[Assessment by consulting physicians and general practitioners about complex disability pension matters].

In the study we wanted to explore physicians' judgement of applicants for disability benefit who have complex medical and psychosocial histories. A postal questionnaire was used, containing six patient management problems focusing on whether the applicant would fill the criteria for obtaining a disability benefit according to Norwegian legislation. The participants were all medical officers hired as consultants by the social security officers in Norway (n = 122, response rate 75%) and a random sample of Norwegian general practitioners (n = 160, response rate 55%). There was a high degree of variation among physicians. The tendency to spread was almost parallel in the two groups of doctors, but the general practitioners tended to be slightly more liberal (in favour of disability benefit) than the social security medical officers. The latter expressed a more optimistic view of the rehabilitation potential of the applicants. Some physicians in each group seemed to be generally restrictive, others were liberal. Younger doctors seemed to be slightly more restrictive than older ones, while the attitudes of the physicians did not seem to be influenced by their sex, the form of payment or the location of the practice. The variation within each group of doctors indicates that both feedback and further discussion are needed to improve quality in this field of social security medicine.