Reasons for elderly patients GP visits: results of a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objective

The aim of this study is to describe the frequency of reasons for elderly patients visits to a general practice (GP) setting.

Subjects and methods

Cross-sectional data from 8,877 randomly selected patients were assessed during a 1-year period by 209 GPs in the German federal state of Saxony. The reasons for visits, performed procedures, and results of visits were documented. In this study, the data of patients aged 65 years and older are analyzed and the procedural and nonprocedural reasons for visits are described.

Results

In all, 2,866 patients aged 65 years and older were included. The majority of patients (1,807) were female. A total of 4,426 reasons for visits were found, distributed on 363 International Classification of Primary Care-2 codes. In the mean, there were 1.5 reasons for a GP visit from each patient. The top five nonprocedural reasons for visiting the GP were: cough (1.8%), back complaints (1.6%), shoulder complaints (1.3%), knee complaints (1.1%), and dyspnea (1.0% of all reasons for visit). The top five procedural reasons for visiting the GP included follow-up investigations of cardiovascular or endocrine disorders and immunizations. The top 30 nonprocedural reasons for visits covered 21.9% of all reasons for visiting. The top 30 procedural reasons covered 54.3% of all reasons for visits.

Conclusion

The current work indicates that people aged 65 years and older consult the GP more frequently for procedural than for nonprocedural reasons. The top 30 procedural and nonprocedural reasons for visits cover ~75% of all reasons for visits in these patients.

Key words:

• elderly
• geriatric
• general practice
• primary care
• reason for visit
• reason for consultation

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr Hanno Grethe, honorary president of the SGAM (Saxon Society of General Practice), and Dr Johannes Dietrich, past president of the SGAM, for their kind support. This work was supported by the Leipzig Medical School and the SGAM.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work and that there are no familial relationships between authors.