Abstract

COSTA, Ana Sofia; VARANDA, Sara; SANTOS, Ana Filipa  and  OLIVEIRA, Susana. Quality of referral from primary health care to a headache outpatient clinic in a tertiary hospital. Rev Port Med Geral Fam [online]. 2020, vol.36, n.1, pp.8-14. ISSN 2182-5173.  https://doi.org/10.32385/rpmgf.v36i1.12658.

Introduction: Headache is a common cause of primary health care consultation, and has a recognized impact on the quality of life. Objectives: Characterize the primary health care referral to a headache outpatient clinic of a neurology department in a tertiary hospital in the north of Portugal and infer about information quality. Methods: Observational, descriptive and transversal study. The sample included patients referred to headache consultation by their family doctors from October 2014 to June 2018. Referral records were consulted. The quality of the referral was qualitatively categorized taking into account the number of variables included, from a total of ten variables under study. Results: The sample included 144 patients, with a mean age of 39 years, mostly women. Half of the referrals did not classify the headache. Among the others, the majority were primary headaches: unspecified migraine (29.2%), migraine with aura (7.6%) and tension headache (5.6%). The most frequent reasons for referral were persistent complaints and treatmentrefractory headache (19.4%). Despite this, a large part did not mention symptomatic (58.3%) and preventive (80.6%) treatments attempted before. Neurological examination was described in 23.6%. Imaging studies were reported in 47.2%. The quality of referral information was poor in 18.8%, insufficient in 41.6%, reasonable in 32.0%, good in 6.9% and excellent in 0.7%. Conclusion: This study found an important lack of information in referrals that can be optimized through strategies that bring different levels of care closer together to improve the quality of services.

Keywords : Headache; Primary health care; Referral and consultation.

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