Turkish and German patients of general practitioners - Diseases, drug expectations and drug prescriptions

Abstract

Aim of the study: to assess the diseases and complaints and the concepts for treatment of patients and drug prescriptions relative to their ethnic origin: Turkish immigrants (T) or German citizens (D). Methods: Questionnaire survey of patients of general practitioners before and after consultation. The survey was conducted separately for Turkish and German patients, involving nine GP's practices for each group. Sample sizes were 253 Turkish and 637 German patients, respectively. Only responses of patients younger than 60 years of age were evaluated (T: 216/G: 357). Reason: Relative to the entire Turkish population in Germany the number of ethnic Turks older than 60 is too small for comparative purposes. Results: The two most frequent reasons for a visit to the doctor by Turkish migrants were pain of varied origin (T: 44%/G: 21%; p>0.001) and colds or diseases of the respiratory tract (T: 41%/G: 25%; p > 0.001). Turkish and German patients differ significantly with respect to their mentioning of pain and colds. The concept of treatment of the Turkish patients is compared to German patients more adjusted to medicaments and less to counselling and discussion with the doctor.