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Family Practice Advance Access originally published online on December 6, 2005
Family Practice 2006 23(1):1-7; doi:10.1093/fampra/cmi102
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© The Author (2005). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Editorial

Primary care epidemiology: its scope and purpose

Philip C Hannaford, Blair H Smith and Alison M Elliott

Department of General Practice and Primary Care, Foresterhill Health Centre, Westburn Road, Aberdeen AB25 2AY, Scotland

Correspondence to Professor Philip Hannaford, Department of General Practice and Primary Care, Foresterhill Health Centre, Westburn Road, Aberdeen AB25 2AY, Scotland; Email: p.hannaford@abdn.ac.uk

Received 21 April 2005; Accepted 30 October 2005.

Hannaford PC, Smith BH and Elliott AM. Primary care epidemiology: its scope and purpose. Family Practice 2006; 23: 1–7.

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Introduction

Clinical epidemiology is a basic science of medical practice; informing, among other things, diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic decisions relating to individuals.1 In the 1980s, Mullan coined the term ‘primary care epidemiology’ to describe the application of clinical epidemiology to primary care practice.2 Calls for a new discipline derived from the desire of Mullan, and others, to see an increased use of epidemiological principles to shape the development of community orientated primary care.2–4 To a large extent, these ambitions echoed those of Tudor Hart, who, a decade earlier, had called for a marriage between primary care and epidemiology so that programmes of organised, whole-population anticipatory care could be developed.5 They also built upon the work of other GP researchers who used epidemiological principles to describe clinical events in their practices.6–8 The emphasis on affecting the dynamics of health care within defined (usually single practice) communities required short intervals between the seeking . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Key features of primary care epidemiology

Researching symptoms
The community perspective
Purpose of primary care epidemiology

Improving understanding of patterns and clinical significance of common symptoms and conditions seen in primary care
Providing information that can optimise the efficient use of primary care services
Providing a framework for the design and targeting of feasible and acceptable interventions
Challenges and opportunities

Conclusion


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