[Primary Care frequentation determinants in Catalonia]. / Determinantes de la frecuentación en Atención Primaria en Cataluña.

AIM: To determine which variables determine the average annual attendance time per patient in Primary Care (PC) in Catalonia to improve the adequacy of the budget allocation. DESIGN: Cross-sectional ecological study. SETTING: The Primary Care health centers (EAP) from the Institut Català de la Salut (ICS) in 2016. PARTICIPANTS: The 285 EAPs from the ICS, which cover 75% of citizens over 14 years of age in Catalonia. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Annual average time of visits by a family doctor per patient for each EAP. It was studied how this time depended on potential explanatory variables, at the EAP level, using linear regression models. RESULTS: the average visit time per patient/year was 49 minutes, varying between 23-87 minutes according to EAP. The EAPs with older population, more comorbidity, more home care, worse socioeconomic index, greater number of young pensioners and greater dispersion had more visiting time, while the EAPs with more population and more women expended less time to visit. These variables explained 64% of the visit time variability. CONCLUSIONS: The budget allocation in PC can be based on a model that incorporates the main determinants of patient' frequentation and adapts to their real needs. It would be necessary to deepen those factors that depend on the professional or health organizations to finish finding an optimal model of resource allocation in the PC.