What causes increasing and unnecessary use of radiological investigations? a survey of radiologists' perceptions

Table 2 Factor structure and loadings after varimax-rotation¹ of causes of increased volume of radiological investigations

Suggested Cause	Referring physicians' uncertainty	Economy/efficiency	Patient autonomy/legal claims	Medical possibilities	Health market
Referring physicians have less competence to perform clinical examinations	0.86
Referring physicians have less knowledge about accurate use of radiology	0.77
Referring physicians have less tolerance for uncertainty	0.66
Increased focus on economic issues in health care services		0.76
Increased demand on health care professionals' effectiveness		0.76
Increased risk of litigation against health care providers			0.76
Strengthening of patient rights			0.70
Increased demands for documentation from the National Insurance Service or insurance companies		0.47	0.60
People's increased demands for certain knowledge about own health			0.58
Increased possibilities due to new radiological technology				0.77
Expanded clinical indications for radiology				0.77
Health service providers' increased competition for patients					0.69
Increased availability of radiological equipment and personnel					0.62
People's fascination for technological innovations					0.57
Increased morbidity in the population					-0.56
Cronbach's alpha	0.69	0.62	0.61	0.62	0.34
Percentage of variance	18.6%	13.4%	11.1%	9.6%	7.6%

¹Extraction method: Principal Component Analysis. Only factor loadings greater than 0.4 are displayed.

ISSN: 1472-6963