What do family physicians see in practice?

Health care problems dealt with in their practices were recorded by seven family physicians over a period of 1 year (two others recorded for 3 months), each diagnosis being coded according to the Canuck Disease Classification Index. Problems were classified into four types: physical, psychosocial, diseases of choice (or lifestyle) and diseases of social impact. More than 85% of the 23 108 problems recorded were physical in origin and had physical manifestations. More time was spent on routine checkups and treatment of respiratory disease than on any other activity. Venereal disease and alcoholism were infrequent problems. The family physician is in a favourable position to act as health educator and counsellor and must be throughly trained in the physical aspects of disease.

Prediction of the physiological dead-space in resting normal subjects

1. Two-hundred and forty duplicate estimations of physiological dead-space volume (VD) were made in forty-eight healthy subjects (twenty-four men and twenty-four women) aged from 20 to 74 years, to assess the predictive accuracy of various standards.

2. The VD/VT (physiological dead-space volume/tidal volume) ratio standard was least precise, but could be improved by allowing for sex and age.

3. The best prediction could be made by multiple regression of VD on age, height, tidal volume (VT) and the reciprocal of respiratory frequency (f), which gave an estimate with a standard deviation of 24·7 ml.

4. Theoretical and practical arguments favour the abandonment of the VD/VT ratio standard. Simple regression of VD on VT also is unsatisfactory, giving a much less precise estimate of VD than a multiple regression on VT and other variables.