TY - JOUR T1 - Effect of comorbidities and medications on frequency of primary care visits among older patients JF - Canadian Family Physician JO - Can Fam Physician SP - 45 LP - 50 VL - 63 IS - 1 AU - Tina Hu AU - Neil D. Dattani AU - Kelly Anne Cox AU - Bonnie Au AU - Leo Xu AU - Don Melady AU - Liisa Jaakkimainen AU - Rahul Jain AU - Jocelyn Charles Y1 - 2017/01/01 UR - http://www.cfp.ca/content/63/1/45.abstract N2 - Objective To determine if comorbidities and high-risk medications affect the frequency of family physician visits among older patients.Design Retrospective chart review.Setting Academic family health team at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Ont.Participants Among patients aged 65 years and older who were registered patients of the family health team between July 1, 2013, and June 30, 2014, the 5% who visited their family physicians most frequently and the 5% who visited their family physicians least frequently were selected for the study (N = 265).Main outcome measures Predictors of frequent visits to family physicians.Results The significant predictors of being a high-frequency user were female sex (odds ratio [OR] = 2.20, P = .03), age older than 85 years (OR = 5.35, P = .001), and higher total number of medications (OR = 1.49, P < .001). Age-adjusted Charlson comorbidity index score, number of Beers criteria medications, and Anticholinergic Risk Scale score were not significant predictors (P > .05).Conclusion Female sex, age older than 85, and higher total number of medications were independent significant predictors of higher frequency of family physician visits among older patients. Validated tools, such as the Charlson comorbidity index, Beers criteria, and Anticholinergic Risk Scale, did not independently predict the frequency of visits, indicating that predicting frequency of visits is likely complex. ER -