El apoyo social percibido en pacientes hiperfrecuentadores de Atención Primaria

Objectives: to detect de prevalence of social support perceived in over-users patients in Primary
Care.
Design: Observational, descriptive and cross sectional study.
Setting: the health centre Granollers Sud (CAP Sant Miquel). Granollers is an eastern country of
Vallès, in Barcelona with a total population of 57,200 inhabitants that are attended by this health
centre in the territory of the Catalan Health Institute (ICS).
Participants: A total of 107 subjects. A group of 52 frequent users and a control group of 55 no
over-user patients (1). This second sample was obtained by pairing the frequent users with non
frequent users in sex, age, marital status and disease. Inclusion criteria were: a) to be a patient
of the health centre b) have an age equal to or exceeding 18 years. There were only excluded
those subjects that didn’t were patients of the health centre, with difficulties in communication
and difficulties for the comprehension of the items (mental retardation, cognitive or sensory
difficulties).
Measurements: we considered frequent users those patients that adhered to the criterion of
other studies. We obtained this information through computer records of the centre. We
evaluated the social support received by patients with the Social Support Scale SS-B .
Results: there were significant differences between the two groups regarding the total support
received (p=0.000), being the over-users group the one with less social support perceived in the
family social support scale (emotional support, socialization, practical assistance, economic
assistance and council).
Conclusions: the family social support perceived is a variable associated with the phenomenon of
frequent use. This means that the family support could be the one that contain the patient and
the kind of social support related to the use of Primary Health Care services.