A Survey of Patients in the Whitehorse Division of General Practice: 2000

Health status profiles of a population can be useful for planning purposes. In 2000, the Whitehorse Division of General Practice commissioned The Centre for Health Programme Evaluation at The University of Melbourne to provide such a profile of their patients, together with some assessment of the extent of loneliness and social isolation in that community. This Research Report is the account of that survey: it reports the use of the SF-36 to assess health status and of the specifically designed Solitariness Scale to assess social isolation, and the findings of the survey. The limitations associated with the study design are identified; and the findings are discussed with respect to relevant evidence from the literature, and the relationship between the results of each tool for sub-groups of the population. This information should add to the knowledge of their community already present within the Whitehorse Division, and prove useful in planning future services to target particular needs within the population they serve.