Registry of Preventive Activities in Women. Variability in Vizcaya, Spain

Abstract

Background: Several studies have reported that there is a lack of preventive activities performance in Primary Health Care, however in Vizcaya, the situation is not known, so, we decided determine the percentage of preventive activities carried out on women by primary care physicians which are recorded in the Electronic Health Record (Osabide), and analyze the characteristics which determine differences in registration between regions and physicians. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study involving 425 women aged between 26 and 51 years who were to the general practitioners’ consult at least twice, and who were again on April 28, 29 or 30, 2011. We colleted as primary variable the registries of contraceptives practices (group aged between 26 and 51 years), the registries of cervical cytologies during the last five years, as well as the registries of mammograms performed during the two last years, and compared the medical record between men and women practitioners, health regions and between areas with and without centers for women, using the chi-square statistic. Results: In 139 (34.1%) of all women and in 99 (48.3%) of women aged between 26 and 51 years there was registry of cytologies and contraceptives practices respectively. The mammography performance was registered in 22 (10.7%) of women aged between 52 and 65 years. Conclusions: The registry of preventive activities on women is low. We have observed differences by practitioners’ gender.