Skip to main content

Table 1 Mean number of contacts with general practice in 2008 for persons without a chronic disease, with one chronic disease, and with multimorbidity

From: Multimorbidity of chronic diseases and health care utilization in general practice

  

No chronic disease

One chronic disease

Multimorbidity

P-value for linear trend

Total contacts (sd) 1

N = 14341

N = 9896

N = 8346

 

Sex

Male

5.3 (6.3)

11.2 (9.3)

19.0 (14.1)

 
 

Female

6.9 (7.4)

12.9 (10.2)

21.8 (15.5)

 

Age

55 - 64 yrs

5.0 (5.8)

10.1 (8.3)

16.7 (12.8)

 
 

65 – 74 yrs

6.5 (6.8)

12.3 (9.5)

19.6 (14.9)

 
 

> = 75 yrs

10.2 (9.9)

15.8 (11.8)

24.0 (15.6)

 

Total contacts (95% CI) 2,3

 

6.1 (5.6 6.6)

11.7 (10.8 12.6)

18.3 (16.8 19.9)

<0.001

Type of contacts (95% CI) 2

    

Face-to-face consultations

GP4

2.3 (2.2 2.4)

3.6 (3.4 3.9)

4.8 (4.5 5.1)

<0.001

 

PN4

0.1 (0.1 0.3)

0.5 (0.4 0.7)

0.7 (0.5 1.0)

<0.001

Phone consultations

GP

0.5 (0.4 0.6)

0.8 (0.7 1.0)

1.4 (1.2 1.8)

<0.001

 

PN

0.1 (0.0 0.2)

0.2 (0.1 0.4)

0.4 (0.3 0.7)

<0.001

Home visits

GP

0.1 (0.1 0.1)

0.3 (0.3 0.4)

0.7 (0.6 0.9)

<0.001

 

PN

0.0 (0.0 0.0)

0.0 (0.0 0.0)

0.1 (0.0 0.1)

<0.001

Type of intervention (95% CI) 2

    

Diagnostics and minor surgery

0.1 (0.1 0.2)

0.3 (0.2 0.3)

0.4 (0.4 0.5)

<0.001

Prescribing medication

2.8 (2.5 3.2)

5.8 (5.1 6.6)

9.3 (8.1 10.6)

<0.001

Prescriptions 2,5

N = 11366

N = 7962

N = 7008

 

Patiënts with prescriptions (N, %)

8005 (70.4%)

7396 (92.9%)

6897 (98.4%)

 

Mean number of prescriptions

6.8 (6.1 7.7)

15.3 (13.8 16.9)

27.5 (24.9 30.5)

<0.001

Referrals 2,.6

N = 10341

N = 7219

N = 6198

 

Referred patiënts (N, %)

1549 (15.0%)

1822 (25.2%)

2230 (36.0%)

 

Mean number of referrals

0.2 (0.2 0.2)

0.3 (0.3 0.3)

0.5 (0.4 0.5)

<0.001

  1. 1Crude means and sd’s.
  2. 2Adjusted for sex, age and clustering of patients in general practices.
  3. 3Total contacts consist of face-to-face consultations, telephone contacts, home visits, diagnostics and minor surgery, and contacts for prescribing medication.
  4. 4GP = general practitioner, PN = practice nurse.
  5. 5Among 29 general practices.
  6. 6Among 26 general practices.