General practitioners' uncertainty, risk preference, and use of laboratory tests

In this effort to explore the relationships between risk-taking attitude and laboratory test use, three different measures of risk-taking attitudes were obtained in a cross-sectional study of 75 Dutch general practitioners. The measures used were based on a Dutch scale by Grol et al. (dealing with risks and self-reproach in missing serious and in self-limiting diseases), measures from the prospect theory (risk preference in face of gain and in face of loss), and the responses to a direct question regarding the relationship between the use of laboratory tests and the fear of missing diagnoses. Mutual correlation between all the scales was low. The laboratory test use of the general practitioner was measured and divided into two categories: 1 "top ten" tests; and 2) the remaining other tests. Two risk-taking attitude measures explain 28% of the "top ten" test variance and three risk-taking variables account for 38% of the variance in the 'other' test usage.