The effect of doctor ethnicity and country of qualification on prescribingpatterns: an ecological study

Objective: To assess the effect of doctor ethnicity and country of qualific ation on prescribing patterns. Design: Ecological study. Setting: 90 Family Health Services Authorities in the U.K. Results: Being an Asian doctor and qualifying from the Indian subcontinent contributes to 5% of the observed variation seen in the frequency of prescr ibing, but not the cost. The major determinant of variation in prescribing is deprivation, which accounts for 14% of the cost and 32% of the frequency of prescribing. Conclusions: Being an Asian doctor and qualifying from the Indian subcontin ent contributes to the frequency, but not the cost of prescribing variation . As this study was at the FHSA level, 'ecological fallacy' exists and furt her research is advocated at the individual doctor level.