[Additional question ("is there anything else...?") in primary health care]

To assess in two General Medicine clinics the use of the formula "Was there anything else?" in connection with patients' additional requests and the question's possible association with other variables.

Quasi-experimental.

Urban Health Centre.

Patients from two lists attending over a two-month period, with the exclusion of scheduled patients without appointments.

For one of the months patients were asked: "Was there anything else?" (intervention group) and for the other month, they were not (control group). On each visit variables were recorded: list, doctor (tutor/intern), age, gender, reason for consultation (pathology/burocratic), whether accompanied, waiting time and additional requests (new problems raised at the end of the visit). A bivariant analysis of each of the variables with the variable 'intervention' was made and, after a prior transformation of the variable 'additional requests' into two, was adjusted to a multiple logistic regression model in order to control the confusion.

2,657 attendances were analysed. The variables which were significant for the prediction of additional requests were: intervention, list, age, gender and reason for consultation.

The intervention of the doctor may generate additional requests, although whether this means that the consultation is better organised remains to be assessed.