Sex differences in health care: the compensation experience of registered dietitians.

This study is the second comprehensive examination of the compensation of registered dietitians (RDs), following up on the 2002 survey. Health care continues to experience wage disparity because of sex. For example, the 2005 Current Population Survey revealed that female physicians earn 60% of the earnings of male physicians. Disparities also exist for nurses, pharmacists, and dietitians. Data on demographic and other factors that the literature suggests are related to compensation were collected. The mail survey was distributed from May 11 through July 5, 2005. A total of 10,209 RDs responded to the survey. The number of practicing RDs was 8,475, of whom 70% worked full-time. Analyses were conducted on 5,651 practicing and employed RDs who worked full-time. Ninety-six percent of the RDs were women, 69% were younger than 50 years, and 9.1% indicated a race other than white. Median total cash compensation for full-time RDs employed in the position for at least 1 year was dollars 49,850.00, and the range was dollars 207,460.00. Women earned 92% of the compensation paid to men, compared with 90% in 2002. In addition to the variability caused by sex, earnings of women and men varied because of the amount of experience they possess and the size of budget that is managed. Conclusions suggest that (1) surveys continue to establish trends in compensation and (2) pay policies should be monitored to guarantee equity and to ensure that market surveys are free of data that are corrupted by sex pay disparity.

The role of health promotion in physical therapy in California, New York, and Tennessee.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: As health care providers, physical therapists are in an ideal position to address health promotion issues with their patients; yet, little is known about actual health promotion practice patterns or the confidence of physical therapists in engaging in such activities. The purposes of this study were: (1) to investigate perceptions of practice patterns in 4 focus areas of Healthy People 2010 (disability and secondary conditions by assessing psychological well-being, nutrition and overweight, physical activity and fitness, and tobacco use) and (2) to identify related self-efficacy and outcome expectations in California, New York, and Tennessee. SUBJECTS: A instrument was pilot tested and distributed in 2 waves to 3,500 randomly selected, licensed physical therapists from 3 states: California, New York, and Tennessee. METHODS: Interviews were randomly conducted via telephone with 23 physical therapists in all 3 states until similar responses were identified in order to create the qualitative instrument, which was then pilot tested with 20 physical therapists in California. The total number of qualitative instruments used in the data analyses was 417 (145 from California, 127 from New York, and 145 from Tennessee) or 11.9%. RESULTS: The health promotion behavior most commonly thought to be practiced by physical therapists was assisting patients to increase physical activity (54%), followed by psychological well-being (41%), nutrition and overweight issues (19%), and smoking cessation (17%). Self-efficacy predicted all 4 behaviors beyond the control variables. Minimal state-to-state differences were noted. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Physical therapists believe they are addressing health promotion topics with patients, although in varying degrees and in lower than desirable percentages based on Healthy People 2010 goals. This study demonstrated that a physical therapist's confidence in being able to perform a behavior (self-efficacy) was the best predictor of perceptions of practice patterns and is an area to target in future interventions.