A comparison of patient visits to osteopathic and allopathic general and family medicine physicians: results from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 2003–2004

Table 3 National estimates of diet or nutrition counseling during general and family medicine patient visits (in millions).*

	Counseling Provided
	Yes		No
Patient or Visit Characteristic	No.	%	No.	%	OR†	95% CI
Age, yr
≤24	8.6	13.1	57.6	20.9	0.68	0.49	-	0.94
25–44	13.8	21.1	69.5	25.2	0.92	0.73	-	1.17
45–64	27.1	41.5	87.0	31.5	1.23	1.02	-	1.49
≥65	15.9	24.4	61.9	22.4	1‡		...
Sex
Female	36.5	55.8	163.1	59.1	1‡		...
Male	28.9	44.2	112.9	40.9	1.14	0.99	-	1.31
Race
White	53.8	82.3	242.4	87.8	1‡		...
Black	7.9	12.0	25.4	9.2	1.35	0.94	-	1.93
Other	3.7	5.7	8.2	3.0	1.71	1.16	-	2.52
Ethnicity
Non-Hispanic	55.6	85.1	252.0	91.3	1‡		...
Hispanic	9.8	14.9	24.0	8.7	1.79	1.15	-	2.80
Geographic region
Northeast	9.1	13.8	43.1	15.6	0.96	0.56	-	1.64
Midwest	15.2	23.2	79.0	28.6	0.84	0.54	-	1.29
South	25.0	38.2	95.5	34.6	1.10	0.68	-	1.78
West	16.1	24.7	58.4	21.1	1‡		...
Residence in MSA
Yes	54.4	83.3	223.3	80.9	1‡		...
No	10.9	16.7	52.6	19.1	0.92	0.70	-	1.19
Episode of care
Initial visit	13.5	20.6	118.1	42.8	1‡		...
Follow-up visit	35.6	54.5	110.4	40.0	1.78	1.43		2.22
Unknown	16.2	24.8	47.5	17.2	1.29	0.82		2.01
Major reason for visit
Acute problem	16.8	25.7	140.0	50.7	1‡
Chronic problem	32.1	49.1	93.1	33.7	1.94	1.53	-	2.47
Preventive care	13.8	21.1	35.2	12.8	3.04	1.92	-	4.81
Other/unknown	2.7	4.1	7.8	2.8	2.10	1.01	-	4.34
Provider type
Allopathic physician	55.0	84.2	221.4	80.2	1‡
Osteopathic physician	10.3	15.8	54.7	19.8	0.79	0.50	-	1.25

*Derived from the 2003 and 2004 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey using population estimates based on patient visit weights. CI denotes confidence interval; MSA, metropolitan statistical area; OR, odds ratio.
†ORs are for provision of diet or nutrition counseling, and are adjusted for the other patient or visit characteristics in the table.
‡Reference category for OR.