Community characteristics that attract physicians in Japan: a cross-sectional analysis of community demographic and economic factors

Table 2 Basic characteristics of community variables and their correlations with physician-to-population ratio (n = 3,132)

Variables of municipalities	Mean	IQR	Correlation*	P**
Service industry workers/unit population	26 004	18 639 – 28 979	0.543	<0.001
Commercial land price	80 645	27 525 – 88 175	0.527	<0.001
Sales of commercial goods/person	2 003 300	618 200 – 1 653 200	0.472	<0.001
Daytime population density	1 020	245 – 854	0.451	<0.001
Residential land price	39 208	11 600 – 47 150	0.436	<0.001
Population density	1 018	271 – 914	0.409	<0.001
Workers/unit population	96 194	95 408 – 97 225	0.364	<0.001
Executives/unit population	4 176	3 146 – 5 030	0.349	<0.001
Crimes/unit population	1 313	755 – 1 688	0.326	<0.001
Income/person	3 117 434	2 816 800 – 3 293 300	0.298	<0.001
Total jobless rate	3.8	2.8 – 4.6	0.252	<0.001
Commuters from outside/unit population	151	83 – 173	0.232	<0.001
Length of paved roads/unit area	0.7	0.4 – 0.9	0.225	<0.001
Foreigners/unit population	536	162 – 639	0.222	<0.001
Divorces/unit population	182	134 – 226	0.196	<0.001
Sales of manufactured products/unit population	199 912	44 266 – 229 916	0.112	<0.001
Manufacturing industry workers/unit population	13 905	9 392 – 16 788	-0.049	0.005
Commuters to outside/unit population	189	120 – 258	-0.105	<0.001
Elderly rate	24.0	18.7 – 28.5	-0.226	<0.001
Sales of primary industry products/unit population	21 910	5 474 – 27 284	-0.319	<0.001
Primary industry workers/unit population	7 426	2 732 – 10 678	-0.381	<0.001

Outcome variable is the number of physicians per 100 000 residents (mean 126; IQR 53–155)
*Spearman's rho correlation coefficient
**Probability of coefficient being zero
IQR: Interquartile range
Unit population is 100,000 residents
Unit area is a square kilometer

ISSN: 1478-4491