ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of a non-committal registration specifying the intention of patients to contact a particular general practitioner, on patient loyalty in Belgium. SETTING: Antwerp and Liège DESIGN: Case control study. METHOD: Medical consumption was registered during one year by two health insurance companies for a group of 4000 participating patients (experimental group) and 4000 non-participants (control group) within two selected areas (Antwerp and Liège). Patient loyalty was measured by means of the normalised usual provider continuity index. RESULTS: No relevant differences were found between the experimental group and the control group. Even when taking into account that a general practitioner is not available 20% of the time, the proportion of loyal patients hardly reached 70%. CONCLUSION: A non-committal registration had no influence on patient loyalty. There is a clear difference between intention and actual behaviour. More coercive measures are needed to reach a more loyal behaviour.
Subject(s)
Contract Services , Physicians, Family/statistics & numerical data , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Attitude , Belgium , Case-Control Studies , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Middle Aged , Patients/psychology , Physician-Patient RelationsABSTRACT
Comparison of the attack rates for acute myocardial infarction in two Belgian towns AMI attack rates in two Belgian towns. Belgium is divided in two main regions: Flanders in the North with a Dutch-speaking population, and Wallonia in the South with a French-speaking community. From 1982 onwards, a register of acute myocardial infarction has been in operation in Ghent, a Flemish town, and in Charleroi in Wallonia, following the procedures of the MONICA (Multinational Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Diseases) study. Annual attack rates of myocardial infarction are presented for a 5-year period. During this period, the annual attack rates for men are 10-20% higher in Charleroi than Ghent. In women, the ratio between the two cities is less clear. The results of this community registers confirms the regional differences observed previously in Belgium using other epidemiological techniques.
