The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #66447

Stacey Knight, MStat¹, Elisabeth Guenther, MD, MPH¹, and Lenora M. Olson, MA². (1) University of Utah School of Medicine, Intermountain Injury Control Research Center, 615 Arapeen Drive, Suite 202, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, 801.585.9157, stacey.knight@hsc.utah.edu, (2) Intermountain Injury Control Research Center, University of Utah, 615 Arapeen Drive, Suite 202, Salt Lake City, UT 84108-1226

Objective: To examine the rates of injury prevention counseling by office-based physicians in the United States and to describe the characteristics of the patients receiving injury prevention counseling.

Methods: The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) were used for the years 1997-2000. The NAMCS is a national sample of office-based physician that provides data on patients’ visits. All estimates are based on more than 30 sample records and have standard errors <30.

Results: There were an estimated 3.0 billion office-based physician visits in the United States between 1997 and 2000. Injury prevention counseling was provided in 79.8 million (2.7%) of these visits. The percentage of visits that had injury prevention counseling was highest in the Western U.S. (3.8%) and lowest in the Southern U.S. (1.8%). Visits to Orthopedic Surgeons (9.8%), Pediatricians (7.2%) and General/Family Practitioners (3.4%) were more likely to have injury prevention counseling. Visit factors that were associated with an increased likelihood for injury prevention counseling included visits for injuries, especially, work-related injuries and unintentional injuries. Patient factors that were associated with an increased likelihood for injury prevention counseling included the patient being male, patients younger than 25 years old, and patients whose source of payment was worker-compensation or Medicaid.

Conclusions: Injury prevention counseling in visits to office-based physician is rare, even when the visit was injury related. Since injury prevention counseling by physicians has been shown to be effective at reducing risky behaviors, the current lack of injury prevention counseling by physicians is concerning.

Learning Objectives:

That the conclusion of this presentation, listeners will
• Recongnize the utility of the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey for injury research
• Know the current rates of injury prevention counseling in visits to office-based physcians
• List factors associated with injury prevention counseling in visits to office-based physicians

Keywords: Ambulatory Care, Injury Prevention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.