Long-term patterns of general practice consulting behaviour: a qualitative 9-year analysis of general practice histories of a working-aged rural Finnish population.

The 9-year practice histories of 100 working-aged residents of the rural municipality of Kaavi in Finland were analysed. Based upon an analysis of these histories, an interview of the 81% who participated and the personal patient knowledge of the author from his work as a general practitioner for 7 years in the community, 78% of the persons studied could be classified into six categories in a qualitative typology of consulting patterns. The descriptive names of the categories, together with their proportionate sizes and the mean annual consultation rates within the categories were: (1) 'Healthy and competent' (16%; 1.03); (2) 'Contented returners' (12%; 3.28); (3) 'Information seekers' (8%; 4.08); (4) 'Support seekers' (15%; 4.62); (5) 'Drifters' (21%; 2.21) and (6) 'Those hard to convince' (6%; 3.59). The rest (22%; 1.15) could not be classified. The implications of the typology are discussed from two standpoints: (1) In view of the current Finnish debate on the need for fee deterrents for the use of public general practitioner's services. (2) The potentials and limitations of different broad strategies suggested for general practice.