Personal and health factors associated with frequency of visits to the primary care clinic

A random sample of 170 patients registered in two primary care clinics of the workers' sick fund in Beer Sheva was selected to investigate the impact of health factors and personal coping style on visits to the primary care physician. It was hypothesized that health state (presence or absence of long-term illness) would be directly related to the frequency of visits as well as indirectly related to frequency of visits through its impact on the number of transient symptoms reported and patterns of response to common symptoms such as headaches, fever, and body aches. It was hypothesized, also, that an individual's personal coping style (according to the degree of repression or sensitization to illness) would be indirectly related to visits in a similar manner. The hypotheses were supported for persons suffering from long-term illnesses. Among the people who did not have long-term illnesses, personal coping style as measured on the repression-sensitization scale was related to the number of symptoms reported and the pattern of response to common symptoms but neither of these were related to frequency of visits.