Self-report of delivery of clinical preventive services by U.S. physicians: Comparing specialty, gender, age, setting of practice, and area of practice

Objectives: To summarize national survey results for key clinical preventive services provided by primary care physicians, characterize the results by demographic and practice attributes of the respondents, and compare the results to those obtained in other studies. Design: Cross-sectional study. Participants: A total of 3881 clinicians who provided primary care at least 50% of their time, randomly sampled from the professional associations representing family practitioners, pediatricians, internists, and OB-GYNs. Measures: The Primary Care Providers Survey instrument of 1992, administered through the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, designed to assess the provision of clinical preventive services by primary caregivers. Main Results: Few of the physicians surveyed reported providing most indicated clinical preventive services more than 80% of the time. For the purposes of this paper, >80% provision of preventive services is considered adequate. Female physicians reported providing more preventive services involving exercise, diet, alcohol/drugs, seatbelts, sexual activity, family planning, immunizations, and screening procedures. Physicians aged