BACKGROUND The diversity of definitions of frequent attendance in the literature hampers comparison of their precision, validity, and associated factors. AIM To examine different definitions of frequent attendance in order to identify the sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with frequent attendance in primary care, according to each definition. DESIGN OF STUDY One-phase cross-s...

BACKGROUND Poor menstrual knowledge and access to sanitary products have been proposed as barriers to menstrual health and school attendance. In response, interventions targeting these needs have seen increasing implementation in public and private sectors. However, there has been limited assessment of their effectiveness. OBJECTIVES Assess the impact of providing reusable sanitary pads and p...

BACKGROUND Anxiety and depression are common in young people and are associated with a range of adverse outcomes. Research has suggested a relationship between emotional disorder and poor school attendance, and thus poor attendance may serve as a red flag for children at risk of emotional disorder. This systematic review aims to investigate the association between child and adolescent emotional...

OBJECTIVES Assess the impact of text-based electronic notifications on improving clinic attendance, in relation to study quality (according to risk of bias), and to assess simple ways in which notifications can be optimised (ie, impact of multiple notifications). DESIGN Systematic review, study quality appraisal assessing risk of bias, data synthesised in meta-analyses. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE...

Studies examining characteristics of non-attendance at hospital outpatients have given inconsistent results. We examined a cohort of 1972 referrals from 26 general practitioners, with complete follow-up. Five factors were found to be significantly associated with non-attendance: male sex, younger age, longer interval between referral and appointment, higher Jarman score and patients of a high-r...

OBJECTIVE Previous studies on the association between religious service attendance and depression have been mostly cross-sectional, subject to reverse causation, and did not account for the potential feedback between religious service attendance and depression. We prospectively evaluated evidence whether religious service attendance decreased risk of subsequent risk of depression and whether de...

BACKGROUND Frequent attendance to primary care constitutes a large use of resources for the health care system. The association between frequent attendance and illness-related factors has been examined in several studies, but little is known about the association between frequent attendance and individual social capital. The aim of this study is to explore this association. METHODS The analys...

Background. Birth preparedness program was designed to enhance skilled birth attendance and postpartum checkups of women in a developing country to reduce the three delays that lead women and neonates to death and disability. However, the relationship between birth preparedness with skilled birth attendance and postpartum checkups among mothers is not well studied. Therefore this study is inten...

BACKGROUND High utilization of health care services is a costly phenomenon commonly observed in primary care practices. However, while frequent attendance in primary care has been broadly studied across age groups, aspects of high utilization by elderly patients have not been investigated in detail. The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic review of frequent attendance in primary care a...

377 Letters to the Editor Sir, Non-attendance (failure to attend clinic appointments) is a common problem in dermatology clinics. Non-attendance proportions range from 15% to 25% and lead to inefficient use of space and personnel and increased costs (1–7). To improve the management of dermatological clinics, factors that determine non-attendance should be identified and addressed. In the past, ...