ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2000
Social variation in reasons for contacting general practice out-of-hours: implications for daytime service provision?
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2000. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- General practice consultation patterns and patient factors predicting older patients' use of out-of-hours services: a nationwide register-based cohort study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- Educational differences in healthcare use among survivors after breast, prostate, lung, and colon cancer - a SEQUEL cohort study.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Possible associations between callers' degree-of-worry and their socioeconomic status when contacting out-of-hours services: a prospective cohort study.BMC emergency medicine · 2021Article
- 'Clinically unnecessary' use of emergency and urgent care: A realist review of patients' decision making.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2020Review
- Article
- Observational
- Who attends out-of-hours general practice appointments? Analysis of a patient cohort accessing new out-of-hours units.BMJ open · 2018Article
- The role of health literacy in explaining the association between educational attainment and the use of out-of-hours primary care services in chronically ill people: a survey study.BMC health services research · 2018Article
- Migrants' motives and expectations for contacting out-of-hours primary care: a survey study.BMC family practice · 2017Article
- Medical appropriateness of adult calls to Danish out-of-hours primary care: a questionnaire-based survey.BMC family practice · 2017Article
- Reasons for attending a general emergency outpatient clinic versus a regular general practitioner - a survey among immigrant and native walk-in patients in Oslo, Norway.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2017Article
- Access to primary care for socioeconomically disadvantaged older people in rural areas: a realist review.BMJ open · 2016Review
- To what extent does sociodemographic composition of the neighbourhood explain regional differences in demand of primary out-of-hours care: a multilevel study.BMC family practice · 2015Article
- The impact of neighborhood deprivation on patients' unscheduled out-of-hours healthcare seeking behavior: a cross-sectional study.BMC family practice · 2013Observational
- Utilization of the out of hours service in Poland: an observational study from Krakow.BMC health services research · 2008Article
- Out-of-hours care: ensuring accessible high quality care for all groups of patients.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2000Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundContact with general practice out-of-hours services increases with socioeconomic deprivation. The reasons for this association are unclear but may include variations in access to daytime services or differences in morbidity.
aimTo identify the reasons for contact with the Glasgow Emergency Medical Service (GEMS) in relation to patient sociodemographic characteristics and the nature of the presenting problem.
methodAll contacts with GEMS over a one-week period (n = 3193) in October 1996 were identified and a random 1:2 sample were sent a postal questionnaire investigating their reasons for contacting the service. Sociodemographic data and presenting problems were extracted from the service contact sheet. Data were analysed using correspondence analysis.
resultsCorrespondence analysis identified two factors characterised as 'perceived problems with daytime services' and 'perceived urgency'. Scores on the former dimension were significantly associated with age (P < 0.0001), gender (P < 0.0001), socioeconomic category (P < 0.0001), and presenting problem (P = 0.015) and scores were higher in adults, in males, among the non-affluent (particularly those resident in deprived areas), and in those presenting with a musculoskeletal problem. Scores on the latter dimension were significantly associated with age (P < 0.0001) and presenting problem (P < 0.0001). Scores tended to increase after childhood and for each of the five most frequent categories of presenting problem relative to other symptoms.
conclusionsCompared to those from affluent areas, patients from non-affluent areas appear to perceive difficulties accessing their general practitioner during surgery hours and may contact out-of-hours services as an alternative.
Indexed as
Identifiers
10962783PMC1313723What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.