Table 1.
Information on data collection and data sets
| Countries | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | Denmark | Germany | Netherlands | Norway | Slovenia | Spain | Switzerland | |
| Contacts (N) | 1368 | 974 | 1076 | 2048 | 3000 | 2637 | 1402 | 649 |
| Period of data collection | 22-01-2010 until 22-02-2010 | 1-05-2009 until 30-06-2009 | 1-05-2009 until 30-06-2009 | 1-05-2009 until 30-06-2009 | 01-05-2009 until 30-06-2009 | 01-05-2009 until 30-06-2009 | 01-05-2009 until 10-06-2009 | Jan-Febr 2009, Aug-Sept 2009 |
| Regions and population size | 1: North, urban only, 110000 inhabitants (N = 679) 2: North, small town & rural, 77000 inhabitants (N = 689) |
North West, urban & rural, 1250000 inhabitants (N = 974) | South West, rural, 50000 inhabitants (N = 1076) | 1. South East, urban, 315000 inhabitants (N = 1074) 2. Central, urban & rural, 175000 inhabitants (N = 974) |
1. West, urban & rural, 25000 (N = 1000) inhabitants 2. East, urban & rural, 100000 inhabitants (N = 1000) 3. East, urban & rural 63000 inhabitants (N = 1000) |
1. North West, urban & rural, 30000 inhabitants (N = 985) 2. Central, urban, 250000 inhabitants (N = 684) 3. East, urban & rural, 30000 in habitants (N = 968) |
1 and 2. North East, urban, 160000 + 136000 inhabitants (N = 1402) | North, urban, 400000 inhabitants (N = 649) |
| Inclusion | All patients | Computerised randomisation | Face to face and telephone contacts | According to criteria; computerised randomisation | Computerised randomisation | Only face to face contacts; computerised randomisation for region 1 and 3 | According to criteria; computerised randomisation | In 1st and 2nd period, all patient contacts were counted but further patient info was only documented for 1st , 2nd and last contact |
| Exclusion | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | Prescriptions; follow-up contacts | Not applicable | Telephone contacts (not systematically recorded); prescriptions | Not applicable | Almost all |
| Missings | No missings | Missings for diagnosis replaced by symptoms | ICPC code is not necessary for patients with private insurance; missings for diagnosis replaced by symptoms | Missings for diagnosis replaced by symptoms | No missings | No missings | No missings | Gender: this variable was not on the questionnaire in the 2nd period; Age: compliance of GP's filling out questionnaire |
| ICPC | ICPC2 | ICPC | ICPC, several codes per contact | ICPC 1, partly manual | ICPC 2, several codes per contact | ICD10, manually recoded into ICPC2 | ICD10, manually recoded into ICPC2 | ICPC, several codes per contact |
| Recording symptoms/diagnosis | By GP | By GP | Symptoms by nurse and GP; diagnosis by GP | Symptoms by triage nurse (telephone consult) and additional by GP; diagnosis by GP | Symptoms by triage nurse (telephone consult) and additional by GP; diagnosis by GP and sometimes by a nurse in telephone consultations | By GP | By GP | By GP |
| Coding by | GP, an administrator, reviews all reports (RFE recoded by GP of group) | Coding afterwards by a medical student | Nurses coded symptoms at the beginning. GP/physician coded diagnosis at the end | GP at the end of the contact; a trained nurse filled in the blanks | GP at the end of the contact; sometimes by a nurse at the end of a telephone consultation | Manual by researcher from the Netherlands; checked by national researcher | Manual by researcher from the Netherlands; checked by national researcher | Two researchers (MD) |
Countries had different health care services; therefore opening hours of out-of-hours services varied across countries.
Swiss: patients contacting via the EMST (triage telephone line) were included and data collection was performed with a paper survey.