NSW Health Surveys 1997 and 1998	Table of contents This page: Print version
	Health Services Utilisation - General practice consultations

Introduction
Summary of results
Questions and indicators
References

Introduction

Measuring use of health services

Questions about use of hospital, emergency department and general practitioner (GP) services were included in the 1997 and 1998 NSW Health Surveys in order to estimate the proportion of the population using these services in a specific period. Such estimates cannot readily be obtained from administrative data collections, such as the NSW Inpatients Statistics Collection or Emergency Department Data Collection, because these collections are based on occasions of care at certain facilities, and people can use a similar service type on multiple occasions and at different facilities. Survey data can be used to obtain "person-based" estimates of population use of health services, but must be interpreted with some caution, because they rely on subject's recall of when they used services. Health service use may both over-estimated (Reijneveld, 2000) and under-estimated (Wallihan, Stump and Callahan, 1999) in self-report surveys.

A national survey to monitor the clinical activities of general practitioners (GPs), known as BEACH (Bettering the Evaluation And Care of Health), began in April 1998, and involves a random sample of approximately 1,000 GPs a year (AIHW, 2000). This survey provides data on the characteristics of patients consulting GPs, the patient's reasons for the consultation, the types of problems managed in the consultations and the management activities resulting from the consultations. It provides information only about those who consult a GP, not about the characteristics of those who do not. Data on GP consultations were collected in the 1997 and 1998 NSW Health Surveys allow examination of the distribution and determinants of GP consultations in the NSW population. This information complements that from the BEACH survey.

Summary of results

All data are also presented in graphical format and tabular format. Follow the links below.

General practice consultations

NSW Health Survey respondents were asked whether they had consulted a GP in the last 12 months, or the last two weeks. Overall, 87.1% of respondents aged 16 years and over reported consulting a GP at least once in the last 12 months (90.2% of females and 83.9% of males) and 24.2% in the last two weeks (27.5% of females and 20.8% of males). This indicates that a considerable proportion (12.9%) of the population (particularly males) do not visit a doctor in a 12-month period. Among respondents aged 18 years and over, 21.1% of males and 27.8% of females reported consulting a GP in the last two weeks. This can be compared with figures from the 1995 National Health Survey which report that some 20% of males and 26% of females aged 18 years and over consulted a GP in the last two weeks (ABS, 1996). Some differences in the results from the two surveys may be expected due to differences in methodology (the National Health Survey is conducted by face-to-face interview rather than by telephone) and possible regional differences between NSW and Australia as a whole. There was a slight decline in the percentage of respondents who reported consulting a GP at least once in the last 12 months between 1997 and 1998, from 24.7% to 23.8%.

The proportion of both males and females who reported consulting a GP in the last two weeks increased with age. For males, this proportion ranged from 14.1% among those aged 25-34 years, gradually increasing to 42.3% of those aged 75 years and over. The proportion of females reporting a GP consultation in the last two weeks was greater than for males for every age group except those aged 75 years and over. This proportion ranged from 22.4% of women aged 16-24 years, to 40.0% of women aged 75 years and over. The BEACH study for the 12 month period April 1999 to March 2000, reported that 57.3% of consultations were for female patients, and that, of total consultations, about one-quarter were with patients from each of the the following age groups: 25-44 years, 45-64 years and 65 years and older (Britt et al., 2000).

The proportion of respondents reporting a GP consultation in the last two weeks was lower in rural areas (22.0%) compared with urban areas (24.9%). This was the case among both males (19.1% .v. 21.3%) and females (24.9% .v. 28.3%). Respondents living in areas increasingly remote from major service centres also tended to report lower GP consultation rates (17.9% of persons living in "very remote" areas compared with 24.6% of those in "highly accessible" areas).

Australian-born respondents (23.4%) were less likely than those born in Italy (40.7%), Lebanon (44.3%) and Greece (39.3%) to report a GP consultation in the last two weeks. Correspondingly, persons speaking Italian (34.4%) or Arabic (39.1%) at home, were also more likely than those speaking English (23.6%) to report consulting a GP at least once in the last two weeks. There was also a tendency for GP consultation rates to increase with increasing socioeconomic disadvantage. Respondents in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged quintile (27.6%) were more likely to report at least one GP consultation in the last two weeks than those in the quintile of least disadvantage (23.0%). There was also a striking trend of increasing rates with decreasing level of educational attainment in both males and females. The rates ranged from 20.7% of persons attaining a tertiary education degree to 39.0% of those with no schooling. Those respondents who were retired (35.7%) or unable to work (49.6%) also had higher GP consultation rates in the last two weeks than those in other labour force categories. It should be noted that none of the analyses by socioeconomic factors was adjusted for age, which may explain some of these differences.

There was a strong association between self-rated health status and reported GP consultations in the last two weeks. Rates ranged from 15.8% of persons who rated their health as "excellent" (13.3% of males and 18.1% of females), to 61.2% of those who rated it as "poor" (66.2% of males and 56.4% of females). Again, these differences are likely to be related to age—older people tended to report worse health status as well as more GP consultations.

Questions and Indicators

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