Comparative studies of patient and prescriber characteristics

Age, sex and socioeconomic factors, such as education and income, as well as the interaction between these factors, can influence patient health and well-being and have an impact on the utilization of both prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Prescribing preferences may vary between physicians and can be influenced by physician age, sex and specialty. Research exploring the impact of patient–physician concordance on drug utilization is scarce and has so far been limited to the assessment of single-measure concordance (e.g. language concordance). When studying patient–physician concordance, it is recommended that the cumulative impact of the concordance of patient and physician characteristics (social concordance) be assessed.