Background: As the proportion of older people increases, so will the consumption of health services. The aim of this study was to describe the contact characteristics among older people and to identify factors associated with the degree of urgency at the Norwegian out-of-hours (OOH) emergency primary health care services. Methods: Inhabitants aged ≥70 years who contacted the OOH service during 2014-2017 in seven OOH districts in Norway were included. We investigated the variables sex, age, time of contact, mode of contact, ICPC-2 based reason for encounter (RFE), priority degree and initial response. We also performed frequency analyses, rate calculations and a log-binomial regression. Results: A total of 38,293 contacts were registered. The contact rate/1000 inhabitants/year was three times higher in the oldest age group (≥90 years) compared to the youngest age group (70-74 years). Direct attendance accounted for 8.4% of the contacts and 32.8% were telephone contacts from health professionals. The most frequent RFE chapter used was "A General and unspecified" (21.0%) which also showed an increasing rate with higher age. 6.0% of the contacts resulted in a home visit from a doctor. Variables significantly associated with urgent priority degree were RFEs regarding cardiovascular (Relative risk (

BackgroundPatients with primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI) suffer reduced quality of life (QoL), but comparisons with large-scale normative data are scarce. The clinical characteristics associated with reduced QoL are largely unknown.MethodsCross-sectional data on clinical characteristics and QoL scores from 494 patients were included. QoL was measured using RAND-36 (generic) and AddiQoL (-30 and -8, disease-specific). RAND-36 is reported as subdomain scores as well as physical (PCS) and metal (MCS) summary scores and compared with normative data.ResultsPerception of physical role was consistently decreased across age groups in patients with PAI compared with normative data [75 (0-100) vs. 100 (50-100), p<0.001]. Men with PAI reported significantly lower scores for social functioning [88 (75-100) vs. 100 (75-100), p<0.001], as well as for vitality and physical role. In women, the greatest impairment was seen in physical role [50 (0-100) vs. 100 (50-100), p<0.001], followed by social functioning, vitality, physical function, general health, mental health, and emotional role. Overall, better QoL was associated with male sex (AddiQoL-30: 89 ± 13 vs. 82 ± 13, p<0.002), younger age (e.g. 20-29 vs. 80-89 years: PCS 59 [50-62] vs. 46 [37-53], p<0.001), autoimmune etiology [PCS: 53 (45-59) vs.. 45 (38-54), p<0.001], and absence of autoimmune comorbidity [PCS: 54 (45-59) vs. 50 (43-58), p<0.001]. There were no significant differences in QoL scores between different doses or dosing regimens of glucocorticoid or mineralocorticoid replacement.ConclusionQoL is reduced in patients with PAI, especially perception of physical role in women and social functioning in men. Among patients with PAI, female sex, higher age, non-autoimmune etiology, and autoimmune comorbidity was associated with lower QoL-scores.