Table 4 Patient, GP, and consultation-related factors associated with GP referral to physiotherapists, podiatrists, or nurses
Referrals to physiotherapists | Referrals to podiatrists | Referrals to nurses | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Consultations with referral to a physiotherapist (n = 927) | Consultations without referral to a physiotherapist (n = 19,686) | p-value | Consultations with referral to a podiatrist (n = 172) | Consultations without referral to a podiatrist (n = 20,441) | p-value | Consultations with referral to a nurse (n = 142) | Consultations without referral to a nurse (n = 20,471) | p-value | |
Patient characteristics | |||||||||
Age: mean (SD) | 51.7 (23.2) | 46.4 (25.8) | < 0.001* | 52.9 (21.8) | 46.5 (25.7) | < 0.001* | 70.3 (20.7) | 46.4 (25.7) | < 0.001* |
Female: number (%) | 603 (65.0) | 11,392 (57.9) | < 0.001* | 101 (58.7) | 11,894 (58.2) | 0.89 | 90 (63.4) | 11,905 (58.2) | 0.21 |
Socio-occupational category : number (%) | < 0.001* | 0.03 | < 0.001* | ||||||
Employee | 218 (23.5) | 3754 (19.1) | 32 (18.6) | 3940 (19.3) | 10 (7.0) | 3962 (19.4) | |||
Manual worker | 47 (5.1) | 768 (3.9) | 4 (2.3) | 811 (4.0) | 5 (3.5) | 810 (4.0) | |||
Other professional activitya | 137 (14.8) | 2773 (14.1) | 29 (16.9) | 2881 (14.1) | 6 (4.2) | 2904 (14.3) | |||
No professional activityb | 191 (20.6) | 5959 (30.3) | 37 (21.5) | 6113 (29.9) | 21 (14.8) | 6129 (29.9) | |||
Retired | 334 (36.0) | 6432 (32.7) | 70 (40.7) | 6696 (32.8) | 100 (70.4) | 6666 (32.6) | |||
Regular patients: number (%) | 897 (96.8) | 18,576 (94.4) | 0.002 | 165 (95.9) | 19,308 (94.5) | 0.40 | 136 (95.8) | 19,337 (94.5) | 0.50 |
GP characteristics | |||||||||
Age: mean (SD) | 52.5 (7.7) | 53.0 (7.5) | 0.04 | 51.7 (7.5) | 53.0 (7.5) | 0.025 | 53.3 (7.5) | 53.0 (7.5) | 0.60 |
Female: number (%) | 394 (42.5) | 6669 (33.9) | < 0.001* | 68 (39.5) | 6995 (34.2) | 0.14 | 41 (28.9) | 7022 (34.3) | 0.17 |
Location: number (%) | < 0.001* | 0.10 | < 0.001* | ||||||
Rural | 159 (17.2) | 4004 (20.3) | 33 (19.2) | 4130 (20.2) | 54 (38.0) | 4109 (20.1) | |||
Semi-rural | 172 (18.6) | 5094 (25.9) | 33 (19.2) | 5233 (25.6) | 27 (19.0) | 5239 (25.6) | |||
Urban | 596 (64.3) | 10,588 (53.8) | 106 (61.6) | 11,078 (54.2) | 61 (43.0) | 11,123 (54.3) | |||
Practice type: number (%) | 0.46 | 0.003 | 0.01 | ||||||
Solo | 214 (23.1) | 4116 (20.9) | 28 (16.3) | 4302 (21.0) | 24 (16.9) | 4306 (21.0) | |||
Group | 530 (57.2) | 11,619 (59.0) | 90 (52.3) | 12,059 (59.0) | 98 (69.0) | 12,051 (58.9) | |||
Multi-professional centre | 183 (19.7) | 3951 (20.1) | 54 (31.4) | 4083 (20.0) | 20 (14.1) | 4114 (20.1) | |||
Annual number of consultations: mean (SD) | 5071 (1693) | 5166 (1752) | 0.11 | 5004 (1642) | 5163 (1750) | 0.24 | 5619 (1825) | 5158 (1748) | 0.002 |
Consultation characteristics | |||||||||
Mean duration: minutes (SD) | 19.0 (8.3) | 16.6 (8.3) | < 0.001* | 19.3 (8.6) | 16.7 (8.3) | < 0.001* | 20.5 (9.6) | 16.7 (8.3) | < 0.001* |
Number of consultation results: mean (SD) | 2.74 (1.73) | 2.16 (1.42) | < 0.001* | 2.92 (1.53) | 2.18 (1.44) | < 0.001* | 2.76 (1.8) | 2.18 (1.44) | < 0.001* |
Number of consultation results: number (%) | < 0.001* | < 0.001* | < 0.001* | ||||||
1 consultation result: number (%) | 252 (27.2) | 8315 (42.2) | 24 (14.0) | 8543 (41.8) | 34 (23.9) | 8533 (41.7) | |||
2 consultation results: number (%) | 258 (27.8) | 5386 (27.4) | 58 (33.7) | 5586 (27.3) | 41 (28.9) | 5603 (27.4) | |||
3 consultation results: number (%) | 176 (19.0) | 3074 (15.6) | 42 (24.4) | 3208 (15.7) | 31 (21.8) | 3219 (15.7) | |||
4 consultation results: number (%) | 102 (11.0) | 1512 (7.7) | 23 (13.4) | 1591 (7.8) | 22 (15.5) | 1592 (7.8) | |||
5+ consultation results: number (%) | 139 (15.0) | 1399 (7.1) | 25 (14.5) | 1513 (7.4) | 14 (9.9) | 1524 (7.4) | |||