TY - JOUR
T1 - A comparison between physicians and demographically similar peers in accessing personal health care
AU - Cedfeldt, Andrea S.
AU - Bower, Elizabeth A.
AU - Grady-Weliky, Tana A.
AU - Flores, Christine
AU - Girard, Donald E.
AU - Choi, Dongseok
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2012/3
Y1 - 2012/3
N2 - Purpose: Residents are a unique subpopulation of physicians, training in a complex work and educational environment that may create barriers to accessing preventive and illness-related health care. This study was designed to investigate residents' utilization of personal health care services and compare with those of demographically similar peers. Method: All 675 residents in a large, urban, tertiary care U.S. academic medical center were invited to participate in a confidential, Web-based, cross-sectional survey in January 2008. Survey responses to questions addressing personal health care were compared with those of a demographically similar group using the 2008 survey from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The final weights in BRFSS were used for a post hoc stratified adjustment in analysis. Logistic regression was employed to compare subgroups. Results: Sixty-six percent of residents completed the survey. A significantly lower percentage of residents reported having a primary care provider (44%) or dentist (65%) or having routine health and dental care visits (39% and 53%, respectively) within the past year than those in the demographically similar group of 2008 BRFSS. In that group, 83% reported having a primary care provider, and 63% and 79% reported having routine primary and dental health care visits, respectively. Conclusions: The residents were significantly less likely than demographically similar peers to have a primary care provider or dentist or to participate in routine health maintenance. Further research into barriers preventing residents from accessing health care, and opportunities to address them, is needed.
AB - Purpose: Residents are a unique subpopulation of physicians, training in a complex work and educational environment that may create barriers to accessing preventive and illness-related health care. This study was designed to investigate residents' utilization of personal health care services and compare with those of demographically similar peers. Method: All 675 residents in a large, urban, tertiary care U.S. academic medical center were invited to participate in a confidential, Web-based, cross-sectional survey in January 2008. Survey responses to questions addressing personal health care were compared with those of a demographically similar group using the 2008 survey from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The final weights in BRFSS were used for a post hoc stratified adjustment in analysis. Logistic regression was employed to compare subgroups. Results: Sixty-six percent of residents completed the survey. A significantly lower percentage of residents reported having a primary care provider (44%) or dentist (65%) or having routine health and dental care visits (39% and 53%, respectively) within the past year than those in the demographically similar group of 2008 BRFSS. In that group, 83% reported having a primary care provider, and 63% and 79% reported having routine primary and dental health care visits, respectively. Conclusions: The residents were significantly less likely than demographically similar peers to have a primary care provider or dentist or to participate in routine health maintenance. Further research into barriers preventing residents from accessing health care, and opportunities to address them, is needed.
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U2 - 10.1097/ACM.0b013e3182448731
DO - 10.1097/ACM.0b013e3182448731
M3 - Article
C2 - 22373626
AN - SCOPUS:84858112803
SN - 1040-2446
VL - 87
SP - 327
EP - 331
JO - Academic Medicine
JF - Academic Medicine
IS - 3
ER -