Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

Number of patients consulting

The graph below shows the estimated number of patients in Scotland (per 1,000 patients registered) who consulted either a GP or practice-employed nurse for COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) at least once in the year ending 31 March 2009, by gender and age group. The rates of females consulting for COPD were higher than for males in the younger age categories, but in age groups 65 and over males were more likely to contact their practice for COPD.

All estimates are standardised by deprivation to account for any differences between the PTI sample population and the Scottish practice population in levels of deprivation. These figures and comparable figures for 2003/04 to 2007/08 are also provided in tabular format in an Excel document  (76KB), which also contains 95% confidence intervals for all estimates. The confidence intervals are narrower for the age classes with higher rates, suggesting higher precision of the estimates. Large intervals would be expected when variation between practices is large, in particular for estimates based on relatively small numbers.

COPD¹ - estimated number of patients in Scotland consulting a GP or practice nurse at least once in the financial year 2008/09 ^{2, 3} per 1,000 patients registered
by gender and age group

¹ Based on ISD's Read code groupings (RCGs) 'COPD'.
² Based on 58 PTI practices that submitted complete GP and practice nurse data for the year ending 31 March 2009. Rates are standardised by deprivation.
³ Population source: Community Health Index (CHI) record, as at 30 September 2008.

Note: Due to slightly updated rules determining what records describe a face-to-face contact and what records should be considered as administration, which were applied retrospectively, figures shown here are not strictly comparable to these provided prior to 30 March 2010. See the Note of Revisions for further information.

Source: Practice Team Information  (PTI), ISD Scotland (last updated 30 March 2010)

Number of consultations

The chart below shows the estimated numbers of consultations in Scotland for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for the six financial years 2003/04 to 2008/09, by staff discipline. The estimated number of contacts with GPs decreased markedly over the first four years of this time period, but this was largely counterbalanced by an increase in the number of contacts with practice nurses. This reflects the fact that routine monitoring of many chronic conditions has, over the period of time shown, been increasingly carried out by nurses. Over the last year the number of GP contacts appears to have grown again whereas over the last three years the number of practice nurse contacts has been stable. Although the number of patients has fluctuated somewhat over the period of reporting, there does not appear to be a clear trend either upwards or downwards (see the Excel table referred to in the Number of Patients section above).

All estimates are standardised by age, gender and deprivation to account for any differences in these characteristics between the PTI sample population and the Scottish practice population. The figures in the chart below are also provided in tabular format in an Excel document  (21KB), including 95% confidence intervals for all estimates.

COPD¹ - estimated number of consultations with a GP or practice-employed nurse in Scotland in the financial years 2003/04 to 2008/09^{2, 3}
by staff discipline

* Health visitor and district nurse data are not available from the financial year 2006/07 onwards.
¹ Based on ISD's Read Code Grouping (RCG) 'COPD'.
² Based on 59, 53, 51, 49, 48 and 58 PTI practices that submitted complete data for the years ending 31 March 2004 to 2009, respectively. Figures are standardised by age, gender and deprivation.
³ Population source: Community Health Index (CHI) record, as at 30 September 2003 to 2008.

Note: Due to slightly updated rules determining what records describe a face-to-face contact and what records should be considered as administration, which were applied retrospectively, figures shown here are not strictly comparable to these provided prior to 30 March 2010. See the Note of Revisions for further information.

Source: Practice Team Information  (PTI), ISD Scotland (last updated 30 March 2010)