Prevalence statistics

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Prevalence is a measure of the frequency of a disease or health condition in a population at a particular point in time (and is different to incidence, which is a measure of the number of newly diagnosed cases within a particular time period).

General medical services (GMS)

With the introduction of the new GMS contract in April 2004, a quality framework of indicators (QOF) was developed for general practice, the QOF. An integral part of the QOF is the collection of prevalence data to allow practices to case find those patients that require specific management. Prevalence data within the QOF are collected in the form of practice "registers". A QOF register may count patients with one specific disease or condition, or it may include multiple conditions. There may also be other criteria for inclusion on a QOF register, such as age or date of diagnosis.