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Table 1 Personal and practice characteristics of the participating German primary care physicians, n = 1719

From: Diagnostic and treatment barriers to persistent somatic symptoms in primary care – representative survey with physicians

 

Level

Responder

Sample

Official statistics

n

 

1 719

12 004

54 741 a

Gender (%)

male

755 (44.6)

6 063 (50.5)

30 201 (55.2) a

female

936 (55.4)

5 940 (49.5)

24 540 (44.8) a

Medical specialty (%)d

General medicine

1 134 (67.4)

6 960 (58.0)

34 751 (62.0) a

Internal medicine

429 (25.5)

3 543 (29.5)

15 417 (27.5) a

Other or none

77 (4.6)

1 501 (12.5)

4 852 (8.7) a

General and internal medicine

42 (2.5)

-

1 047 (1.9) b

Years of experience as PCP (%)

0–10 years

454 (27.4)

-

 

11–20 years

540 (32.5)

-

 

21–30 years

454 (27.4)

-

 

 > 30 years

211 (12.7)

-

 

Practice setting (%)

Own practice

836 (50.1)

-

26 823 (49.0) c

Collaborative practice

834 (49.9)

-

27 918 (51.0) c

Number of patients (%)

less than 500

53 (3.2)

-

1 642 (3.0) c

500–1000

654 (39.7)

-

11 879 (21.7) c

more than 1000

942 (57.2)

-

37 224 (68.0) c

   

-

 

Practice region (%)

Rural (max. 4 999 Inh.)

321 (19.6)

-

 

Small town (5 000 to 19 999 Inh.)

369 (22.5)

-

 

Medium town (20 000 to 99 999 Inh.)

351 (21.4)

-

 

Large town (above 100 000 Inh.)

599 (36.5)

-

 

Additional qualification (%)

Psychotherapy

98 (5.7)

-

 

Basic psychosomatic care

1 163 (67.7)

-

 

other or none

458 (26.6)

-

 

Weekly proportion of patients with somatoform disorders (%)

0–10%

711 (51.4)

-

 

11–20%

342 (24.7)

-

 

21–30%

208 (15.0)

-

 

 > 30%

123 (8.9)

-

 
  1. aNational Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians [21]
  2. bGerman Medical Association [22],
  3. cINFAS & National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians [23]
  4. dThe sum of figures in medical specialty of official statistics (56 067) is slightly higher than the count for all PCPs (54 741), because the source gave counts for physicians according to their title “general medicine” and “others or none”. However, some of those are not working as PCPs, but as specialists