General practitioners' awareness of their own drug prescribing profiles after postal feedback and outreach visits

Figures & data

Table I. Accurate estimates of general practitioners' own prescribing level in relation to that of all practices in Storstrøm County, Denmark, during the first and second outreach visit round.

		First outreach visit round						Second outreach visit round
		Observed		Expected				Observed		Expected
Drug group	ATC code	n ^a	%^b	n ^c	%^d	χ^2	P ^e	n ^a	%^b	n ^c	%^d	χ^2	P ^e
Antacids	A02	45/88	51.1	37/88	42.0	14	<0.01	59/87	67.8	43/87	49.4	32	<0.0001
Anti-diabetes drugs	A10	41/88	46.6	37/88	42.0	5	0.27	58/87	66.7	40/87	46.0	30	<0.0001
Cardiac disease drugs	C01	51/88	58.0	35/88	39.8	21	<0.0005	54/87	62.1	41/87	47.1	22	<0.0005
Diuretics	C03	43/88	48.9	33/88	37.5	18	<0.005	61/87	70.1	40/87	46.0	43	<0.0001
Beta-blockers	C07	38/88	43.2	31/88	35.2	12	<0.05	46/87	52.9	35/87	40.2	12	<0.05
Calcium channel blockers	C08	48/88	54.6	36/88	40.9	15	<0.005	52/87	59.8	36/87	41.4	20	<0.001
Reproduction hormones	G03	51/88	58.0	33/88	37.5	27	<0.0001	62/87	71.3	37/87	42.5	51	<0.0001
Antibiotics	J01	46/88	52.3	32/88	36.4	24	<0.0001	58/87	66.7	34/87	39.1	45	<0.0001
NSAIDs ^f	M01	54/88	61.4	34/88	38.6	39	<0.0001	59/87	67.8	36/87	41.4	44	<0.0001
Analgesics	N02	52/88	59.1	34/88	38.6	29	<0.0001	54/87	62.1	40/87	46.0	20	<0.001
Neuroleptics	N05	41/88	46.6	30/88	34.1	13	<0.01	51/87	58.6	29/87	33.3	42	<0.0001
Antidepressants	N06	46/88	52.3	34/88	38.6	18	<0.001	65/87	74.7	35/87	40.2	66	<0.0001
Anti-asthma drugs	R03	48/88	54.6	32/88	36.4	17	<0.005	62/87	71.3	40/87	46.0	51	<0.0001
All drug groups		604/1144	52.8	438/1144	32.3	197	<0.0001	741/1131	65.5	485/1131	42.9	417	<0.0001

^aNumber of accurate estimates of all estimates made.

^bProportion of accurate estimates.

^cNumber of accurate estimates expected by chance only of all estimates made.

^dProportion of accurate estimates expected by chance only.

^e P for difference observed–expected.

^fNon-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs.

Figure 1. Distribution of number of accurate estimates of practices' prescribing position (lowest quartile, the top quartile, or the two middle quartiles in the prescribing level distribution across all practices and across all drug groups) during the first and second round of outreach visits.

Figure 2. Change of accurate estimates of individual practices' prescribing position (lowest quartile, the top quartile, or the two middle quartiles in the prescribing level distribution across all practices and across all drug groups) from the first to the second round of outreach visits.