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. 2025 Aug 1;26(1):235.
doi: 10.1186/s12875-025-02938-3.

The most common diagnoses in primary care, and changes over time, in the total population of Stockholm, Sweden

Per Wändell  1   2 , Gunnar Ljunggren  3   4 , Axel C Carlsson  3   4
Affiliations

The most common diagnoses in primary care, and changes over time, in the total population of Stockholm, Sweden

Per Wändell et al. BMC Prim Care. .

Abstract

Objective: Primary care is the base in many health care systems, and to identify the most registered diagnoses in primary care is a way to identify the overall health care use and needs in society. We estimated the rates of the 30 most common diagnoses in primary health care and their male to female ratio.

Research design and methods: This was a study including inhabitants 18 years and older out of all 2.3 million inhabitants living in Region Stockholm, Sweden. Data on all healthcare appointments from primary care during 2019-2021 were extracted from the Stockholm County Council data warehouse known as VAL. Primary care data were analyzed by underlying population and age. In 2019, only physical visits were available, but during 2021 digital visits were included. For the specific diagnoses, physical and digital visits were merged.

Results: The five most common diagnoses in primary care were: essential hypertension (I10), myalgia (M79), type 2 diabetes (E11), dorsalgia (M54), and pain in joint (M25). The female-to-male ratios were higher for 27 of the 30 most common diagnoses, for example stress reaction (F43), malaise and fatigue (R53), and headache (R51). Chronic ischaemic heart disease (I25), Type 2 diabetes (E11), and Atrial fibrillation (I48) were more common in men.

Conclusions: Most of the common diagnoses in primary care are more often registered in women than in men. The higher presence of diagnoses of pain and mental illness seems to mirror the higher sick leave among women in recent years.

Keywords: Administrative database; Caregivers; Epidemiology; Primary care; Quantitative Research/Study; Sex; Women in family medicine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Consent to Participate declarations from the participants were not applicable as we used data from health record register. The need for consent to participate was deemed unnecessary according to the approval from the Swedish Ethical Review Authority. All data we handled were de-identified and none of the numbers presented could be traced back to any individual. Management and analysis based on the VAL database is a part of continuous quality control of healthcare utilization in Stockholm County Council. All authors gave their consent for publication. Ethical approval was obtained from the Swedish Ethical Review Authority, number 2020–07076 with an amendment 2121-06102-02., Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

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