Physical limitations and perceived quality of care among family medicine patients

Objective: To assess how physical limitations relate to patient satisfaction with the quality of medical care among family medicine patients, after adjustment for self-rated overall health and other patient characteristics. Design: A telephone survey of family medicine patients, linked with information extracted from medical records. Setting: A large family medicine department in Rochester, Minnesota. Subjects: Patient ratings of quality were linked to medical records for 674 adult patients. Results: Adjusting for self-rated overall health status and other confounders using multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that having physical limitations was inversely and independently related to excellent perceived quality (adjusted odds ratio=0.56, P=0.035). Conclusions: In our sample of family medicine patients, people with physical limitations experience a disparity in perceived quality of care.