PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Background and aim The overall distribution and appropriate general practitioner(GP) supply is an increasing challenge. Therefore, the analysis of priorities and factors regarding the location of GPs' practice is of major importance for a need-based coordination of physician supply. In this study, priorities and factors regarding the location of GPs in Lower Saxony were analysed and evaluated. The aim of this study was to elicit the preferences of physicians in regard to location factors. The knowledge about these preferences could contribute to new distribution approaches of GP practices considering physicians' wishes.& para;& para;Methods The first part of the study, called the PrEf, aimed to identify and prioritize the influencing factors for the establishment of a GP's practice with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method in personal interviews. In the next step, we conducted a cross sectional study in Lower Saxony, called QuESt. In the QuESt study, we analyzed the preferences regarding the location of the practice for GPs in rural areas compared to GPs in urban areas with logistic regression methods.& para;& para;Results The first part of the study (PrEf) consisted of 10 valid AHP interviews. The most important influential factor found in PrEf is the "family's surroundings" with a global weight of 32,4% (SD = 19,4), followed by "financial conditions" (19,0%, SD = 13,0) and "work obligations" (13,4 %, SD = 9,0). The results from QuESt (n = 197) showed that the importance of financial conditions differed between rural and urban GPs: The rural GPs evaluated "financial conditions" by 0.84 points more important (p <= 0,05).& para;& para;Conclusions The major influential factor for establishment of a practice is the "family's surroundings" that often do not correspond to the GPs' wishes. "Financial conditions" ranked second, which is also important for the GPs, especially for rural GPs. Politicians, the Associations of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, and local authorities should focus on these aspects as regulating factors.