Quantitative measures of medical activities in relation to diagnosis in primary health care.
In a study that covers three years, the extent of medical activities was analyzed in relation to the sex, age and treatment diagnoses of patients visiting district physicians at three health centres in a Swedish primary care district. All visits were registered with the aid of a specially designed encounter form. The most frequent medical activities were: drug prescriptions, follow-up measures and clinical chemical investigations. Diabetes, other metabolic diseases, malignant tumours and cardiovascular disease were the diagnosis groups associated with the most activities, while traumas, middle ear infections and check-up visits were associated with the least. In the case of both men and women, the number of activities per visit increased in proportion to age. The present study indicates that quantitative measures of medical activities, combined with diagnoses or other patient characteristics as sex and age, can be employed in clearly quantifying the content of consultations in primary health care.
Krakau
I
I
Department of Family Medicine, Uppsala University, Sweden.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D003625:Data Collection; D003933:Diagnosis; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013548:Sweden