Burden of morbidity in a patient perspective – the case of sick-leave certified patients in primary care

Background Epidemiology in terms of diseases or patients Data on morbidity in Sweden are based on numbers of diagnoses, classified by the WHO system, the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) [1]. Registers of morbidity are administered by each county council. On national level registers are held by the National Board of Health and Welfare, but no diagnoses from primary care are so far collected. Statistics on patients being treated by various caregivers are available, but there are no possibilities to read out from the registers which patient had which diagnoses. Thus the epidemiologic knowledge is based on diseases and not on patients having the diseases.