A postal survey of data in general practice on the prevalence of Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) in patients aged 18–65 in one county in the West of Ireland
posted on 2013-04-12, 16:06authored byFionnuala Finnerty, Liam G. Glynn, Brendan Dineen, Finbarr Colfer, Anne E. MacFarlane
Background: Very little is known about the prevalence of acquired brain injury (ABI) in Ireland.
ABI prevalence has previously been obtained from Belgian general practitioners using a postal
survey. We attempted to ascertain the prevalence of ABI in County Mayo through a postal survey
of all general practitioners in the county.
The specific objectives of this project were to:
1. identify whether general practitioners are
a. aware of patients with ABI aged 18–65 in their practices
b. able to provide prevalence data on ABI in patients aged 18–65
c. able to provide data on age, gender and patient diagnosis
2. analyse prevalence of ABI from any available data from general practitioners.
Methods: A pilot postal survey was performed initially in order to assess the feasibility of the
study. It was established that general practitioners did have the necessary information required to
complete the questionnaire. A main postal survey was then undertaken. A postal questionnaire was
administered to all general practices in County Mayo in the west of Ireland (n = 59). The response
rate was 32.2% (n = 19).
Results: General practitioners who replied on behalf of their practice could provide data on
patient age, gender and diagnosis. In the nineteen practices, there were 57 patients with ABI. The
age-specific prevalence of ABI in the area surveyed was estimated at 183.7 per 100,000. The mean
patient population per practice was 2,833 (SD = 950). There were found to be significantly more
patients with ABI in rural areas than urban areas (p = 0.006). There were also significant differences
in the ages of patients in the different ABI categories. Patients whose ABI was of traumatic origin
were significantly younger than those patients with ABI of haemorrhagic origin (p = 0.002).
Funding
Development of a structure identification methodology for nonlinear dynamic systems