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Primary care workload and prescribing costs in children The impact of respiratory symptoms
Jennifer Cropper1, Timothy Frank1, Peter Frank1
1GP Research Unit, North West Lung Research Centre, Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester M23 9LT, UK.
Insights
Children with more positive responses on a respiratory questionnaire, indicating a higher likelihood of asthma, significantly increased their use of primary healthcare services, including consultations and prescriptions for respiratory illnesses.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- General Practice
- Respiratory Medicine
Background:
- Respiratory symptoms are common in childhood.
- Accurate assessment of respiratory illness likelihood is crucial for healthcare resource allocation.
- Understanding primary care utilization patterns is essential for effective health service management.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between respiratory questionnaire responses and primary healthcare utilization in pediatric populations.
- To establish a quantifiable method for predicting healthcare demand based on respiratory symptom reporting.
Main Methods:
- A stratified random sample of 713 children from two general practices was analyzed.
- Children were grouped based on positive responses to a postal respiratory questionnaire, indicating asthma likelihood.
- Healthcare utilization data, including consultations and prescriptions, were collected over two years.
Main Results:
- Increased positive responses on the questionnaire correlated significantly with higher rates of consultations and prescriptions.
- A significant relationship was observed between the number of positive responses and healthcare costs (p < 0.001).
- Primary care resource demand for respiratory illness treatment escalated with higher asthma likelihood indicators.
Conclusions:
- Higher likelihood of asthma diagnosis in children leads to increased demand on primary care resources.
- The developed method effectively quantifies demand and predicts healthcare utilization for respiratory illnesses.
- This approach can be applied to other primary care populations for resource planning.
Aim:
To examine the relationship between responses to a respiratory questionnaire and primary healthcare utilisation in children.
Method:
A stratified random sample of 713 children was selected from respondents to a postal respiratory questionnaire carried out in two general practice populations in 1993. Children were stratified into four groups according to the number of positive responses to five key questions. These groups were used as indicators of likelihood of asthma diagnosis. A search was made of the children's records covering a two-year period which included home visits, surgery consultations and prescribed medications.
Results:
As the number of positive responses increased, there was a significant increase in the proportion of children having consultations, home visits and prescriptions, particularly for treatment for respiratory illness. Furthermore, there was a significant relationship between cost and the number of positive responses to the questionnaire (p < 0.001).
Conclusions:
As likelihood of asthma diagnosis increased in this population, more demand was made upon primary care resources for treatment for respiratory illness. The method developed here to quantify demand enables prediction of healthcare utilisation with regard to respiratory illness in other primary care populations.
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