Characteristics of the sample of GPs, n=100.
| Age (years) | Range: 31–76 |
| Mean (SD) | 52.9 (9.3) |
| Male sex (n) | 72 |
| Medical school (n) | |
| In Switzerland | 97 |
| In Germany | 2 |
| In Mexico | 1 |
| Board certification (n) | |
| Board certified in internal and family medicine | 96 |
| Not board certified, practicing physician | 4 |
| GP with a second board certification (n) | 13 |
| Other board certifications (n) | 15* |
| Angiology* | 2 |
| Emergency hospital medicine* | 3 |
| Endocrinology* | 1 |
| Geriatrics* | 3 |
| Nephrology* | 1 |
| Occupational medicine* | 1 |
| Palliative care* | 1 |
| Sports medicine* | 3 |
| GP with other medical subspecialisation (n) | 11 |
| Manual medicine | 6 |
| Psychosomatic and psychosocial medicine | 5 |
| Type of practice (n) | |
| Individual practice | 29 |
| Group practice | 70 |
| Practice within a retirement home | 1 |
| Member of a healthcare network (n) | 68 |
| Number of consultations/week (n) | |
| <30 | 2 |
| >30–70 | 25 |
| >70–110 | 47 |
| >110–170 | 22 |
| >170 | 4 |
| Other activities (besides private practice) (n) | 82† |
| As referring physician in a company | 13 |
| As referring physician in a specific environment (school, retirement home, prison, community health centre) | 48 |
| Involved in training/teaching medical students or in research | 58 |
| Other | 6 |
| Number of years since medical school diploma | Range: 8–50 |
| Mean (SD) | 26.9 (9.4) |
| Practice location‡ | |
| Urban | 36 |
| Suburban | 44 |
| Rural | 20 |
*Two GPs had two other board certifications.
†Some GPs had more than one other activity.
‡Data on location for each postal code were obtained from Swiss Federal Statistical Office.
GP, general practitioner.