LOCATING COMMUNITY RESIDENTS WITH CHRONIC AIRWAY-OBSTRUCTION - A COMPARISON OF 4 STRATEGIES

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Abstract
In the course of establishing and evaluating a patient education program, 4 strategies were compared for locating patients with chronic obstructive airway disease (COAD): search of hospital discharge records (HOSP); referral by physicians (MD); an advertising campaign (AD); and a respiratory symptom questionnaire mailed to households (QUEST). Of 1834 persons assessed, 923 (50%) had airway obstruction, and 43% of the confirmed cases (396 of 923) reported no previous diagnosis of COAD. The HOSP strategy accounted for 75 assessments (4%) and 63 confirmed cases (7%), MD produced 352 assessments (19%) and 247 cases (27%), AD generated 475 assessments (26%) and 204 cases (22%), and QUEST resulted in 932 assessments (51%) and 409 cases (44%); MD was the least expensive strategy. QUEST located the largest number of cases not previously diagnosed.