Table 1 Characteristics of patients, primary care practices, GPs and countries included in the study
Characteristics of patients (N = 60,762) | |
Gender (percentage female) | 61.0 |
Age (mean ± SDa) | 51.0 ± 17.4 |
Income (percentage, compared to the average of the country) | |
Below average | 30.8 |
Around average | 56.9 |
Above average | 12.3 |
Perceived health status (percentages) | |
Poor | 8.8 |
Fair | 30.7 |
Good | 46.2 |
Very good | 14.3 |
Presence of at least one longstanding disease (percentage yes) | 49.9 |
Patients with a personal doctor (percentage yes) | 95.7 |
Characteristics of primary care practices and GPs (N = 7183) | |
Gender of GPs (percentage female) | 52.2 |
Age of GPs (mean ± SDa) | 50.3 ± 9.6 |
Practice location (percentages) | |
Big (inner)city | 31.8 |
Suburbs or small town | 34.6 |
Mixed urban-rural or rural | 33.4 |
Employment status (percentages) | |
Salaried | 33.7 |
Self-employed | 65.4 |
Mixed | 0.9 |
Frequency of referral letters sent to medical specialists by GPs (percentage) | |
For all the patients who they refer | 64.9 |
For most patients who they refer | 20.8 |
For a minority of patients who they refer | 7.8 |
Seldom or never | 6.5 |
Frequency of feedback received from medical specialists (percentage) | |
Always, or almost always | 38.1 |
Usually | 35.8 |
Occasionally | 14.4 |
Seldom or never | 11.7 |
Score of job satisfaction of GPs, range 1–4 (mean ± SDa) | 2.5 ± 0.5 |
Characteristics of countries (N = 34) | |
List system in place (percentage yes) | 52.9 |