Estimation of the Practice Population a Summary from the Bellagio Conference on the Denominator Problem 28.IX.-2.X.1981

Abstract

If general practice is to be used as a sampling unit, and the observations are to be expressed in population related rates, the size of the practice population (PP), i.e. the number of persons served by the practice, must be known. As this sampling unit is highly useful in epidemiological research, methods to estimate the PP, where this quantity is unknown, have become a research objective of high priority. After a preliminary meeting in New York 1979 a conference on the “denominator problem” was held at the Rockefeller Study Centre in Bellagio on Lake Como. Of the 14 participants eight were physicians six mathematicians or statisticians.

Key Words:

• Denominator
• Estimation
• General practice
• Practice-population