Table 3

Patients’ attitudes towards their general practitioner (GP)

	Time 0					3 months					6 months
	Control		Intervention			Control		Intervention			Control		Intervention
	N	Mean	N	Mean	p value*	N	Mean	N	Mean	p value*	N	Mean	N	Mean	p value*
Assessments were made at time 0 and 3 and 6 months after the introduction of the shared care programme. Subgroup analyses were performed for sex and age differences.
N=number of patients who answered all index/item questions. Questions with missing values were excluded, so the numbers given here are lower than the numbers from the responders (fig 1).
Mean values range from 0 to 100. Questionnaire scores were linearly transformed to a range from 0 to 100. A high score represents a more positive attitude towards the subjects.
*The Mann-Whitney U test was applied to detect statistical differences between the control and intervention groups. Statistical level of significance 0.05. Asymptote significance (two tailed).
†The index consists of four questions concerning information from GPs.¹¹
‡The index consists of five question concerning care from the GP.
§The index consists of three questions concerning the GP’s knowledge of disease and treatment.
¶The item consists of one question concerning the global assessment of the GP.
Information from the GP (all patients)†	63	67.66	55	78.18	0.051	39	67.63	44	75.57	0.460	38	68.59	43	74.27	0.377
Care from the GP‡	68	74.34	66	83.64	0.032	42	76.79	50	83.50	0.144	36	77.50	45	79.22	0.542
GP’s knowledge§	47	65.78	50	68.83	0.942	40	66.04	38	69.52	0.630	27	66.67	32	64.84	0.588
Global assessment of the GP¶	72	58.68	69	71.01	0.036	46	62.50	51	75.98	0.060	41	64.02	45	68.89	0.438
Information from the GP†
Women	39	70.51	36	78.47	0.761	31	70.36	23	79.89	0.279	31	71.77	28	74.78	0.933
Men	24	63.02	19	77.63	0.007	8	57.03	21	70.83	0.374	7	54.46	15	73.33	0.028
Care from the GP‡
Women	41	78.05	42	84.05	0.915	34	78.97	28	86.61	0.194	28	81.07	29	79.66	0.539
Men	27	68.70	24	82.92	0.003	8	67.50	22	79.55	0.069	8	65.00	16	78.44	0.036
GP’s knowledge§
Women	32	70.31	31	67.74	0.370	34	68.63	24	69.44	0.987	22	70.83	23	63.77	0.204
Men	15	56.11	19	70.61	0.218	6	51.39	14	69.64	0.123	5	48.33	9	67.59	0.135
Global assessment of the GP¶
Women	44	61.93	44	68.75	0.492	38	63.16	29	78.45	0.058	33	68.94	28	72.32	0.952
Men	28	53.57	25	75.00	0.010	8	59.37	22	72.73	0.318	8	43.75	17	63.24	0.127
Information from the GP†
18–49	16	69.92	24	76.56	0.343	11	61.36	19	70.72	0.663	11	68.89	18	68.40	0.910
50–85	47	66.89	31	79.44	0.062	28	70.09	25	79.25	0.371	27	68.06	25	78.50	0.166
Care from the GP‡
18–49	17	70.59	28	81.61	0.028	11	68.64	20	80.25	0.071	12	80.42	18	77.22	0.966
50–85	51	75.59	38	85.13	0.158	31	79.68	30	85.67	0.513	24	76.04	27	80.56	0.448
GP’s knowledge§
18–49	9	54.63	21	60.71	0.872	11	43.94	14	66.67	0.029	6	58.33	10	64.17	0.780
50–85	38	68.42	29	74.71	0.576	29	74.43	24	71.18	0.638	21	69.05	22	65.15	0.666
Global assessment of the GP¶
18–49	17	52.94	31	68.55	0.094	13	57.69	21	70.24	0.246	12	60.42	18	56.94	0.879
50–85	55	60.45	38	73.03	0.119	33	64.39	30	80.00	0.104	29	65.52	27	76.85	0.169