Primary care workload and prescribing costs in children The impact of respiratory symptoms.

Aim: To examine the relationship between responses to a respiratory questionnaire and primary healthcare utilisation in children.

Method: A stratified random sample of 713 children was selected from respondents to a postal respiratory questionnaire carried out in two general practice populations in 1993. Children were stratified into four groups according to the number of positive responses to five key questions. These groups were used as indicators of likelihood of asthma diagnosis. A search was made of the children's records covering a two-year period which included home visits, surgery consultations and prescribed medications.

Results: As the number of positive responses increased, there was a significant increase in the proportion of children having consultations, home visits and prescriptions, particularly for treatment for respiratory illness. Furthermore, there was a significant relationship between cost and the number of positive responses to the questionnaire ( < 0.001).

Conclusions: As likelihood of asthma diagnosis increased in this population, more demand was made upon primary care resources for treatment for respiratory illness. The method developed here to quantify demand enables prediction of healthcare utilisation with regard to respiratory illness in other primary care populations.