To examine prospectively, using the behavioral model of health service utilization, patient-initiated physician visits, physician-requested visits, and visits for disease flares by 270 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Four waves of telephone interviews were conducted over 2 years. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to assess the relative contributions to variance explained by blocks of variables indicating need for care and predisposing and enabling factors.
Predisposing and enabling factors accounted for 50-67% of the explained variance in the 3 types of visits, while need accounted only for 33-50%.
Studies seeking to identify factors other than need for care that facilitate or inhibit physician visits among RA patients are essential to analyzing the costs of care.