IS GENERAL-PRACTITIONER DECISION-MAKING ASSOCIATED WITH PATIENT SOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS

This paper presents a preliminary exploration into the relationship be tween decisions made by general practitioners (GPs) and the socio-econ omic status (SES) of patients. There is a large literature on the asso ciation between SES, health state and the use of health services, but relatively little has been published on the association between SES an d decisions by clinicians once a patient is in the health system. The associations between GP decision making and the patient's SES, health status, gender and insurance status are examined using legit analysis. Three sets of binary choices are analysed: the decision to follow up; to prescribe; and to perform or to order a diagnostic test. Secondary data on consultations for a check up/examination were used to explore these relationships. The results suggest that SES is associated indep endently with the decision to test and the decision to prescribe but n ot with the decision to follow up. Patients of high SES are, ceteris p aribus, more likely to be tested and less likely to receive a prescrip tion compared with patients of low SES. Women are more likely to be te sted and to receive a prescription than men. These findings have impli cations for the pursuit of equity as a goal of health services policy.