[Profile of primary care physicians in a health area: a cluster analysis].

OBJECTIVES

To discover characteristics of primary care doctors. To find homogeneous groups of doctors.

DESIGN

A basically descriptive crossover observational study.

SETTING

Primary care doctors from a health area.

PARTICIPANTS

The following variables were recorded on the 99 doctors who worked in Castellon Area 03 during 1992: age, gender, fixed or temporary post, rural or urban area, MIR training, primary care model, patient load, sole employment, drugs expenditure, number of pensioners and total number of patients registered.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

We found a first group of older doctors, working mainly in the old model, for whom PC was not their sole employment; another younger group without MIR training and with an average patient load; the third group was women in temporary posts with a somewhat higher drugs expenditure; the fourth was doctors working in rural areas with a very low patient load; the fifth, final and youngest group was family doctors, with an average patient load, low expenditure and a high number of patients registered. We observed highly significant differences between groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Doctors' age and gender divide them into different groupings; family doctors form one group. Multivariable, descriptive methods proved useful in finding, describing and classifying doctors and centres, etc., and could be of use in resource and action planning.