Prevalence, Pattern, and Outcome of Gastroenterological Diseases in Primary Care Clinic of a Tertiary Hospital in Southwestern Nigeria

Purpose: Gastroenterological diseases have been documented to be common in primary care practice especially with data from western world. This study seeks to investigate its true burden and outcomes in primary care setting in this environment. Methodology: It was a 10-year retrospective cross-sectional study carried out at the general outpatient clinic of the family medicine department of Ekiti state university teaching hospital which is part of a larger survey and made use of secondary data. Findings: The study observed the prevalence of gastroenterological diseases in primary care to be 3.9% with majority of disorders being peptic ulcer disease and dyspepsia, 54.8% and 25.0% respectively. Gastroenterological diseases were poorly investigated in this study 12.2% with Abdominal Ultrasound been the most requested 63.6% and endoscopy request was 6.5%. The majority of those that presented with gastroenterological diseases were treated and discharged home, peptic ulcer diseases 100% and dyspepsia above 90%. Recommendations: This study showed that the prevalence of gastroenterological disorders in the primary care practice in our environment may not be as high as it's been documented for other regions of the world. This study recommends further study into the prevalence of gastroenterological disorders using standardized definitions. Primary care doctors are encouraged to be abreast of the frequently changing diagnostic criteria in gastroenterology