Cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal disorder labels in family practice acted as markers of physical health severity.

Family practitioner diagnostic labels applied in consultation provide a signpost for treatment and management. Yet, it is unknown whether each label reflects the health of the respective patient group. Consultation records of 7,799 patients aged 50 years and older from six family practices were linked to a cross-sectional baseline health survey. Associations between six mutually exclusive cardiovascular disease and nine mutually exclusive musculoskeletal disorder categories, and physical health severity as measured by the Short Form-12 questionnaire were examined. There were 2,447 (31.4%) cardiovascular disease and 3,321 (42.6%) musculoskeletal disorder consulters. The mean physical health scores ranged from 38.38 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 37.8-39.0) for hypertension to the poorest score of health 28.98 (95% CI: 27.5-30.5) for consulters with heart failure, whereas in the musculoskeletal disorder group, scores ranged from 44.85 (95% CI: 42.2-47.5) for soft tissue disorder to 28.79 (95% CI: 26.8-30.8) for consulters with inflammatory polyarthropathy (trend P<0.001). This trend in the association between diagnostic categories and physical health severity within both spectrums remained after adjustment for confounders. Specific diagnostic labels for selected chronic illness indicate the severity of physical health for the corresponding consulting population. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Citation

James A Prior, Umesh T Kadam. Cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal disorder labels in family practice acted as markers of physical health severity. Journal of clinical epidemiology. 2011 May;64(5):547-55

Mesh Tags

PMID: 20947296

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