Prevalence and incidence of adults consulting for shoulder conditions in UK primary care; patterns of diagnosis and referral.
OBJECTIVES: To estimate the national prevalence and incidence of adults consulting for a shoulder condition and to investigate patterns of diagnosis, treatment, consultation and referral 3 yr after initial presentation. METHODS: Prevalence and incidence rates were estimated for 658469 patients aged...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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2006
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| _version_ | 1797074667917279232 |
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| author | Linsell, L Dawson, J Zondervan, K Rose, P Randall, T Fitzpatrick, R Carr, A |
| author_facet | Linsell, L Dawson, J Zondervan, K Rose, P Randall, T Fitzpatrick, R Carr, A |
| author_sort | Linsell, L |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | OBJECTIVES: To estimate the national prevalence and incidence of adults consulting for a shoulder condition and to investigate patterns of diagnosis, treatment, consultation and referral 3 yr after initial presentation. METHODS: Prevalence and incidence rates were estimated for 658469 patients aged 18 and over in the year 2000 using a primary care database, the IMS Disease Analyzer-Mediplus UK. A cohort of 9215 incident cases was followed-up prospectively for 3 yr beyond the initial consultation. RESULTS: The annual prevalence and incidence of people consulting for a shoulder condition was 2.36% [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.32-2.40%] and 1.47% (95% CI 1.44-1.50%), respectively. Prevalence increased linearly with age whilst incidence peaked at around 50 yr then remained static at around 2%. Around half of the incident cases consulted once only, while 13.6% were still consulting with a shoulder problem during the third year of follow-up. During the 3 yr following initial presentation, 22.4% of patients were referred to secondary care, 30.8% were prescribed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and 10.6% were given an injection by their general practitioner (GP). GPs tended to use a limited number of generalized codes when recording a diagnosis; just five of 426 possible Read codes relating to shoulder conditions accounted for 74.6% of the diagnoses of new cases recorded by GPs. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of people consulting for shoulder problems in primary care is substantially lower than community-based estimates of shoulder pain. Most referrals occur within 3 months of initial presentation, but only a minority of patients are referred to orthopaedic specialists or rheumatologists. GPs may lack confidence in applying precise diagnoses to shoulder conditions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:39:34Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:6ed32df3-c527-4b0c-8286-697aa078f02d |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:39:34Z |
| publishDate | 2006 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:6ed32df3-c527-4b0c-8286-697aa078f02d2022-03-26T19:26:56ZPrevalence and incidence of adults consulting for shoulder conditions in UK primary care; patterns of diagnosis and referral.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:6ed32df3-c527-4b0c-8286-697aa078f02dEnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2006Linsell, LDawson, JZondervan, KRose, PRandall, TFitzpatrick, RCarr, AOBJECTIVES: To estimate the national prevalence and incidence of adults consulting for a shoulder condition and to investigate patterns of diagnosis, treatment, consultation and referral 3 yr after initial presentation. METHODS: Prevalence and incidence rates were estimated for 658469 patients aged 18 and over in the year 2000 using a primary care database, the IMS Disease Analyzer-Mediplus UK. A cohort of 9215 incident cases was followed-up prospectively for 3 yr beyond the initial consultation. RESULTS: The annual prevalence and incidence of people consulting for a shoulder condition was 2.36% [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.32-2.40%] and 1.47% (95% CI 1.44-1.50%), respectively. Prevalence increased linearly with age whilst incidence peaked at around 50 yr then remained static at around 2%. Around half of the incident cases consulted once only, while 13.6% were still consulting with a shoulder problem during the third year of follow-up. During the 3 yr following initial presentation, 22.4% of patients were referred to secondary care, 30.8% were prescribed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and 10.6% were given an injection by their general practitioner (GP). GPs tended to use a limited number of generalized codes when recording a diagnosis; just five of 426 possible Read codes relating to shoulder conditions accounted for 74.6% of the diagnoses of new cases recorded by GPs. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of people consulting for shoulder problems in primary care is substantially lower than community-based estimates of shoulder pain. Most referrals occur within 3 months of initial presentation, but only a minority of patients are referred to orthopaedic specialists or rheumatologists. GPs may lack confidence in applying precise diagnoses to shoulder conditions. |
| spellingShingle | Linsell, L Dawson, J Zondervan, K Rose, P Randall, T Fitzpatrick, R Carr, A Prevalence and incidence of adults consulting for shoulder conditions in UK primary care; patterns of diagnosis and referral. |
| title | Prevalence and incidence of adults consulting for shoulder conditions in UK primary care; patterns of diagnosis and referral. |
| title_full | Prevalence and incidence of adults consulting for shoulder conditions in UK primary care; patterns of diagnosis and referral. |
| title_fullStr | Prevalence and incidence of adults consulting for shoulder conditions in UK primary care; patterns of diagnosis and referral. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Prevalence and incidence of adults consulting for shoulder conditions in UK primary care; patterns of diagnosis and referral. |
| title_short | Prevalence and incidence of adults consulting for shoulder conditions in UK primary care; patterns of diagnosis and referral. |
| title_sort | prevalence and incidence of adults consulting for shoulder conditions in uk primary care patterns of diagnosis and referral |
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