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This thesis is presented in three chapters each of which is self-contained. Chapter 1 is concerned with a computer project whose main aim was to design and test a record maintenance and retrieval system in a general practice environment, ideally as part of an integrated systern embracing all the health services. The system developed was used 1 - with real patients for a S2 week period. So far two papers describing this system and the results obtained have been published in the International Journal of Biomedical Computing. The first in October 1970, "An on-line record maintenance and retrieval system in general practice", by J. F. Preece, D." Bo Gillings) E. O. Lipmann, and N. G. Pearson; and the second in April 1971, "An analysis of the size and content of medical records used during an on-line record maintenance and retrieval system in general practice", by D. B. Gillings and J. "F. Preece. The presentation here has joined these two papers together. Chapters 2 and 3 are concerned with aspects of a morbidity survey of a community. The Exeter Community Health Research Project was a one year survey of morbidity of a defined community of 75000 people from November 1966 to October 1967. In addition, a private census of the City of Exeter was conducted to obtain personal details such as age, sex, living conditions, social class and smoking habits of the members of the community. Two aspects of this study have been chosen for presentation here. Chapter 2 is concerned with the private census and considers the reliability of the information gathered. Chapter 3 makes some attempt at modelling health services usage. Some discrete distributions are considered, together with their multivariate generalisations. Data is fitted in the univariate and bivariate case . |
