Frequent attenders at a primary health care center in Kuwait

ABSTRACT

To determine the frequency of general practice consultations and study personal and health factors associated with frequent attendance. Retrospective descriptive and case control study. Al-Surra Family Practice Health Center [SFPC], Kuwait. Three hundred seventy-two adults categorized as "frequent attenders" [FA] were included as cases. Three hundred sixty-eight adults categorized as "non-frequent attenders" [NFA] represented the controls. Frequency of attendance to polyclinic and associated factors. A total number of 16.068 patients made 77.970 visits to the SFPC during 2003. Out of them, 932 FA made 14,970 visits. The median number of visits per FA patient was 16, whereas it was only four for NFA. Only 45.5% of frequent attenders presented with symptoms while 17.7% attended for repeated medical prescription, and 18.3% showed up for check-up. Logistic regression analysis revealed that Kuwaitis, governmental employees, females in older age groups with chronic illness were more liable to be FAs in general. Among Kuwaitis, governmental job and chronic disease were detected as significant risk factors for being FA. Chronic diseases were the only predictors of FA among non-Kuwaitis. 5.8% of the total number of patients were responsible for 19.2% of the visits to SFPC. Chronic illness correlated strongly with a high rate of attendance. Also socio-demographic factors, especially nationality, gender, age and job type were indicators of frequent attendance in general practice