Prevalence of chronic diseases and morbidity in primary health care in central Greece: An epidemiological study

Abstract

BackgroundIn Greece there is lack of large epidemiological studies regarding morbidity and mortality in primary health care. The aim of the present study was to estimate the prevalence and morbidity of the most common diseases in a large population sample from primary health care.MethodsFour primary health centres were randomly selected. During one year period, 12 visits were performed in each centre, one per month, in random order and all visitors willing to participate in the study were included. Data on morbidity of each subject were recorded after performing an interview with the participant and checking his medical records, medical history and current medication. Diseases were coded using the international classification of primary care (ICPC) system.ResultsIn total 20,299 subjects were recorded. The results revealed significant variations in morbidity between genders and age groups. However, in all age groups, diseases of the circulatory system were most prevalent, followed by endocrine, metabolic, musculoskeletal and respiratory diseases. Osteoporosis was significantly more prevalent in females compared to males, whereas skin and eye disorders were more prevalent in subjects below 65 years old. COPD prevalence was very low compared to worldwide data.ConclusionsThe present study revealed great variations in the prevalence of the diseases between genders and age groups. Our data justify the urgent need for the development of electronic health records that may help in the design of new prevention strategies in primary health care.

A Systematic Review of Prevalence Studies on Multimorbidity: Toward a More Uniform Methodology

“…17 Table 1 shows characteristics of those reporting prevalence estimates of 2 or more coexisting chronic conditions. One article reported the prevalence based on 2 or more domains of the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale (CIRS) affected by chronic diseases.…”

“…Three studies sampled patients from those consulting their family physician, 12,13,17 whereas the others included all patients from the selected practices. The number of participants in each study varied tremendously, from 980 to 60,857.…”

“…Of these 25 publications, 4 were excluded because they did not contain prevalence information or data allowing its calculation. The fi nal sample used for data extraction and calculations was thus 21 articles: 8 containing prevalence information in primary care, 1,2,[12][13][14][15][16][17] 12 in the general population, [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] and 1 in both settings.…”

Impact of the financial crisis on COPD burden: Greece as a case study

“…Ideally, approaches to achieve the goal of early diagnosis in COPD need a major overhaul, and a culture change is required in primary-care settings. For this reason, a higher index of suspicion, as well as wider use of spirometry for diagnosis, are proposed [33,[38][39][40][41][89][90][91]. A study conducted at the beginning of the economic recession revealed major shortages in rural primary healthcare equipment; only 4.6% of rural doctors had spirometers available for clinical use [91].…”

“…Studies focusing on Greek primary healthcare settings reveal that COPD is mainly undiagnosed [33,[38][39][40][41]90]. Ideally, approaches to achieve the goal of early diagnosis in COPD need a major overhaul, and a culture change is required in primary-care settings.…”