ABSTRACT
General practice-based morbidity surveys have been conducted in the Netherlands and in England and Wales primarily to estimate disease prevalence and examine health inequalities. This chapter compares disease prevalence in general practice reported in the second Dutch National Survey of General Practice (DNSGP-2) with prevalence data collected in the same year (2001) in the Weekly Returns Service (WRS) in England and Wales. Standardised Prevalence Rates (SPRs) for infectious diseases show differences between the Netherlands and England and Wales with respect to chickenpox, herpes simplex in females, infectious mononucleosis and candidiasis in females. SPRs for diabetes mellitus reported in the Netherlands were approximately 30% higher than in England and Wales. Also, in the Netherlands, the SPR for females exceeded the male equivalent, whereas the opposite was observed in England and Wales. Rates in the Netherlands for urinary tract infections were lower in males but higher in females than their equivalents for England and Wales.
