Relationships Between Exploration and Patient and Physician Characteristics
| Exploration† | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristic | No. (%) of Encounters* | Yes | No | P Value |
| HMO = health maintenance organization; MPCC = Measure of Patient-Centred Communication. | ||||
| Note: The main outcome of interest was whether the physician explored the topic of suicide with the standardized patient. This variable is referred to as exploration. | ||||
| * The number (percentage) of encounters with the characteristic present. | ||||
| † The number (percentage) of encounters with the characteristic present with (Yes) and without (No) exploration, or the mean (SD) for the characteristic for encounters with and without exploration. | ||||
| ‡ By design, there were 3 standardized patient conditions: (1) request for Paxil (paroxetine), (2) request for a “medication that might help,” and (3) no specific request. The first 2 conditions were collapsed into 1 category, called “prompt.” | ||||
| § Range of scores: 1.00–2.88. Higher scores indicate greater perceived barriers to treating depression. | ||||
| || Range of scores: 1.75–4.00. Higher scores indicate greater confidence in treating depression. | ||||
| ¶ Range of scores: 0.23–0.67. Higher scores indicate greater patient-centered communication. | ||||
| Total | 298 (100) | 108 (36) | 190 (64) | – |
| Patient | ||||
| Role | ||||
| Major depression | 149 (50) | 63 (42) | 86 (58) | .03 |
| Adjustment disorder | 149 (50) | 45 (30) | 104 (70) | |
| Prompt‡ | ||||
| Yes | 199 (67) | 81 (41) | 118 (59) | |
| No | 99 (33) | 27 (27) | 72 (73) | .02 |
| Physician | ||||
| Age, mean (SD), y | – | 45.0 (9.9) | 46.7 (9.8) | .16 |
| Sex | ||||
| Female | 97 (33) | 34 (35) | 63 (65) | |
| Male | 201 (67) | 74 (37) | 127 (63) | .77 |
| Race/ethnicity | ||||
| White | 210 (70) | 83 (40) | 127 (60) | |
| Not white | 88 (30) | 25 (28) | 63 (72) | .07 |
| Specialty | ||||
| Family medicine | 98 (33) | 35 (36) | 63 (64) | |
| Internal medicine | 200 (67) | 73 (36) | 127 (64) | .90 |
| Practice size | ||||
| Solo | 67 (22) | 23 (34) | 44 (66) | |
| Group | 231 (78) | 85 (37) | 146 (63) | .71 |
| Practice setting | ||||
| Academic | 40 (13) | 24 (60) | 16 (40) | |
| Nonacademic | 258 (87) | 84 (33) | 174 (67) | <.01 |
| Barriers score,§ mean (SD) | – | 2.0 (0.4) | 2.0 (0.5) | .82 |
| Confidence score,|| mean (SD) | – | 3.0 (0.4) | 3.0 (0.4) | .82 |
| Personal experience with depression | ||||
| Yes | 122 (41) | 57 (47) | 65 (53) | |
| No | 176 (59) | 51 (29) | 125 (71) | <.01 |
| Site | ||||
| Sacramento, Calif, network | 41 (14) | 14 (34) | 27 (66) | .77 |
| Sacramento, Calif, HMO | 60 (20) | 19 (32) | 41 (68) | |
| San Francisco, Calif | 101 (34) | 40 (40) | 61 (60) | |
| Rochester, NY | 96 (32) | 35 (36) | 61 (64) | |
| MPCC score,¶ mean (SD) | – | 0.52 (0.73) | 0.51 (0.95) | .13 |