RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Users and non-users of doctors — implications for self-care
JF The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
JO J R Coll Gen Pract
FD British Journal of General Practice
SP 155
OP 159
VO 27
IS 176
A1 J. A. D. Anderson
A1 Carole Buck
A1 Kate Danaher
A1 John Fry
YR 1977
UL http://bjgp.org/content/27/176/155.abstract
AB Sixty patients who visited their general practitioner were matched with 60 patients registered with the same doctor, who were of the same sex and in the same ten-year age group, and who had not visited the doctor for at least one year, but had recently experienced symptoms similar to those presented by the attending patients. Comparison of the 60 pairs revealed the following differences, all substantial although not all statistically significant. The patients who visited the doctor perceived themselves as less healthy, fewer had attempted self-treatment, more reported serious personal problems, and fewer reported obstacles to visiting the doctor. Differences between the pairs were negligible for total number of current ailments, effectiveness of self-treatment, if used, optimism about the healing powers of doctors, and fear of troubling their doctor with trivia.