Dataset Information

Primary care physician volume and quality of care for older adults with dementia: a retrospective cohort study

ABSTRACT:

Background

Some jurisdictions restrict primary care physicians’ daily patient volume to safeguard quality of care for complex patients. Our objective was to determine whether people with dementia receive lower-quality care if their primary care physician sees many patients daily.

Methods

Population-based retrospective cohort study using health administrative data from 100,256 community-living adults with dementia aged 66 years or older, and the 8,368 primary care physicians who cared for them in Ontario, Canada. Multivariable Poisson GEE regression models tested whether physicians’ daily patient volume was associated with the adjusted likelihood of people with dementia receiving vaccinations, prescriptions for cholinesterase inhibitors, benzodiazepines, and antipsychotics from their primary care physician.

Results

People with dementia whose primary care physicians saw???30 patients daily were 32% (95% CI: 23% to 41%, p?Conclusions People with dementia were more likely to receive both potentially harmful and potentially beneficial medications, and slightly less likely to be vaccinated by high-volume primary care physicians.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12875-021-01398-9.

SUBMITTER: Lane N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7945328 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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