Drinking problems load health centre hospitals in Finland.
This study examined the reasons for referral of patients from general practice to health centre hospitals in central and northern Finland during one week in 1994. Participants were 806 general practitioners (GPs) from public health centres. Outcome measures were reasons for referral by ICPC codes, with respect to characteristics of patients, GPs, and practices. A total of 723 patients (1.4%) were referred from 53,633 consultations. Most referrals (532, 74%) were from out of hours consultations. The most commonly reported reasons for referral in the age group under 65 years were alcohol abuse for males and vertigo for females. For patients aged 65 or over, angina pectoris was the most common reason for referral for both male and female patients. Our results will be useful in developing primary healthcare and the training of GPs. Future research should focus on alcohol-related diseases in those patients referred to health centre hospitals.
Department of Community Health and General Practice, University of Kuopio, Finland. Arto.Vehvilainen@uku.fi
A T
AT
Vehviläinen
E A
EA
Kumpusalo
J K
JK
Takala
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005194:Family Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010821:Physicians, Family; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017062:Small-Area Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires