The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
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Meta Analysis
Weight loss as a predictor of cancer in primary care: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Weight loss is a non-specific cancer symptom for which there are no clinical guidelines about investigation in primary care. ⋯ A primary care clinician's decision to code for weight loss is highly predictive of cancer. For such patients, urgent referral pathways are justified to investigate for cancer across multiple sites.
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Workload in general practice has risen during the last decade, but the factors associated with this increase are unclear. ⋯ The analyses show consistent trends in factors related to consultation rates in general practice across three types of consultation. These data can be used to inform the development of more sophisticated staffing models, and resource allocation formulae.