title: Demographic and clinical factors associated with physician service use in systemic sclerosis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess physician service use in a large sample of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), and to determine factors associated with physician use.
  
  
  METHODS
  Our sample was a national SSc registry maintaining data on demographics (age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, income) and clinical factors (disease onset, organ involvement, etc.). Registry cohort members completed detailed questionnaires, and rheumatologists provided clinical assessments. We examined cross-sectional data from 397 patients who provided information on physician visits in the past 12 months. Patients were classified as high physician-users if they reported more than the median number (6) of physician visits in the past year. In multivariate logistic regressions, we assessed the independent effects of race/ethnicity, education, degree of skin involvement, comorbidity, and SF-36 scores on physician use.
  
  
  RESULTS
  On average, subjects reported 3.8 visits per year to specialty physicians (SD 4.2) and 3.5 visits per year to family physicians (SD 4.3). Regression models suggested the following factors as independently associated with number of physician visits: high skin scores, greater comorbidity, and low physical component summary scores on the SF-36.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is evidence of independent relationships between clinical characteristics and physician use by patients with SSc.
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Epidemiology, Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, 687 Pine Avenue West, V-Building, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3A 1A1. sasha.bernatsky@mail.mcgill.ca
authors.forename: Sasha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bernatsky
authors.forename: Pantelis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Panopolis
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hudson
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pope
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Leclercq
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.forename: Niall
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Markland
authors.forename: Maysan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abu-Hakima
authors.forename: Jean-Pierre
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Mathieu
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Docherty
authors.forename: Nader
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Khalidi
authors.forename: Evelyn
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sutton
authors.forename: Murray
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Baron
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006295:Health Resources / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012042:Registries; D012595:Scleroderma, Systemic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*