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Table 4 Correlation between suggested causes of unnecessary investigations and factors involved in increased volume of investigations1

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

 

Factor involved in increased volume of investigations

Cause of unnecessary investigations

Referring physicians' uncertainty

Economy/efficiency

Patient autonomy/legal claims

Medical possibility

Health market

Repeating investigations

.220**

-.038

.031

-.066

.239**

Anticipated result unlikely to affect patient management

.321**

.012

.025

-.114*

.179**

Investigating too often

.347**

.029

.016

-.124*

.161**

Doing the wrong investigation

.344**

.018

.039

-.051

.196**

Insufficient referral information

.346**

.092

.035

-.120*

.113*

Over-investigation

.434**

.007

.067

-.090

.196**

  1. 1Numbers are Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficients.
  2. ** P < 0.01, * P < 0.05