Patients in Europe evaluate general practice care: an international comparison.

Background: Patients' evaluations can be used to improve health care and compare general practice in different health systems.

Aim: To identify aspects of general practice that are generally evaluated positively by patients and to compare opinions of patients in different European countries on actual care provision.

Method: An internationally-validated questionnaire was distributed to and completed by patients in 10 European countries.

Effect of mailed reminders on the response rate in surveys among patients in general practice.

Randomized trials were performed in Denmark and The Netherlands to determine the effect of mailed reminders on the response rate in surveys among patients in general practice. In both countries, general practitioners handed out questionnaires to 200 adult patients who came to visit them. An intervention group of 100 patients received reminders at 3 weeks after the visit, whereas a control group of the remaining 100 patients did not receive reminders.

General practice care and patients' priorities in Europe: an international comparison.

Insight into patients' priorities with respect to health care should complement the views of professionals and policy makers on what is thought to be appropriate health care. To determine the strengths and weaknesses of general practice care from patients' perspectives written surveys were performed among patients in Denmark, Germany, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and United Kingdom (n = 3540). The potential quality problems identified were spread over the different countries: the low involvement of general practitioners in out-of-hours services in Portugal; the low provision of routine screening in Sweden, Norway and The Netherlands; the lack of a defined patient population in Germany; the lack of a formal gatekeeper role to secondary care in general practice in Germany and Sweden; and the low number of home visits in Sweden.

Patients' priorities with respect to general practice care: an international comparison. European Task Force on Patient Evaluations of General Practice (EUROPEP).

Background And Objectives: Improving the sensitivity of general practice to patients' needs demands a good understanding of patients' expectations and priorities in care provision. Insight into differences in expectations of patients in different cultures and health care systems may support decision-making on desirable models for care provision in general practice. An international study was conducted to determine priorities of patients in general practice care: which views do patients in different countries have in common and which views differ?

Methods: Written surveys in general practices in the UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, The Netherlands, Germany, Portugal and Israel were performed.

[Interpretation of questionnaires. An translation method problem].

For use in a different cultural background, translated questionnaires need to be validated in the new context. International guidelines are needed for such validation, as precision in translation is an important methodological issue. The article consists in a review of the issue and recommended guidelines for the translation and validation of questionnaires, based on the authors' experience and international literature in the field.

Patients' knowledge and attitudes regarding sleep and hypnotics.

Objective: To examine attitudes, opinions and knowledge regarding hypnotics and their use, sleep and sleep requirements among patients who have used hypnotics.

Design: A mailed questionnaire.

Setting: A primary health care centre serving 18,500 inhabitants.

Is hypertension changing? Blood pressure development in cohorts of 50-year-old men between 1963 and 1993.

Objective: To study secular trends in the prevalence and treatment of hypertension in the general population, and the disease course.

Design: Health examinations of cohorts of 50-year-old men in 1963, 1973, 1983 and 1993.

Setting: The city of Göteborg, Sweden (about 400,000 inhabitants).

The concept of individualized hypertension care in general practice and outpatient clinics. The general practitioner hypertension practice study (III).

Objective: To examine test ordering practice among general practitioners and hospital medical specialists according to the concept of individualized hypertension care.

Design: Mailed hypothetical case histories, with reference panels to categorize tests.

Setting: Uppsala-Orebro region in mid-Sweden.

Treatment preferences, return visit planning and factors affecting hypertension practice amongst general practitioners and internal medicine specialists (the General Practitioner Hypertension Practice Study).

Objectives: To study clinical practice and attitudes in hypertension care amongst general practitioners (GPs) and hospital internal medicine specialists.

Design: Mailed case report questionnaires.

Subjects: Ninety GPs and 69 internal medicine specialists at randomly selected primary health care centres and hospital outpatient departments.

Swedish general practitioners' practice behaviour in hypertension care.

Objective: To examine care organization and practice behaviour in hypertension care among Swedish general practitioners.

Design: A postal questionnaire followed by a structured interview, in a two-step study design.

Setting: Uppsala-Orebro region in mid-Sweden (population 1.

Long-term effect of pindolol on lipids and lipoproteins in men with newly diagnosed hypertension.

This is the first long-term study of pindolol in a population-based sample of men with newly diagnosed hypertension. Eighty-two patients, with a diastolic pressure of 100 mm Hg or more, were identified after screening 6000 men. Many patients were overweight.

A long-term study on the effect of pindolol on serum lipoproteins: a preliminary report.

1. Preliminary results are reported from a long-term study aimed at recording the concentrations of serum lipids and lipoproteins at 6, 12 and 24 months of treatment with pindolol in young/middle-aged males with moderate hypertension. 2.