General practitioners' (GPs') advice against smoking helps smokers to stop; unfortunately, GPs cannot predict which patients will quit following advice. This postal questionnaire survey suggests that where smokers attribute their respiratory symptoms to smoking, they are eight times (95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.0-23.3) more likely to believe that their health will improve if they stop smok...

Background and objective Many guidelines for clinical decisions are hierarchical and non-linear. Evaluating if these guidelines are used in practice requires methods that can identify such structures and thresholds. We use classification and regression trees (CART) to analyse prescribing patterns of Australian General Practitioners (GPs) for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Our...

OBJECTIVE The pattern of drugs actually consumed by patients can differ from that shown in the medical records held by the general practitioners. Reasons for such differences, in patients receiving polypharmacy, were analyzed in this study. MATERIALS AND METHODS Medication records provided by general practitioners (GP) were compared with the pattern of drugs actively taken by their patients. ...

OBJECTIVES To assess the levels of physical activity and other health related behaviours of General Practitioners (GPs) and compare their reported levels of physical activity with those of the general population. STUDY DESIGN Cross sectional postal questionnaire survey. METHODS A questionnaire, which did not allow identification of individual respondents, was posted to all 1074 (GPs) in Nor...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to identify factors influencing the prescribing of psychotropic medication by general practitioners (GPs) to nursing home residents with dementia. SUBJECTS AND METHODS GPs with experience in nursing homes were recruited through professional body newsletter advertising, while 1,000 randomly selected GPs from southeastern Australia were invited to participate...

BACKGROUND Never events (NEs) are serious preventable patient safety incidents and are a component of formal quality and safety improvement (Q&SI) policies in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. A preliminary list of NEs for UK general practice has been developed, but the frequency of these events, or their acceptability to general practitioner (GPs) as a Q&SI approach, is currently unknown. The ...

BACKGROUND As studies evaluating substitution of care have revealed only limited evidence on cost-effectiveness, a trial was conducted to evaluate nurse practitioners as a first point of contact in Dutch general practices. AIM To estimate costs of GP versus nurse practitioner consultations from practice and societal perspectives. DESIGN OF STUDY An economic evaluation was conducted alongsid...

AIMS To determine the nature and magnitude of the histopathological workload generated by specimens received from general practitioners and to assess the trends in referral practice. METHODS All material submitted by general practitioners to the Leicester district histopathology service from 1989 to January 1993 was identified from departmental records. All GP referrals from October to Decemb...

OBJECTIVE To pilot-test a brief written prescription recommending lifestyle changes delivered by general practitioners (GPs) to their patients. DESIGN The Active Nutrition Script (ANS) included five nutrition messages and personalised exercise advice for a healthy lifestyle and/or the prevention of weight gain. GPs were asked to administer 10 scripts over 4 weeks to 10 adult patients with a b...