Table 1.

Number of Patient Visits to Primary Care and Specialist Physicians for Diagnoses With a Primary Care Focus

		Overall Morbidity Burden
		Lowest		Intermediate		Highest
Diagnosis	Prevalence per 1,000	Visits to Primary Care	Visits to Specialists	Visits to Primary Care	Visits to Specialists	Visits to Primary Care	Visits to Specialists
Note: A primary care focus implies that the diagnoses are made more often for patients in primary care than in specialty care. Differences are significant at the .005 level (unless indicated by ns) using paired t tests with Hochberg multiple test family-wise error rate adjustment. Not all 66 diagnoses shown.
COPD = chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
General medical examination	395	0.94	0.24	0.94	0.33	0.92	0.41
Hypertension	314	1.83	0.27	1.94	0.35	2.00	0.48
Disorders of lipoid metabolism	117	1.37	0.20	1.36	0.23	1.31	0.30
Diabetes mellitus	115	2.11	0.49	2.24	0.72	2.38	0.97
Acute lower respiratory tract infection	94	1.22	0.10	1.28	0.14	1.34	0.22
Chest pain	91	0.76	0.53	0.77	0.63	0.80	0.75
Acute upper respiratory tract infection	67	1.06	0.11	1.07	0.14	1.06	0.22
Emphysema, chronic bronchitis,	63	1.31	0.60	1.49	0.71	1.64	0.97
COPD
Congestive heart failure	57	1.29	0.66	1.40	0.74	1.51	0.87
Abdominal pain	52	0.92	0.32	0.91	0.44	0.94	0.60
Urinary tract infections	47	0.98	0.38	0.94	0.53	0.92	0.69
Iron deficiency, other deficiency anemias	47	2.32	0.63	2.04	0.92	1.83	1.34
Thyroid disease	44	1.25	0.27	1.27	0.33	1.25	0.41
Sinusitis	41	1.04	0.17	1.03	0.28	1.00	0.49
Vertiginous syndromes	39	0.92	0.34	0.91	0.50	0.88	0.69
Gastroesophageal reflux	38	0.94	0.38	0.88	0.54	0.79	0.74
Nonfungal infections of skin	27	1.10	0.33	1.13	0.44	1.07	0.60
Peptic ulcer disease	27	0.98	0.30	0.90	0.43	0.80	0.61
Asthma	26	1.13	0.76	1.22	0.89	1.23	1.10
Arthropathy	25	1.11	0.28	1.10	0.33	1.08	0.43
Osteoporosis	24	0.97	0.30	0.93	0.40	0.89	0.55
Contusions and abrasions	23	0.92	0.24	0.89	0.29	0.88	0.38
Diarrhea	22	0.96	0.26	0.90	0.41	0.92	0.51
Edema	21	1.08	0.19	1.12	0.23	1.12	0.28
Cough	19	0.94	0.24	0.91	0.35	0.87	0.50
Generalized atherosclerosis	18	1.12	0.43	1.12	0.49	1.09	0.57
Exanthems	17	1.02	0.41	0.99	0.51	0.98	0.66
Nonspecific signs and symptoms	17	0.92	0.31	0.92	0.37	0.88	0.45
Lacerations	17	0.99	0.30	0.96	0.40	0.93	0.59
Depression, anxiety, neuroses	16	1.32	0.12	1.28	0.14	1.26	0.18
Headaches	16	0.89	0.46	0.92	0.50	0.94	0.64
Cervical pain syndromes	16	1.02	0.47	0.98	0.77	1.06	1.06
Constipation	14	0.81	0.34	0.78	0.45	0.72	0.59
Fluid/electrolyte disturbances	13	1.09	0.21	1.07	0.29	1.09	0.37
Dementia and delirium	13	1.06	0.52	1.10	0.58	1.00	0.65
Thrombophlebitis	10	1.94	0.55	1.66	0.59	1.45	0.70