National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 1998 Summary

Advance Data 315. National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 1998 Summary. 26 pp. (PHS) 2000-1250
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In 1998, 829.3 million visits were made to nonfederally employed, office-based physicians in the United States, which represents about 3.1 visits per person. One quarter of the visits were made to general and family physicians, which was significantly higher than the other 13 specialties. This report presents data from the 1998 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), a national probability sample survey conducted by the Division of Health Care Statistics of the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Data Highlights:

Females made 60.3 percent of all office visits during 1998. Females also had significantly higher visit rates than males in each age category with the exception of the youngest (under 15) and the two oldest groups 65-74 and 75 years and over.

The most frequently cited examinations at office visits were skin (8.5 percent of visits), pelvic (7.9 percent), visual acuity (6.9 percent), and breast (6.3 percent). Blood pressure (45.5 percent) and urinalysis (10.8 percent) were the leading tests. Imaging was most often in the form of an x-ray and was mentioned at 10.1 percent of the visits. Thirty percent of the visits had no diagnostic or screening services ordered or provided.

There were an estimated 89.8 million injury-related office visits during 1998, or 33.3 visits per 100 persons. Seventy percent of these visits were for unintentional injuries.

There were about 1.2 billion drugs mentioned at visits to office-based physicians during 1998. This yields an average of 1.4 drug mentions per office visit, or 2.2 drug mentions per drug visit.

Keywords: physicians, diagnoses, injury, drug mentions

This page last reviewed October 15, 2008