Comparing occasional and persistent frequent attenders in occupational health primary care – a longitudinal study

Frequent attenders demand a substantial portion of physician’s time and consume a considerable share of health care resources [1–3]. Some patients consult their physician repeatedly for a short period and return to an irregular pattern of attendance after some time [3, 4]. Another group of patients, often referred to as persistent frequent attenders, visit health care providers frequently one year after another [3, 5]. Though studies on persistent frequent attendance are sparse, and concentrate on a general practice setting, it appears that a combination of somatic, psychological and psychiatric, and social factors lead to persistent frequent attendance [4–6]. In order to purposefully direct resources and to provide adequate treatment and rehabilitation, we need to be able to recognize individuals at risk of continuous high use of services with the routine data available during consultations. In addition, the differentiation of occasional and persistent frequent attenders could be useful for service planning as studies suggest that persistent FA’s consume an even larger proportion of physicians time yearly than occasional FA’s, and present more social problems and higher morbidity [3, 5] than occasional FA’s.

Previous research suggests that frequent attenders suffer from multimorbidity [6, 7] and low quality of life [8]. Studies also indicate that unemployment is associated with frequent attendance especially among men [9, 10] but few studies thus far have concentrated on frequent attendance among the working population [11]. Studies conducted in general practice or secondary care setting do not address the demands of the working life. Given that work has beneficial effects on health [12] but also places demands on work ability, the working population should be examined also separately. Studying the working population could yield different results possibly emphasizing illnesses that restrict work ability. Finnish occupational health (OH) primary care is an appropriate environment to study frequent attenders in working population, as it covers 90% of the employees [13] and maintains comprehensive health records.

Visits to occupational health services (OHS) primary care are associated with chronic illnesses affecting work ability and work related symptoms [14]. Chronic health issues are also associated with lower productivity at work [15] and lowered work ability, which supports their being treated and managed in OHS. The most common work-related visits to the OH physician are musculoskeletal and mental disorders [16], which are both also leading causes of disability in Finland [17] and linked to frequent attendance in general practice setting and OH primary care [11, 18, 19]. This suggests that frequent attenders in OH primary care might be a vulnerable group of patients demanding careful assessment of work ability, work relatedness and follow up. Given the complexity of frequent attenders’ conditions and the resource demand they create, it is crucial that their conditions are identified as early as possible. It is also pertinent to differentiate characteristics and factors associated with occasional and persistent frequent attendance to determine which groups need OH interventions. Identifying the risk groups would allow targeted OH examinations, where health plans and necessary rehabilitative measures and work place interventions can be planned to prevent disability [20].

We aimed to compare occasional and persistent frequent attenders and to define factors associated with persistent frequent attendance in OH primary care.

Nearly one in five frequent attenders in 2014 continued frequent use of services for the following two years. Persistent FAs are frequently women and employed in medium and large enterprises. Musculoskeletal disorders are more closely associated with pFA than other diagnostic groups. The association with mental disorders weakens as frequent attendance continues. The reasons for this effect should be examined further.

This study verifies in Finnish OH primary care environment that persistent frequent attenders create proportionally the most demand for the health care unit as previously seen in general practice (GP) setting [3]. The use of services and in particular physician consultations is substantial compared to non-FAs and also 1yFAs and 2yFAs. The pFA group of 592 patients made 23,797 visits to their primary care unit during the three study years. Given the cost of a physician visit compared to visits to other health care professionals, the economic effect created by this small group is notable. In our study nearly one out of five (19%) of FAs in 2014 continued as persistent frequent attenders, which is slightly more than in a Dutch study in general practice setting [3]. While the group of pFAs constituted 0.9% of the study population, they made 6% of all visits in the three study years. The three frequent attender groups (pFA, 2yFA and 1yFA) made up in total 40% of all consultations.

Our study is the first to describe how the use of other healthcare professionals varies between occasional and persistent frequent attenders. Visits to physiotherapists and psychologists were associated with persisting frequent attendance in particular and having consulted either them or a specialist increases the OR of belonging to pFA to almost 15. In this study we described how frequent attenders consult other healthcare professionals. It appears that although the use of physiotherapists and psychologists increases with pFAs, the dominance of physicians’ appointments is marked. Previously, in a GP setting specialist consultations have been linked to frequent attendance and use of multiple healthcare services to multimorbidity [7, 23]. Our study verifies the association of specialist consultation and frequent attendance and specifies the association with particularly persisting frequent attendance.

The significance of musculoskeletal disorders accumulates towards persisting frequent attendance. If diagnosed with a musculoskeletal disorder, the OR for being a pFA are over 26-fold (when adjusted for age, sex, employee size and industry). Although the association of musculoskeletal disorders and frequent attendance has been noted previously [18, 24, 25] its significance seems emphasized in the working population. Previous studies noted that musculoskeletal disorders are associated with visits to OH physicians and are one of the main work-related reasons for healthcare consultations [26, 27], which might explain this result in OH primary care. This result suggests that among the working age population diseases of the musculoskeletal system can be a more important factor driving frequent attendance than in the general practice setting. This is an observation that should be taken into account when planning identification and intervention strategies for frequent attenders in this context.

Our findings suggest that in particular those frequent attenders diagnosed with musculoskeletal disorders should be identified early. A follow up plan should be prepared, where a multiprofessional approach could be used in the spirit of Good Occupational Health Practice and the Occupational Health Care Act [28]. The accumulating pressure and weight on the system from frequent attendance is significant and cost-savings might be obtained if utilization could be increasingly planned and managed. Deeper analysis behind reasons for attendance [29] could be acquired through collaboration with other health care professionals.

OHS has close contact with the employers allowing, with the consent of the employee, also workplace interventions if seen necessary [30]. Although the likelihood of OH collaborative negotiation increases as the frequent use of services continues, these negotiations have been held for only 23% of pFA. Further studies should investigate if having attended an OH collaborative negotiation affects future frequent attendance. Interventions aimed at frequent attendance have shown encouraging results when subgroups such as depressed patients are targeted or a detailed analysis of reasons for attendance are carried out [29, 31]. If work related symptoms and performance difficulties cause visits to OH unit, workplace interventions, including OH collaborative negotiations, might be an effective way to address medically unsolvable reasons for attendance.

The association with mental and behavioural disorders also grows as frequent attendance persists, but diseases of the respiratory and nervous system show higher odds in association with pFA. An Estonian study found that depressed patients did not consult a physician significantly more than others when the follow up period was three years [32]. Effective recovery could explain this also in our study. However as mental disorders are one of the most common reasons for disability pensions, this issue should be studied further. It is not known if frequent attenders receive more disability pensions for mental disorders than others, which could also cause mental health diagnoses being less significant in the pFA group. Also in Finland, mental and behavioural disorders can also be treated in mental health services and units of secondary care. If a mental disorder persists, patients are often referred to these units. This might be one factor explaining why mental disorders appear less significant with pFA group. Similarly to Australian and Dutch primary care studies we found that persistent frequent attendance was associated with depression, but on the other hand we did not find an association with diabetes or heart problems [3, 5]. This might be due to our study material comprising of solely a working age population, some of whom may consult public practitioners for chronic diseases [26, 33]. The OH primary care setting most likely emphasizes the problems and illnesses affecting working ability [14].

The findings also indicate that respiratory diseases and diseases of the nervous system are closely associated with persistent high use of services in the working age population. An association of persistent high use of services with respiratory diseases has previously been reported in a primary care setting [3] and diseases of the nervous system have been associated with frequent attendance, but this confirms the connection also in persistent frequent attendance [25]. In turn, the high OR for the ICD R-group can be seen as indicative of medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS). The association of MUPS with persistent frequent attendance has been seen also in general practice setting [3] and is of importance as also medically unexplained symptoms increase the risk of long-term sickness absence [34]. The finding that injuries have higher odds for persistent FA is interesting, and might reinforce the perception that persistent frequent attenders are more vulnerable as also indicated in a previous study [35]. Multimorbidity is associated with frequent attendance and appears to increase as frequent attendance persists, as also seen previously [3]. As a whole, no single factor differentiates these groups from each other but rather, these factors seem to exist on a continuum.

Our study has certain limitations. Our study population differs from the general practice setting to some extent in terms of patient age and working status, and we assume that these demographic differences possibly accentuate different factors than what would rise in general practice setting. The lack of occupational status and education are limitations to the study as these are not available in medical records. Human error may be present when using medical record data, but the large sample likely dilutes the effect. Retrospective study sets limitations to variables used, which are also limited by what is and can be registered in the electronic patient registers.

On the other hand our data allow a unique perspective to this particular group given our nationwide material covering largely different service sectors and both rural and urban areas with employees with variety of employment lengths and industries. The distribution of employers’ size and industry resembles the general distribution of employers according to Statistics Finland [36]. The equal age distribution within the working age population and equal gender distribution, allows generalization outside this particular context. Strengths of the study are large sample and longitudinal study design allowing for interpretation of predictive factors of persistent frequent attendance. The health care records in Finland are accurate and comprehensive allowing for good quality data. For example, the ICD-10 classified diagnostic code was missing in only 1% of the visits. In this study we did not have access to use of other health care services, but a previous study indicates that when OHS primary care is available it is often used as sole primary care provider [26].

Diseases of the musculoskeletal system are emphasized among persistent frequent attenders of occupational health primary care. This could be explained by the demands of working life or that the conditions are work-related. As it seems that persistent frequent attenders create the most demand for their primary care unit, it is necessary to further examine whether they are also at risk of disability and sickness absences. When planning future interventions aimed at frequent attenders, the subgroup suffering from musculoskeletal disorders should be considered. Among the working age patients, identified disorders’ work-relatedness should be considered.