Allergic conditions: primary care data

The tables in the Excel sheet Allergic conditions (PTI) (61 Kb) show data from the ISD's Practice Team Information (PTI)programme for the financial years 2004/05 to 2010/11. The tables show numbers of patients and consultations for a range of allergic conditions, together with confidence intervals, which reflect the degree of statistical uncertainty in the figures (due to year to year variation and in some cases small numbers). These figures provide national estimates based on records of consultations with members of the primary care team at a representative sample of Scottish practices.

Although there were changes in the number of consultations and of patients consulting for several of the conditions, (for example increases in the number of people consulting for food allergy and angioneurotic oedema and decreases in the number consulting for ‘other allergies’) none of these changes were clearly outside the year to year variation, as reflected in the confidence interval figures. There is therefore no clear evidence of significant changes in the frequency of consultations for these conditions during the seven years presented.

These figures may underestimate the true prevalence because they include only those people who have consulted for the specific problem during the time period under consideration, and do not include those who manage their own condition or whose care is provided only in a hospital setting.