ABSTRACT
This chapter utilizes data from the second Dutch National Survey of General Practice (DNSGP-2) to describe the health status of the population and health problems presented to general practice. The results will be compared with data from the first Dutch National Survey of General Practice (DNSGP-1), 1987. The chapter gives an overview of symptoms, conditions and other aspects of the population's health as recorded by the DNSGP-2. Both the health status as reported by the population and the health status as recorded by the general practitioners (GPs) are included. Morbidity presented to the GP was derived from diagnoses made in contacts between patients and the GP recorded in the electronic medical records of the practice information system. The desirability of such an information infrastructure has been expressed in the Dutch Public Health Forecast Report of 1997. The chapter concludes that the health status of the Dutch people has undeniably changed during the last 15 years.
