Tiredness in Dutch family practice. Data on patients complaining of and/or diagnosed with "tiredness"

• Published in: Family practice 2003-08, Vol.20 (4), p.434-440
• Main Authors: Kenter, E G H, Okkes, I M, Oskam, S K, Lamberts, H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age Distribution; Aged; Child; Child, Preschool; Data analysis; Episode of Care; Family Practice; Fatigue; Fatigue - classification; Fatigue - diagnosis; Fatigue - epidemiology; Fatigue - etiology; Female; General practice; Health problems; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; International Classification of Diseases; Male; Middle Aged; Netherlands; Netherlands - epidemiology; Probability; Sex Distribution
• ISSN: 0263-2136; 1460-2229; 1460-2229
• DOI: 10.1093/fampra/cmg418

Research including patients from the entire tiredness spectrum in family practice is needed. Our aim was to provide routine family practice data on (i) relationships between the RFE (reason for encounter) and the diagnosis "tiredness"; (ii) duration, number of encounters and family physician's (FP's) interventions in episodes of care of tiredness; and (iii) sex/age and co-morbidity of patients diagnosed with "tiredness". Routine episode of care data from the Transition Project, coded comprehensively with the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC), were used. (i) A 16 year database (1985-2000, 58 FPs, 504 145 episodes of care, 168 550 patient years) for calculating "prior probabilities" with (diagnostic) odds ratios. (ii) A "basic population" extracted from that 16 year database of patients listed for an entire 4 year period (1997-2000; n = 12 292). The RFE tiredness resulted in a variety of diagnoses, but most frequently (43%) in "tiredness". Most odds ratios were low or negative. Of episodes of care of tiredness, 90% started with the RFE tiredness; 72% required one encounter only, and 90% lasted