The prevalence and characteristics of frequent attenders in primary health care in a'dakhiliyah governorate of Oman

Joint Authors

Jeyaseelan, Lakshmanan
al-Abbadi, Badriyah
al-Abbadi, Jokha
al-Fannah, Wafa
al-Mahrezi, Abd al-Aziz
al-Muniri, Abd Allah

Source

Oman Medical Journal

Issue

Vol. 33, Issue 4 (31 Jul. 2018), pp.331-336, 6 p.

Publisher

Oman Medical Specialty Board

Publication Date

2018-07-31

Country of Publication

Oman

No. of Pages

6

Main Subjects

Medicine

Abstract EN

Objectives: Frequent attenders (FAs) in general practice receive significant attention in primary care research due to the financial costs associated with the higher utilization of health care services.

The main objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of FAs in Oman by studying the overall rates of adult patient visits to primary health care centers (PHCs) and identify the characteristics of this group of patients.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective longitudinal study including all adults aged 18 years and above who visited general practitioner clinics at four selected PHCs in the A'Dakhiliyah governorate of Oman.

Sociodemographic data and number of visits were extracted from the electronic medical records system.

Results: A total number of 12 902 adult patients contributed to 42 425 patient visits, with the number of visits made by individual patients ranging from 1 to 62.

FAs constituted 2.4% (n = 313) of the total subjects and made 5449 (12.8%) visits.

The mean rate of visits per patient per year was 3.2, while the median was two visits.

The overall rate of visits per day was more than two-times higher in females (79.6 per day) compared to males (36.6 per day) and was about five-times higher in female FA (12.3 vs.

2.6).

Conclusions: FAs represent a small proportion of patients attending PHCs in Oman.

The proportion of females was higher among FAs and they also contributed to a higher number of visits to PHCs.

American Psychological Association (APA)

al-Abbadi, Badriyah& al-Abbadi, Jokha& al-Fannah, Wafa& Jeyaseelan, Lakshmanan& al-Muniri, Abd Allah& al-Mahrezi, Abd al-Aziz. 2018. The prevalence and characteristics of frequent attenders in primary health care in a'dakhiliyah governorate of Oman. Oman Medical Journal،Vol. 33, no. 4, pp.331-336.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-838226

Modern Language Association (MLA)

al-Abbadi, Jokha…[et al.]. The prevalence and characteristics of frequent attenders in primary health care in a'dakhiliyah governorate of Oman. Oman Medical Journal Vol. 33, no. 4 (Jul. 2018), pp.331-336.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-838226

American Medical Association (AMA)

al-Abbadi, Badriyah& al-Abbadi, Jokha& al-Fannah, Wafa& Jeyaseelan, Lakshmanan& al-Muniri, Abd Allah& al-Mahrezi, Abd al-Aziz. The prevalence and characteristics of frequent attenders in primary health care in a'dakhiliyah governorate of Oman. Oman Medical Journal. 2018. Vol. 33, no. 4, pp.331-336.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-838226

Data Type

Journal Articles

Language

English

Notes

Includes bibliographical references : p. 335-336

Record ID

BIM-838226