ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners1998
Frequency of patients' consulting in general practice and workload generated by frequent attenders: comparisons between practices.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 1998. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Determinants of Frequent Attendance in Primary Care. A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies.Frontiers in medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Frequent attenders in late life in primary care: a systematic review of European studies.BMC family practice · 2017Pooled it
- Interventions on frequent attenders in primary care. A systematic literature review.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2008Pooled it
- Trial
- Successful GP intervention with frequent attenders in primary care: randomised controlled trial.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2008Trial
- Nurse management of minor problems in primary care emergencies: a non-randomized controlled trial.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Profile and healthcare utilisation patterns of adolescent frequent attenders in Singapore primary care: a retrospective study.BMJ open · 2024Article
- Occupational health patients' parallel use of primary- and secondary-care services and linkage to work disability: A follow-up study in Finland.Scandinavian journal of public health · 2024Article
- Consultation frequency and general practitioners' and practices' characteristics.BMC primary care · 2023Article
- Burden and patient characteristics associated with repeat consultation for unscheduled care within 30 days in primary care: a retrospective case control study with implications for aging and public health.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Factors Contributing to Persistent Frequent Attendance in Primary Care Among the Oldest Old: Longitudinal Evidence From the AgeCoDe-AgeQualiDe Study.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Article
- Why parents bring their children with minor health problems to their family practitioners: An unmatched case-control study.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2021Article
- Managing high frequency users of an electronic consultation system in primary care: a quality improvement project.BMJ open quality · 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
- Continuity of care as a predictor of ongoing frequent attendance in primary care: a retrospective cohort study.BJGP open · 2020Article
- Defining and Characterizing Frequent Attenders: Systematic Literature Review and Recommendations.Journal of patient-centered research and reviews · 2020Review
- Health-related quality of life among frequent attenders in Swedish primary care: a cross-sectional observational study.BMJ open · 2019Observational
- Frequent attenders in general medical practice in Italy: a preliminary report on clinical variables related to low functioning.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2019Article
- Comparing occasional and persistent frequent attenders in occupational health primary care - a longitudinal study.BMC public health · 2018Article
- Which factors lead to frequent attendance in the outpatient sector among individuals in the second half of life? Evidence from a population-based longitudinal study in Germany.BMC health services research · 2018Observational
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPatients who attend frequently may present a problem for general practitioners (GPs) in several ways. The frequency of patients' consulting, comparisons between practices, and the effect of frequent consulting on the clinical workload have not been quantified previously.
aimsTo examine the distribution of the number of consultations per patient in four general practices. To estimate the clinical workload generated by frequent attenders. To model the data to demonstrate the contribution of age, sex, and practice on the likelihood of attending frequently.
methodAnalysis and modelling of a validated data set of date records of consultations collected routinely over a 41-month period from four practices in and around Leeds, representing 44,146 patients and 470,712 consultations.
resultsA minority of patients consulted with extreme frequency. All practices had similar distributions but varied with respect to the numbers of frequent attenders, and the frequencies of their consulting. The most frequent 1% of attenders accounted for 6% of all consultations, and the most frequent 3% for 15% of all consultations. Females and older people were more likely to be frequent attenders.
conclusionFrequent attenders have an important effect on GPs clinical workload. Between one in six and one in seven consultations are with the top 3% of attenders. Further research is needed to explain the behaviour underpinning frequent attendance in order to identify appropriate management strategies; such strategies could have an important effect on clinical workload.
Indexed as
Identifiers
9604412PMC1409909What 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.