[Pattern of visits to a primary care clinic by recent Russian immigrants]

The pattern that characterized 2790 visits to a primary care clinic by recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union during their first 2 years in Israel was studied. The control group comprised 2689 visits of veteran Israeli patients to the same primary care clinic during the same period. 2/3 of the immigrants visited the clinic in the first year of the study and 1/3 in the second year. Half the veteran Israeli patients visited the clinic in the first year and the other half in the second. The mean number of clinic consultations for the immigrants was 5.2 per patient in the first year as opposed to 3.2 in the second. In the control group there was an average of 3.8 visits in the first year, and 4.1 in the second. The commonest reasons for consultations by immigrants were circulatory diseases, and for the controls, respiratory diseases. In both years there was a significant statistical difference between the number of visits by immigrants which were associated with elevated blood pressure, angina pectoris and psychological problems, compared to veteran Israelis. Thus, most of consultations by immigrants took place in the first year for circulatory diseases. There followed a gradual decrease in consultations, indicating successful management of their medical problems and perhaps adaptation to the behavioral pattern of veteran Israelis.