What do patients bring up in consultations? An observational study in general practice

Figures & data

Table I. Characteristics of general practitioners (GPs) and data collection.

GPs (n = 4)	GP1	GP2	GP3	GP4
Age, years	61	38	34	59
Sex, male (m)/female (f)	F	M	F	F
Specialist, yes/no	Yes	No	No	Yes
Group practice, yes/no	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Time in present practice, years	32	9	3	6
Consultation length, minutes	15	20	20	15
Acute consultations* %	17	43	29	26
Observations (n = 201) n (%)	19 (9.5)	66 (32.8)	62 (30.8)	54 (26.9)
Other than own list patients (n = 21) n %	10 (52.6)	6 (9.1)	3 (4.8)	2 (3.7)
Problems raised by patients (mean) Questionnaires (n = 177) n (%)	3.1 14 (7.9)	2.9** 72 (40.7)	2.5 29 (16.4)	2.0** 62 (35.0)

Notes: *During ordinary practice day. **p < 0.05.

Figure 1. Number of problems (n = 517) per consultation (n = 201).

Table II. Characteristics of patients (n = 201) and of problems (n = 517) presented during unselected consultations in general practice.

Characteristics
Age, years, mean (range [ICR]) Sex male/female, n (%)	42.4 (1–88(30,39,56) 63/138 (31.3/68.7)
Somatic problem, n (%)	257 (49.7)
Mental health problem, n (%)	63 (12.2)
Social problem, n (%)	21 (4.1)
Preventive measure, n (%)	97 (18.8)
Pregnancy care, n (%)	19 (3.7)
Administrative issue, n (%)	24 (4.6)
Secondary patient, n (%)	21 (4.1)
Other, n (%)	14 (2.7)
Problem raised by patient, n (%)	465 (91.0)
Problem raised by GP, n (%)	42 (8.2)
Problem raised by accompanying person, n (%)	4 (0.8)
Problem postponed, n (%)	16 (3.1)

Table III. Effect of patients’ age and sex on number of problems (n = 517) presented in consultations (n = 201).

Variable	Symbol for variable	Standardized coefficient	p-value
Age	Beta 1	0.343	< 0.001
Sex	Beta 2	0.173	0.009

Notes: Logistic regression analysis. Adjusted r² = 0.154 for Y_i = B₁X_1i + B₂X_2i + B₀.

Table IV. Patients’ (n = 177) view on what is important in consultations in general practice.

	Mean rating (95% CI), scale 1–5
That I get an appointment as soon as possible	4.23 (4.09–4.37)
That I am able to address all the problems I have	4.61 (4.50–4.72)*
That I see my regular general practitioner at any appointment	4.19 (4.03–4.35)

Notes: *Significantly higher compared with statement 1 and statement 3 (p < 0.05).