THE CAPTURE OF SOCIOECONOMIC DATA IN GENERAL-PRACTICE

Background. It is common practice to record the reasons why patients h ave an encounter with the practice, but the collection of socioeconomi c data with which to link this morbidity data is less easy to achieve. Aim. To describe the social enquiry used in the Fourth National Gener al Practice-based morbidity study (1998-1992) and to consider its effe ctiveness for use in practice. Method. Socioeconomic data were collect ed suing a structured questionnaire administered by a trained intervie wer. Data were provied by both consulting and non-consulting registere d patients. Results. The interview technique proved to be acceptable t o patients, interviewers and general practitioners, simple to administ er, and inexpensive to collect. Eighty-three per cent of the 502 000 p eople included in the study provided social and occupational data. Les s than 1.5% of patients refused to be interviewed. Fifty-four of the 6 0 practices achieved the target level of 90% of registered patients be ing successfully interviewed. Conclusion. A method of socioeconomic da ta collection based on that used in the 1991-1992 study would be of be nefit for health care planning, allocation of resources, design of per formance indicators and epidemiological research.