Is Laboratory Medicine Alone Sufficient? Analysis of Laboratory Requests of the Third Care Family Medicine Clinic

Abstract

Introduction: Within the scope of preventive medicine practices of the Family Medicine Specialization discipline, individuals are analyzed with a holistic point of view, and after a full systemic physical examination by taking their anamnesis, tests that are appropriate and necessary for their age, gender and clinical findings. In our study, it was aimed to evaluate the medical biochemistry test rates of a Family Medicine Clinic serving in the tertiary level and to evaluate the health services provided in terms of holistic medicine, preventive medicine and health literacy. Material Method: In our cross-sectional study, the 1-year test numbers requested by Ordu University Faculty of Medicine Family Medicine Clinic between 01.01.2022 and 31.12.2022 were obtained from the automation system of Ordu University Training and Research Hospital. Microsoft Excel program and MedCalc (version 20.009; Ostend, Belgium) statistical package program were used for statistical analysis of the data. The data were statistically expressed as number, frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, and standard deviation. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results:In our study, in which it was determined that 84368 examinations were requested, 92.2% of these examinations were requested from the outpatient clinics and 0.8% from the inpatient service. Of the examinations, 65.9% (n=55623) were female and 34.1% (n=28745) were male. When we look at the distribution of the number of tests performed in our clinic according to the test groups, it was seen that biochemistry tests were the most common (70.5%), followed by hormone tests (21%). While creatinine, ALT, AST, blood urea nitrogen and fasting blood sugar are the first five most requested biochemistry tests, respectively; The top five most requested hormone tests are listed as TSH, Vitamin B12, Folate, free T4 and Ferritin, respectively. Conclusion: In the light of technological developments, life expectancy is increasing day by day. This situation brings with it an increase in the incidence of chronic diseases. The laboratory evaluations in the periodic health guide and the analysis conditions of our study are qualitatively similar. In addition, the fact that female individuals are more than twice as high as males in our results can be considered as a guide for health literacy awareness. Accordingly, we think that we should give more importance to public education.