Mental health and medical consultation in primary care settings

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of psychiatric morbidity, as measured by the GHQ-60, on the probability of being in contact with a primary care physician, and the socio-demographic factors which influenced this effect. We found that the presence of psychiatric morbidity emerged as a major determinant of primary care utilization in both sexes, and about one-sixth of consultations in men and one-fifth of consultations in women could be attributed to it. Logistic modelling was used to investigate the joint effect on general practitioner consultation of psychiatric morbidity and seven socio-demographic variables. Sex, age, and psychiatric morbidity exerted independent, but not interactive, effects on consultation.