FAMILY-PRACTICE IN SAUDI-ARABIA - CHRONIC MORBIDITY AND QUALITY OF CARE

Over a one-year period, 2990 patients attended a primary health care p ractice in urban Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Of these, 33.5% had chronic dis orders. Clinically significant obesity (BMI > 29.9 Kg/m(2)) was presen t in 24.5% of those with chronic disorders. Musculoskeletal disorders, diabetes mellitus (DM), digestive disorders and cardiovascular diseas e accounted for 38%, 36%, 24% and 22% of encounters respectively, Unco ntrolled DM was encountered in 7.1% while uncontrolled systolic hypert ension was present in 28.8% of patients with these disorders, A signif icant proportion (42%) of patients with bronchial asthma required emer gency management, Symptomatic relief was obtained in 57% of patients w ith irritable bowel and 87% of patients with osteoarthritis of the kne es. The results point to a trend of morbidity similar to that encounte red in developed nations with affluence and sedentary life style, Ther e is a need to focus on obesity, life style measures that reduce weigh t would be expected to positively influence diabetes, hypertension and osteoarthritis of the knees, Monitoring of outcome measures would hel p identify areas of improvement and preventive measures. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.