A comparison of patient visits to osteopathic and allopathic general and family medicine physicians: results from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 2003–2004

Table 2 National estimates of time spent with physician during general and family medicine patient visits.*

	Time† (min)
Patient or Visit Characteristic	Mean	SE	P
Age, yr
≤24	17.21	0.78	< .001
25–44	20.15	0.91	.68
45–64	20.27	0.91	.83
≥65	20.36	0.82	‡
Sex
Female	19.50	0.84	‡
Male	19.50	0.82	.91
Race
White	19.55	0.62	‡
Black	19.23	0.90	.66
Other	19.71	1.47	.90
Ethnicity
Non-Hispanic	19.42	0.75	‡
Hispanic	19.57	0.98	.80
Geographic region
Northeast	20.90	1.21	.21
Midwest	18.23	0.78	.09
South	19.26	0.97	.66
West	19.61	0.90	‡
Residence in MSA
Yes	19.16	0.81	‡
No	19.84	0.99	.38
Episode of care
Initial visit	19.36	0.93	‡
Follow-up visit	19.35	0.94	.99
Unknown	19.78	0.92	.65
Major reason for visit
Acute problem	17.16	0.80	‡
Chronic problem	18.43	0.75	.01
Preventive care	22.52	1.22	< .001
Other/unknown	19.88	1.39	.02
Provider type
Allopathic physician	19.65	0.77	‡
Osteopathic physician	19.34	1.04	.71

*Derived from the 2003 and 2004 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey using population estimates based on patient visit weights. MSA denotes metropolitan statistical area.
†Time spent with physician is adjusted for the patient or visit characteristics in the table.
‡Reference category for contrasts.