THE USE OF CASE-HISTORIES TO EXPLORE CONCEPTS OF DISEASE, ILLNESS ANDSICKNESS CERTIFICATION

A questionnaire with 12 case histories was constructed to investigate views on sickness certification and concepts of disease and illness am ong GPs and laymen. It was mailed to random samples of 436 Norwegian G Ps and 600 Norwegians, stratified for gender, age and residence. Respo nse rates were low, 44% for doctors, and 54% for laymen, probably indi cating that the method was more suitable for smaller surveys. Case his tories could be used to compare views of GPs and laymen on the concept s of disease and illness. They were also useful in examining views on sickness certification, but, in that case, they probably only reveal w hat respondents thought should be done. From this study it was not saf e to conclude how often, and for what medical conditions doctors would issue sickness certificates in practice. ICPC was useful for coding d iagnostic suggestions, set by GPs, but will be more useful after inclu sion of criteria and more extensive synonym lists.