Table 2

Factors Associated With Increased County-Level Mobility (Nonretention) of Rural Primary Care Physicians

Factorβ Estimate (95% CI)a
Primary care physician supply (PPR per 1,000 residents)−6.70 (−8.66 to −4.75)b
RUCC category
 4 or 5−4.50 (−6.21 to −2.78)b
 6 or 7−3.09 (−4.64 to −1.54)b
No hospital in county5.74 (3.78 to 7.67)b
Long work commute (%)−0.001 (−0.055 to 0.053)
Population uninsured (%)0.084 (−0.089 to 0.256)
Median house price (per $100,000)−0.163 (−0.953 to 0.627)
Unemployment rate (%)0.160 (−0.083 to 0.403)
Population aged ≥65 years (%)−0.082 (−0.216 to 0.052)
Population race/ethnicity (%)
 Non-Hispanic African American0.014 (−0.032 to 0.060)
 Hispanic0.029 (−0.022 to 0.081)
Adjacent to metropolitan−0.080 (−0.927 to 0.767)

  • PPR = primary care physician–to-population ratio; RUCC = Rural-Urban Continuum Code.

  • ↵a Outcome measure is a score between 0 and 100 (eg, 20 = 20% nonretention).

  • ↵b P <.01.

  • Notes: The number of observations was 1,797. The R2 value was 0.25.