The value of ICPC disease coding and morbidity in general practice.

Abstract

Description - Data relating to morbidity in General Practice in Malta is rare to come by. General Practitioners record much information on morbidity in the course of their routine work, and General Practice records reflect more closely the true relative frequencies of most diseases than do hospital or mortality records. The diagnostic information available in General Practice depends on the type of records maintained, but on the whole the data are free from the biases that arise from selective referral and admission of patients to hospital. Although in Malta doctors are not responsible for a defined list of people, the author has been using an electronic database for maintaining patient records since 1994. The system used is custom made for the author and includes the ICPC2 classification of diseases, widely used in General Practice and recommended by WONCA, the World Organisation of National Colleges, and Associations of Family Medicine. Aims and objectives - Encounters for all patients attending the author's clinic have been documented on electronic records since 1994. Data on 593 encounters for different disorders were examined. Although that due to a lack of good denominator data, these cannot be readily converted into morbidity rates, the relative frequency of disease presentation in General Practice in Malta can be studied and a list of the commoner diagnoses is very informative. The results may be compared to morbidity rates in General Practice in other countries.

Method - Data relating to 593 consecutive clinic encounters performed during the first quarter of 1994 were analysed based on the diagnosis code. A disease profile was compiled and relative frequency of disease presentation worked out for each body system. Prevalence Rates of disease presentation in General Practice in Holland between 1985 - 1994 are available through the Transition Project, an electronic patient record keeping system based also on ICPC-2. Although not strictly comparable, data from the two studies were examined to see whether there are any similarities between disease presentation in General Practice in Malta and Holland.