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PRIMARY CARE: M Cardol, P P Groenewegen, D H de Bakker, P Spreeuwenberg, L van Dijk, and W van den Bosch Shared help seeking behaviour within families: a retrospective cohort study BMJ 2005; 330: 882 [Abstract] [Full text]

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stating the obvious

benjamin dean   (19 April 2005)

stating the obvious 19 April 2005
benjamin dean, dr oxford Send response to journal: Re: stating the obvious	Dear Sir, this paper talks about the reasons for frequencies of contacts in general practice clustering within families; these being selection, socialisation and shared circumstances. Obviously it is hard to untangle the complex web of genetics, learnt behaviour and the complex environment. However I do not quite see why they argue that the family approach is neccessary and why interventions targetting families can be more effective. It seems that those individuals with more health problems will attend more(1) and therefore target themselves for treatment. Therefore rates of attendance act automatically to select patients for medical treatment. I do not think interventions targetting families would be effective, it is the job of family pracitioners to deal with problems when they arise. The key to preventing family health problems probably lies with dealing with the 'shared circumstances' part of the equation; the way to do this is clearly at a public health and government policy level, Yours, Benjamin Dean 1. Carney TA, Guy S, Jeffrey G. Frequent attenders in general practice: a retrospective 20-year follow-up study. Br J Gen Pract. 2001 Sep;51(470):756-7. Competing interests: None declared