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. 2013 Sep 27;110(39):653–659. doi: 10.3238/arztebl.2013.0653

Table 2. Patients’ long-term diagnoses, taken from their electronic charts.

Type of diagnosis Regular patients in primary care (n=977) Patients requesting referral with-out prior appointment (n=307) p value
Chronic internal-medical disease (at least 1): 456 (46.7) 177 (57.7) 0.001

  • severe heart disease

 112 (11.5) 38 (12.4) 0.684

  • asthma/COPD

 91 (9.3) 27 (8.8) 0.822

  • chronic inflammatory bowel disease

 3 (0.3) 3 (1.0) 0.152

  • arterial hypertension

 283 (29.0) 89 (29.0) 1.000

  • chronic oral anticoagulation/atrial fibrillation

 48 (4.9) 15 (4.9) 1.000

  • diabetes

 95 (9.7) 28 (9.1) 0.824

  • other internal medical disease

 143 (14.6) 97 (31.6) <0.001
Malignant disease (tumor, leukemia) 75 (7.7) 41 (13.4) 0.004
Neurological disease (at least 1): 101 (10.2) 35 (11.4) 0.594

  • chronic headache

 48 (4.9) 15 (4.9) 1.000

  • multiple sclerosis

 4 (0.4) 1 (0.3) 1.000

  • Parkinson’s disease

 7 (0.7) 2 (0.7) 1.000

  • prior stroke

 21 (2.1) 6 (2.0) 1.000

  • other neurological disease

 26 (2.6) 16 (5.2) 0.026
Musculoskeletal disease (at least 1) 338 (34.6) 91 (29.6) 0.111

  • chronic back pain

 230 (23.5) 59 (19.2) 0.118

  • chronic knee or hip pain

 93 (9.5) 34 (11.1) 0.443

  • cervicovertebral syndrome

 73 (7.5) 16 (5.2) 0.198

  • shoulder-arm syndrome

 19 (1.9) 5 (1.6) 1.000

  • rheumatoid arthritis

 21 (2.1) 7 (2.3) 0.826

  • chronic pain disorder/fibromyalgia

 36 (3.7) 6 (2.0) 0.196

  • epicondylitis

 6 (0.6) 2 (0.7) 1.000
Atopic disorder (e.g., allergy, pollinosis, neurodermitis; at least 1) 93 (9.5) 41 (13.4) 0.068
Mental / psychosomatic / psychiatric disorder (at least 1) 237 (24.3) 61 (19.9) 0.121
Addiction disorder (substitution program) 64 (6.6) 4 (1.3) <0.001

p-values calculated with the chi-squared test. COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease