Regional variations of symptoms of the chronic venous disease among primary health care patients in Poland

Abstract

Introduction. The diverse social and cultural contexts may cause differences in perceiving symptoms of the chronic venous disease (ChVD), not only in global, European terms, but also in a regional context. The purpose of the study was to find the regional differences of the reported symptoms and the applied conservative treatment methods among patients with ChVD diagnosed by the primary health care (PHC) doctors in Poland. Material and methods. 13 393 patients participated in the multi-centre PHLEBOS-2 research carried out by 330 PHC doctors in 15 voivodeships. Results. In the study group of patients, 31.9% of patients had ChVD symptoms – the C0 stage, telangiec­tasias and venulectasias (C1 stage) occurred among 56.1% of patients, varices without symptoms of venous insufficiency occurred among 6% of patients and venous insufficiency among 6% of patients. Venous ulcers (active or healed) occurred among 0.6% of subjects. Essential differences in the ChVD structure between voivodeships were noted. Among the most frequently reported ChVD ailments were heaviness of legs (72.9%), ankle swelling in the eve­nings (68.4%) and nighttime leg cramps (58.6%). Leg swelling during the night hours occurred less frequently — 39.8%, paraesthesias — 30.4%, restless legs syndrome — 18.6%. The average intensity of calf pain was moderate (3.82 ± 1.86 points in the 10 point scale). The territorial diversity in the prevalence of symptoms was significant and resulted neither from the ChVD seriousness, nor from the age of the patients. Compression therapy was applied on average by 12.5% of patients and 24.8% of patients used phlebotropic drugs with large territorial variations (respectively from 3.4% to 28.8% and from 11.2 to 56.1%). The differences between the voivodeships were greater than the regional differences and did not depend on the ChVD stage. Conclusions. There are significant territorial variations in Poland in the frequency of the reported symptoms and in the conservative therapy of the chronic venous disease.