Measuring disease prevalence: a comparison of musculoskeletal disease using four general practice consultation databases.

Jordan, Kelvin; Clarke-Cornwell, Alexandra M; PM Symmons, Deborah; Fleming, Douglas; Porcheret, Mark; Kadam, Umesh T; Croft, Peter

Abstract

Background
Primary care consultation data are an important source
of information on morbidity prevalence. It is not known
how reliable such figures are.
Aim
To compare annual consultation prevalence estimates
for musculoskeletal conditions derived from four
general practice consultation databases.
Design of study
Retrospective study of general practice consultation
records.
Setting
Three national general practice consultation databases:
i) Fourth Morbidity Statistics from General Practice
(MSGP4, 1991/92), ii) Royal College of General
Practitioners Weekly Returns Service (RCGP WRS,
2001), and iii) General Practice Research Database
(GPRD, 1991 and 2001); and one regional database
(Consultations in Primary Care Archive, 2001).
Method
Age-sex standardised persons consulting annual
prevalence rates for musculoskeletal conditions overall,
rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and arthralgia were
derived for patients aged 15 years and over.
Results
GPRD prevalence of any musculoskeletal condition,
rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis was lower than
that of the other databases. This is likely to be due to
GPs not needing to record every consultation made for
a chronic condition. MSGP4 gave the highest
prevalence for osteoarthritis but low prevalence of
arthralgia which reflects encouragement for GPs to use
diagnostic rather than symptom codes.
Conclusion
Considerable variation exists in consultation
prevalence estimates for musculoskeletal conditions.
Researchers and health service planners should be
aware that estimates of disease occurrence based on
consultation will be influenced by choice of database.
This is likely to be true for other chronic diseases and
where alternative symptom labels exist for a disease.
RCGP WRS may give the most reliable prevalence
figures for musculoskeletal and other chronic diseases.

Citation

Jordan, K., Clarke-Cornwell, A. M., PM Symmons, D., Fleming, D., Porcheret, M., Kadam, U. T., & Croft, P. (2007). Measuring disease prevalence: a comparison of musculoskeletal disease using four general practice consultation databases. British Journal of General Practice, 57, 7-14

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 1, 2006
• Publication Date: 2007-01
• Deposit Date: Sep 23, 2023
• Journal: The British Journal of General Practice
• Print ISSN: 0960-1643
• Publisher: Royal College of General Practitioners
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 57
• Pages: 7-14
• Publisher URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2032694/
• PMID: 17244418