Dyspepsia in general practice in Denmark. A 1-year analysis of consulters in general practice.

OBJECTIVE

To estimate the incidence rate of patients with dyspepsia in general practice, related to age, gender and dwelling and to classify the patients into dyspepsia subgroups.

DESIGN

In a background population of 123,610 persons under the National Health Insurance System a systematic, prospective registration of dyspepsia patients consulting in general practice was done. Each patient was subject to a structured interview covering 18 dyspepsia symptoms and six alarm symptoms. A diagnostic chart was used to classify the patients into subgroups.

SETTING

General practice: 93 general practitioners in 63 centres in Denmark.

PATIENTS

Patients consulting the general practitioner with dyspepsia as their main complaint.

RESULTS

4215 dyspepsia patients were registered within 1 year. The annual incidence rate of dyspepsia was 3.4%. Alarm symptoms were present in 11.7% of the patients. The highest incidence rates were related to middle age, female gender and rural dwelling. Of these 34% had dysmotility-like, 30% had reflux-like, 17% ulcer-like and 3% uncharacteristic dyspepsia, while 16% were classified into two or more groups. Dysmotility-like dyspepsia was predominant in women and reflux-like dyspepsia was predominant in men.

CONCLUSIONS

Within 1 year 34 patients out of 1000 will seek medical advise in general practice with a new episode of dyspepsia. Based on the registration of symptoms 28 of 34 can be classified into a single subgroup of dyspepsia; 4 of 34 patients will present with one or more alarm symptom.