COMPARING PREDICTORS OF WILLINGNESS TO TREAT HIV-YORK-CITY MALE AND FEMALE GENERAL-PRACTICE DENTISTS 50 YEARS OF AGE OR YOUNGER( PATIENTS FOR NEW)

Objectives: This article develops and compares gender-specific predict ive models for willingness to treat HIV-infected patients (PHIV+) for male and female private general practice dentists (GPDs). Methods: Bas ed on mail survey data collected in Manhattan and Queens, New York Cit y (73.3% response rate), hierarchical multiple regression analyses wer e conducted for male and female dentists 50 years of age or younger (n =763) and for those in solo practice. Results: The gender-specific pre dictive models (R(2)s=0.72) do not differ, except for the influence of practice viability, a moderately strong, statistically significant pr edictor for men, while the least powerful, statistically nonsignifican t predictor for women. This distinction remains for solo male and fema le practitioners. Informal/formal collegial norms are more influential predictors within the solo female model than within the solo male mod el. Conclusions: Findings are encouraging for further work in developi ng predictive models for clinician subpopulations, with an eye toward developing intervention strategies that reflect key predictive factors for each group.