ArticleBMC public health2018
Comparing occasional and persistent frequent attenders in occupational health primary care - a longitudinal study.
Article in BMC public health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Profile of European frequent attenders in primary health care: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Family practice · 2025Pooled it
- Determinants of Frequent Attendance in Primary Care. A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies.Frontiers in medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Frequent attenders in primary health care in Finland: use of primary care services and patient characteristics.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2026Article
- Expanding Cancer Prevention: Strategies Integrated into Occupational Health Surveillance.Cancers · 2025Review
- Article
- Factors Contributing to Persistent Frequent Attendance in Primary Care Among the Oldest Old: Longitudinal Evidence From the AgeCoDe-AgeQualiDe Study.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Article
- Risk factors for the frequent attendance of older patients at community health service centers in China: a cross-sectional study based on stratified sampling.BMC family practice · 2021Article
- Sociodemographic characteristics and disability pensions of frequent attenders in occupational health primary care - a follow-up study in Finland.BMC public health · 2021Article
- Frequent attenders of three outpatient health care schemes in Finland: characteristics and association with long-term sickness absences, 2016-2018.BMC public health · 2021Article
- Determinants of Frequent Attendance in Primary Care. Study Protocol for a Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Identifying health priorities among workers from occupational health clinic visit records: Experience from automobile industry in India.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2020Article
- Article
- How GPs can Recognize Persistent Frequent Attenders at Finnish Primary Health Care Using Electronic Patient Records.Journal of primary care & community healthArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe aim of the study was to compare occasional and persistent frequent attenders in occupational health (OH) primary care and to identify the diagnoses associated with persisting frequent attendance.
methodsThis is a longitudinal study using electronic medical record data from 2014 to 2016 from an OH service provider. Frequent attenders were defined as patients in the top decile of annual visits to healthcare professionals (frequent attender 10%, FA10). FA10 were categorized to three groups according to the persistence of frequent attendance (1-year-FA, 2 year-FA, and persistent-FA = frequent attenders in all three years). This was used as the dependent variable. We used patient sex, age, employer size, industry and distribution of visits and diagnostic codes to characterize the different frequent attender groups.
resultsIn total, 66,831 patients were included, of which 592 persistent frequent attenders (0.9% of the study population) consulted the OH unit on average 13 times a year. They made altogether 23,797 visits during the study years. The proportion of women and employees of medium and large employers increased among persistent-FAs when compared to the other groups. Multinomial logistic regression accentuated musculoskeletal disorders and to a lesser extent diseases of the respiratory and nervous system and mental disorders. One in five FA becomes a persistent-FA.
conclusionsOur results indicate that in the context of a working population the association of musculoskeletal disorders and persistent frequent attendance is emphasized. Persistent frequent attenders also create a substantial demand on physician resources. When planning interventions aimed at working age frequent attenders, subgroups suffering from musculoskeletal disorders should be identified as they are associated with persisting frequent attendance.
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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.