Luppo Kuillman

Chapter 2 38 (namely, through the adherence to regulations and expert information rather than through building a relationship with the patient). Therefore, we hypothesize: ■ H.4.3: There is a positive correlation between a paternalistic attitude and the BCPH scale. RESULTS Sociodemographic characteristics An overview of the sociodemographic characteristics broken down by professional group (i.e., NPs and PAs) is provided in Table 1. The mean age of the PAs (42.5 years) was lower than that of the NPs (48.8 years). The two groups did not differ in terms of gender, religion, or work setting. Moreover, no significant differences were found between the two professions with regard to the prevalence of politically conservative or liberal orientations. Based on these results, we considered it acceptable to merge the samples for analyses. Table 1: Sociodemographic characteristics of participants, stratified by profession (NPs and PAs) Sociodemographic characteristics Physician Assistant N = 88 Nurse Practitioner N = 67 Total N = 155 (p-value) Age mean (SD) 42.5 (8.4) 48.8 (8.7) 45.2 (9.1) < .001# Gender Female N (%) 56 (63.6) 53 (79.1) 109 (70.3 %) .05$ Male N (%) 32 (36.4) 14 (20.9) 46 (29.7 %) Religion Not religious 48 (54.5) 35 (52.3) 83 (53.5 %) .54$ No denomination, but spiritual 3 (3.4) 4 (4.5) 7 (4.5 %) Christian 35 (39.8) 25 (37.3) 60 (38.7 %) Islam 1 (1.1) 0 1 (0.7 %) Other religions 1 3 (4.5) 4 (2.6 %) Working environment Hospital, N (%) 64 (72.7 %) 49 (73.1%) 113 (72.9 %) .58$ General practice, N (%) 13 (14.8 %) 7 (10.5 %) 20 (12.9 %) Mental health, N (%) 3 (3.4 %) 6 (9 %) 9 (5.8 %) Disability care, N (%) 1 (1.1 %) 1 (1.5 %) 2 (1.3 %) Other, N (%)) 7 (8 %) 4 (5.9 %) 11 (7.1 %) Political orientation Conservative N (%) 15 (17 %) 6 (9 %) 21 (13.5 %) .14$ Liberal N (%) 73 (83 %) 61 (91 %) 134 (86.5 %) # = independent-sample t-test; $ = difference between proportions test