Physician distribution in a predominantly rural state: predictors and trends.

The present study examined changes in physician distribution across time in a predominantly rural state to determine the generalizability of national studies of physician distribution. Contrary to recent national findings, decreases in the population/physician ratio occurred only for counties having populations greater than 25,000. When county population was controlled for by entering it hierarchically as the first predictor in the regression analysis, number of applicants to medical school from a county was the only consistently significant predictor of physician distribution.