ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2007
Measuring disease prevalence: a comparison of musculoskeletal disease using four general practice consultation databases.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 92 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
92 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
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- Validity of diagnostic coding within the General Practice Research Database: a systematic review.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2010Pooled it
- Validation and validity of diagnoses in the General Practice Research Database: a systematic review.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2010Pooled it
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- The association of gout with sleep disorders: a cross-sectional study in primary care.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2013Trial
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- Psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of the biobehavioural pain and movement questionnaire (BioPMovQ) in elderly CMP patients.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- Bone health assessment in adults with fragility fracture risk factors between 2002-2014: a retrospective cohort study.BJGP open · 2024Article
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- Analgesic prescribing in patients with inflammatory arthritis in England: an observational study using electronic healthcare record data.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2022Observational
- Healthy working life expectancy at age 50 for people with and without osteoarthritis in local and national English populations.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Trends in the Annual Consultation Incidence and Prevalence of Low Back Pain and Osteoarthritis in England from 2000 to 2019: Comparative Estimates from Two Clinical Practice Databases.Clinical epidemiology · 2022Article
- Estimating the population health burden of musculoskeletal conditions using primary care electronic health records.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2021Article
- Prevalence of Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Osteoarthritis Patients Derived from Primary Care Records: A Systematic Review of Observational Studies.Journal of diabetes and clinical research · 2021Article
- Axial spondyloarthritis 10 years on: still looking for the lost tribe.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2020Review
- Primary care risk stratification in COPD using routinely collected data: a secondary data analysis.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2019Article
- Encounters for foot and ankle pain in UK primary care: a population-based cohort study of CPRD data.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2019Article
- Calculating incidence rates and prevalence proportions: not as simple as it seems.BMC public health · 2019Article
32 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
backgroundPrimary care consultation data are an important source of information on morbidity prevalence. It is not known how reliable such figures are.
aimTo compare annual consultation prevalence estimates for musculoskeletal conditions derived from four general practice consultation databases. DESIGN OF STUDY: Retrospective study of general practice consultation records.
settingThree national general practice consultation databases: i) Fourth Morbidity Statistics from General Practice (MSGP4, 1991/92), ii) Royal College of General Practitioners Weekly Returns Service (RCGP WRS, 2001), and iii) General Practice Research Database (GPRD, 1991 and 2001); and one regional database (Consultations in Primary Care Archive, 2001).
methodAge-sex standardized persons consulting annual prevalence rates for musculoskeletal conditions overall, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and arthralgia were derived for patients aged 15 years and over.
resultsGPRD prevalence of any musculoskeletal condition, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis was lower than that of the other databases. This is likely to be due to GPs not needing to record every consultation made for a chronic condition. MSGP4 gave the highest prevalence for osteoarthritis but low prevalence of arthralgia which reflects encouragement for GPs to use diagnostic rather than symptom codes.
conclusionConsiderable variation exists in consultation prevalence estimates for musculoskeletal conditions. Researchers and health service planners should be aware that estimates of disease occurrence based on consultation will be influenced by choice of database. This is likely to be true for other chronic diseases and where alternative symptom labels exist for a disease. RCGP WRS may give the most reliable prevalence figures for musculoskeletal and other chronic diseases.
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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.