Quantifying the Health Benefits of Primary Care Physician Supply in the United States
- 1 January 2007
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in International Journal of Health Services
- Vol. 37 (1), 111-126
- https://doi.org/10.2190/3431-g6t7-37m8-p224
Abstract
This analysis addresses the question, Would increasing the number of primary care physicians improve health outcomes in the United States? A search of the PubMed database for articles containing “primary care physician supply” or “primary care supply” in the title, published between 1985 and 2005, identified 17 studies, and 10 met all inclusion criteria. Results were reanalyzed to assess primary care effect size and the predicted effect on health outcomes of a one-unit increase in primary care physicians per 10,000 population. Primary care physician supply was associated with improved health outcomes, including all-cause, cancer, heart disease, stroke, and infant mortality; low birth weight; life expectancy; and self-rated health. This relationship held regardless of the year (1980–1995) or level of analysis (state, county, metropolitan statistical area (MSA), and non-MSA levels). Pooled results for all-cause mortality suggest that an increase of one primary care physician per 10,000 population was associated with an average mortality reduction of 5.3 percent, or 49 per 100,000 per year.Keywords
This publication has 35 references indexed in Scilit:
- Primary care, race, and mortality in US statesSocial Science & Medicine, 2005
- Weighing the Evidence for Expanding Physician SupplyAnnals of Internal Medicine, 2004
- Physician supply, physician diversity, and outcomes of primary health care for older persons in the United StatesHealth & Place, 2003
- The relationship between primary care, income inequality, and mortality in US States, 1980-1995.The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 2003
- A spatial analysis of county-level variation in hospitalization rates for low back problems in North CarolinaSocial Science & Medicine, 2002
- Hospitalization rates as indicators of access to primary careHealth & Place, 2001
- Preventable Hospitalizations in Primary Care Shortage Areas: An Analysis of Vulnerable Medicare BeneficiariesArchives of Family Medicine, 1999
- Is Primary Care Physician Supply Correlated with Health Outcomes?International Journal of Health Services, 1998
- The Meaning of Ambulatory Care Sensitive Admissions: Urban and Rural PerspectivesThe Journal of Rural Health, 1997
- Forecasting the Effects of Health Reform on US Physician Workforce RequirementJAMA, 1994