Table 2.
Primary care consultation rates and sample characteristics by multimorbidity cluster for year 2020a
| Mental health+ | Cardiovascular+ | Pain+ | Liver+ | Dependence+ | Unclustered LTCs | No multimorbidity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | 67 040 | 12 017 | 57 747 | 1369 | 3299 | 32 921 | 651 773 |
| Total consultations, mean (SD) | 6.6 (7.4) | 10.7 (10.4) | 10.6 (9.4) | 4.8 (6.4) | 5.3 (6.9) | 12.0 (11.8) | 2.5 (4.1) |
| GP consultations, mean (SD) | 5.1 (6.1) | 7.4 (8.2) | 7.2 (7.1) | 3.2 (4.8) | 3.7 (5.3) | 8.6 (9.2) | 1.8 (3.1) |
| Nurse consultations, mean (SD) | 0.7 (1.6) | 1.4 (3.5) | 1.6 (3.1) | 0.7 (1.7) | 0.8 (2.6) | 1.6 (3.8) | 0.4 (1.1) |
| Other consultations, mean (SD) | 0.8 (1.9) | 1.9 (3.4) | 1.9 (3.1) | 0.8 (2.1) | 0.8 (2.0) | 1.9 (3.4) | 0.3 (1.1) |
| Face-to-face consultations, mean (SD) | 4.7 (5.2) | 7.0 (6.9) | 7.9 (6.9) | 3.6 (4.8) | 3.9 (5.4) | 8.2 (8.0) | 1.9 (3.1) |
| Telephone consultations, mean (SD) | 1.9 (3.4) | 3.0 (4.1) | 2.5 (4.1) | 1.1 (2.4) | 1.3 (2.6) | 3.5 (5.7) | 0.6 (1.6) |
| Home consultations, mean (SD) | 0.0 (0.3) | 0.7 (2.4) | 0.2 (1.3) | 0.0 (0.2) | 0.0 (0.3) | 0.3 (1.5) | 0.0 (0.1) |
| Number of LTCs, mean (SD) | 2.5 (0.7) | 3.9 (2.1) | 3.5 (1.6) | 2.3 (0.6) | 2.6 (0.9) | 4.6 (2.1) | 0.2 (0.4) |
| With polypharmacy, % | 4.0 | 24.4 | 18.6 | 3.6 | 3.8 | 20.6 | 0.6 |
| Age, years, mean (SD) | 39.7 (12.6) | 76.1 (15.5) | 64.0 (16.5) | 44.6 (11.5) | 41.7 (11.2) | 55.6 (18.9) | 36.9 (12.2) |
| White ethnicity, % | 65.4 | 56.5 | 43.1 | 43.5 | 64.2 | 60.5 | 53.3 |
2020 includes data from April 2019 to March 2020. Consultation rate descriptives are similar across time and are available from the authors on request for all data years. Mental health+ includes anxiety and depression; Cardiovascular+ includes heart failure, Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD), osteoporosis, atrial fibrillation, coronary heart disease, chronic kidney disease, stroke/transient ischaemic attack, and dementia; Pain+ includes osteoarthritis, cancer, chronic pain, hypertension, and diabetes; Liver+ includes chronic liver disease and viral hepatitis; Dependence+ includes alcohol dependence, substance dependence, and HIV; Unclustered LTCs include: Parkinson’s disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, morbid obesity, cognitive and learning disabilities, sickle-cell anaemia, serious mental illness, and epilepsy. LTC = long-term condition. SD = standard deviation.