Measuring patients' medical care preferences: Care seeking versus self-treating

The objectives of this study were (1) to develop a scale to measure patent preferences for using medical care, (2) to assess the reliability and valid ity of the scale, and (3) to examine factors predicting preferences. Prefer ences were defined along a continuum, anchored by self-treating preferences and care-seeking preferences, A 9-item scale was developed and mailed to a random sample of 3500 Wisconsin consumers age 50 and older. Ordinary least squares regression was used to examine whether preferences were predicted by demographic and health status variables. A 56.9% usable response rate wa s obtained. The Medical Care Preference Scale was unidimensional and had a Cronbach's alpha of 0.879. Younger individuals, women, individuals in bette r health, and individuals from rural areas had significantly stronger self- treating preferences. Significant correlations between the preference scale and 2 measures of health care utilization provided evidence of predictive validity. Individuals with care-seeking preferences used an average of 1.98 more prescription drugs and had 0.50 more physician visits in the past mon th than individuals with self-treating preferences. The Medical Care Prefer ence Scale should be a useful tool for research on health care utilization.