Pattern of primary care clinic visits of adult asthmatics

Although asthma in adult patients is responsible for a large proportion of the morbidity in primary care, there has been little research on the pattern of visits among adult patients with asthma. The objective of this study was to compare the pattern of visits by adult patients with asthma with that by non-asthmatics over one year.

A case-control study was conduced on a population of 4341 men and women, aged 18 years or older, registered with a primary care clinic. The study group consisted of 141 asthmatics, and the control group, of 423 non-asthmatic subjects. The pattern of visits was examined for asthmatics and compared with non-asthmatic subjects.

Respiratory, circulatory, musculoskeletal, and digestive disease categories were the most common reasons for visits for both asthmatics and non-asthmatics, with visits for pregnancy and family planning, trauma, and neoplasm being the least common. The rate of visits was significantly higher in asthmatics than non-asthmatics for respiratory diseases, including asthma, upper respiratory tract infections (URTI), and acute bronchitis, while non-asthmatics had a higher rate of visits for endocrine and metabolic disorders, including diabetes mellitus, low back pain, trauma, urogenital disorders, and pregnancy and family planning. The mean number of visits per patient per year was significantly higher for asthmatic than non-asthmatic subjects.

A different pattern of consultations was observed. Asthmatics visited their doctors more frequently than patients without asthma, mainly consulting for various respiratory problems.