| Frequent attenders in primary health care: A cross-sectional study of frequent attenders’ psychosocial and family factors, chronic diseases and reasons for encounter in a Finnish health centre | ||
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In this study, 304 patients were found to be frequent attenders in the health centre of Oulainen during the study year 1994. Frequent attenders accounted for 6.8% of the health centre patients and 4.7% of the whole population aged 15 years or older in Oulainen. Eighty-five controls (28%) had not visited GPs at all during the study year.
The use of health care services in the health centre is shown in Table I of Paper I. Frequent attenders had made 23.5% of all visits in the age group of 15 years or older, compared to 4.2% made by controls. Frequent attenders had used more services in the emergency hours (from 16 p.m. to 8 a.m. and during weekends) and made more visits without an appointment than controls. During the two years preceding the study year, frequent attenders’ use of health services had been constantly higher than that of controls. Frequent attenders had had more acute episodes of illness than controls, but controls had made more single visits than frequent attenders.
The age distribution of frequent attenders is shown in Figure 1 of Paper I. Their mean age (SD) was 49.8 (18.5) years. Male frequent attenders were significantly younger than female frequent attenders, their mean age being 47.0 (18.7), while female frequent attenders’ mean age was 51.1 (18.3) years (P = 0.010).
There was an overrepresentation of male frequent attenders in the group aged 25–34 years and in the groups aged over 55 years, and a similar overrepresentation of females in the age groups of 25–34 years, 45–54 years and over 65 years.
Two thirds of the frequent attenders (67.8%) were women. The sociodemographic characteristics of the study groups are presented in Table II of Paper I. Female frequent attenders had lower basic education than controls, but no difference in this respect was seen among men. The vocational training of female frequent attenders was lower than that of female controls. The occupational status of frequent attenders differed from that of controls due to differences between the male groups — almost one third of male frequent attenders were on disability pension, and there were fewer employed persons among male frequent attenders than among male controls. Unemployment was not significantly more common among frequent attenders than among controls.
There were no differences in the socioeconomic classification between the study groups, although frequent attenders estimated their economic situation as poorer than controls.