, %	10.0	14.3	11.4	8.3	11.1⁴
Medical degree from Norway, %	70.0	71.4	70.5	46.9⁵	62.1⁴
Mean list size, persons	897	902	899	910	961⁷
Mean years with current list population (median)	8.6	8.6	8.6 (5.5)
Mean number of days per week in clinical practice	3.9	3.8	3.8
Mean (median) municipality population in the GP’s workplace	11683	26042	16257	10791	5291
Mean (median) municipality population in the GP’s workplace	11683	26042	16257	10791	(2209)
Mean travel time to nearest hospital, minutes	89	70	83	95

¹Comparing the responders with non-responders and with the population of GPs in Northern Norway.
²All GP positions in Northern Norway, autumn 2008.
³ p=0.02.
⁴ Statistics of Physicians in Northern Norway on December 22^nd 2008 based on members of Norwegian medical association below 70 years by Anders Taraldset, Chief of Statistics in the Norwegian Medical Association, Personal communication March 30th 2011.
⁵ Statistics of Physicians in Northern Norway on July 1st 2009 based on members of Norwegian medical association below 70 years by Anders Taraldset, Chief of Statistics in the Norwegian Medical Association, Personal communication December 19th 2012,
Private practice, %: n=47 and Medical degree from Norway, %: n=49.
⁶ Only one GP in the practice.
⁷ Norwegian Directory of Health: “Data from GP service” (Data fra allmennlegetjenesten), page 18, rapport IS-1808, October 28^th 2010 http://www.helsedirektoratet.no/publikasjoner/arsrapport-2009-prosjekt-sykestuefinansiering/Publikasjoner/data%20fra%20almennlegetjenesten.pdf.

ISSN: 1472-6963