A profile of pediatric practice in the United States.

We profiled pediatric practice in the United States through a second-order analysis of data gathered in 1977 from 429 practicing pediatricians. Age, sex, board certification status, practice arrangement, and practice location of pediatricians in the United States were evaluated, as well as their patterns of practice. The number of and reasons for visits made to pediatricians by patient age and sex were tabulated. Child health supervision and diseases of the upper and lower parts of the respiratory tract accounted for 84.5% of the principal diagnoses made in 21,784 visits to the sample of pediatricians studied. These data may be useful in planning pediatric primary care residency training program curricula and in making planning decisions regarding the number and distribution of pediatricians nationally.