Preventive Counseling Services during Primary Care Visits: A Comparison of Health Centers versus Other Physician Offices

J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2015 May;26(2):519-35. doi: 10.1353/hpu.2015.0028.

Abstract

We compared preventive counseling services provided by health centers versus other physician offices. Cross-sectional data came from the 2008 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, including 25,177 patient visits in physician offices and 3,345 patient visits in health centers. Despite serving disproportionately more vulnerable patients, health centers provided comparable rates of preventive counseling services, compared with other physician offices: health education (39% vs. 36%), disease management (34% vs. 41%), asthma education (21% vs. 13%), tobacco education (19% for both), and weight reduction education (6% vs. 9%) (p>.05 for all). Adjusted analyses showed no association between health care setting and preventive counseling.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Community Health Centers*
  • Counseling / methods*
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Female
  • Health Care Surveys
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Office Visits*
  • Preventive Medicine / methods*
  • Primary Health Care / methods*
  • United States
  • Young Adult