Table 2.

Characteristics of the participating GP networks in the EURO SENTIMELC study 2009-2010

	Belgium	The Netherlands	Italy	Spain
Coordinating institution	Institute of Public Health	NIVEL Institute	Italian Society of General Practitioners	Directorate General of Public Health
Founded in	1979	1970	2009	1988
Years of participation in EURO SENTIMELC study	Since 2004 and ongoing	Since 2005 and ongoing	2009 and 2010	2010
Participating regions	Country wide	Country wide	Country wide	Castilla y León (north) and Valencia (south)
Number of GP practices and general patient population coverage	+/− 200 GPs (+/− 170 GP practices) Covering 1.75% of the total Belgian population	+/−59 GPs (in 42 GP practices) Covering 0,8% of the total Dutch population	149 GPs participating in 2009; and 94 GPs in 2010 Covering +/− 3-4% of population per health district	+/−114 GPs covering 3,5% of the total +18y population in Castilla y León; and 59 GPs covering 2,2% in Valencia
Representativity of the GP network in the country	Representative of all GPs in Belgium in terms of age, gender and geographical distribution, and also of the GPs in the Northern (Dutch-speaking) and Southern (French-speaking) regions	Representative of all Dutch GPs in terms of geographical distribution and urbanization, age and gender	Representative of all GPs in terms of age and gender in all 9 health districts participating (distributed in all of the four Italian statistical macro-areas)	Representative for the 2 participating Sentinel GP Networks: Castilla y León and Valencia, in terms of age, gender, urbanization and other geographical variables