Nutritional deficiency in Dutch primary care: data from general practice research and registration networks.
OBJECTIVE
To explore incidence and prevalence rates of nutritional deficiency in adults in general practice.


METHODS
Six Dutch general practice research and registration networks supplied incidence and prevalence rates of nutritional deficiency by the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC) or 'E-list' labels ('loss of appetite, feeding problem adult, iron, pernicious/folate deficiency anaemia, vitamin deficiencies and other nutritional disorders, weight loss'). In case of disease-related nutritional deficiency, we asked whether this was labelled separately ('co-registered') or included in the registration of the underlying disease.


RESULTS
'Iron deficiency anaemia' had highest incidence (0.3-8.5/1000 person years), and prevalence rates (2.8-8.9/1000 person years). Nutritional deficiency was mostly documented in the elderly. In two networks 'co-registration' was additional, two only documented the underlying disease and two did not specify 'co-registration'. No clear difference was found between networks considering the difference in 'co-registration'.


CONCLUSIONS
Nutritional deficiency is little documented in general practice, and generally is not registered separately from the underlying disease.
van Wayenburg
C A M
CA
Department of General Practice, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. c.vanwayenburg@hag.umcn.nl
van de Laar
F A
FA
de Waal
M W M
MW
Okkes
I M
IM
van den Akker
M
M
van der Veen
W J
WJ
Schellevis
F G
FG
van Staveren
W A
WA
van Binsbergen
J J
JJ
van Weel
C
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D018798:Anemia, Iron-Deficiency / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D009748:Nutrition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D015995:Prevalence; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012042:Registries