Preferences for treatment approaches in medical care. College students versus diabetic outpatients.

Preferences for degree of involvement in health care of 47 low-income, inner city, outpatient diabetic patients were measured by the Health Opinion Survey (HOS). These scores were compared with those of three normative groups of college students. Significant differences were found between the samples on each HOS subscale and the total HOS (all P values less than 0.001). Implications of these differences for health care providers are discussed.