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 5 National estimates of exercise 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	3.8	8.4	62.4	21.1	0.47	0.32	-	0.69
25–44	11.1	24.2	72.2	24.4	1.22	0.93	-	1.61
45–64	20.9	45.6	93.3	31.5	1.54	1.24	-	1.90
≥65	10.0	21.8	67.9	23.0	1‡		...
Sex
Female	25.5	55.7	174.1	58.9	1‡		...
Male	20.3	44.3	121.5	41.1	1.14	0.98	-	1.33
Race
White	38.2	83.5	258.1	87.3	1‡		...
Black	4.9	10.7	28.4	9.6	1.17	0.81	-	1.69
Other	2.7	5.9	9.2	3.1	1.56	1.04	-	2.33
Ethnicity
Non-Hispanic	39.4	86.2	268.2	90.7	1‡		...
Hispanic	6.3	13.8	27.5	9.3	1.40	0.83	-	2.38
Geographic region
Northeast	6.7	14.7	45.5	15.4	0.84	0.46	-	1.52
Midwest	10.5	23.0	83.7	28.3	0.70	0.43	-	1.15
South	15.6	34.2	105.0	35.5	0.81	0.44	-	1.46
West	12.9	28.1	61.6	20.8	1‡		...
Residence in MSA
Yes	38.9	85.0	238.9	80.8	1‡		...
No	6.9	15.0	56.7	19.2	0.86	0.59	-	1.24
Episode of care
Initial visit	9.9	21.6	121.8	41.2	1‡		...
Follow-up visit	24.7	53.9	121.5	41.1	1.65	1.24	-	2.21
Unknown	11.2	24.5	52.5	17.7	1.34	0.81	-	2.24
Major reason for visit
Acute problem	12.4	27.1	144.3	48.8	1‡		...
Chronic problem	21.7	47.5	103.5	35.0	1.65	1.20	-	2.27
Preventive care	9.3	20.3	39.7	13.4	2.50	1.58	-	3.97
Other/unknown	2.3	5.1	8.2	2.8	2.42	1.08	-	5.41
Provider type
Allopathic physician	37.8	82.6	238.6	80.7	1‡		...
Osteopathic physician	7.9	17.4	56.9	19.3	0.88	0.52	-	1.50

*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 exercise counseling, and are adjusted for the other patient or visit characteristics in the table.
‡Reference category for OR.