Changes in preventive medicine among general practitioners, 1984-1990.

Baseline data on screening and health education were collected in 1984 from a national survey of general practitioners (GPs), and two groups of GPs who responded to this first survey were followed-up by a second postal questionnaire sent out in July 1990. One group comprised doctors who previously had a low involvement with screening and health education in 1984 (low-involvement group [LIG]), and the other doctors with high involvement (high-involvement group [HIG]). The results from the 1990 survey indicated that the HIG were still more committed to screening and health education than the LIG, but the differences between the two groups had greatly diminished. In 1990 similar proportions of both groups were expecting to receive payments for screening, child health surveillance and health promotion clinics under the new GP contract.