A study of all consultations and referrals to other medical specialists made by family physicians was undertaken in Choon-Chun for eight months in 1984. There were 12,008 patients, visits in eight months, from which 247 referrals were made. So the overall rate of referrals was 2.1%.
Internists were the most frequently consulted, followed by obstetricians and gynecologists, orthopedic surgeons, general surgeons, otolaryngologists and pediatricians.
About one half of the referrals were made because of the reason for more diagnostic work-ups and/or specific treatments, and a quarter of the referrals due to lack of facilities.
The problems in category XVI(symptoms, signs and ill-defined conditions) of the ICHPPC-2-Defined were referred most frequently to the other specialists.
It was suggested that the variables which affect the referral patterns of family physicians were their levels of medical competencies and experiences, distributional patterns of medical resources and medical care delivery system, communication mechanism between family practitioners and consultants, and so on.

This study was conducted to compare the factors of hypertension between mean blood pressure associated with age, sex and occupation, the prevalence rate of hypertension and the type of hypertension in 1,610 public service personnel from June 1. 1986 to June 30, 1986, and therby evaluated the availability of periodic blood pressure measurement for early detection of hypertension patients and prevention of their complication.
Following results were obtained:
1. Mean blood pressure.
Both of the systolic and diastolic pressures increased with aging. The mean blood pressure of the twenties and thirties was higher in males than that in females. But over the forties, there was little difference of the mean blood pressure. In each age group, laborers showed higher blood pressure than clerks, and the systolic mean blood pressure of the group of in particular, the thirties showed prominent difference.
2. Prevalence rate of hypertension.
The prevalence rate of hypertension was higher, about 7.4%, comparing with those of other diseases, and the prevalence rate of hypertension by age increased with aging. The prevalence rate of male is about 8.2%, and that of female is 2.1%, and those rates of every 10 year groups are also higher in male than in female. The prevalence rate of laborers is about 14.2%, and that of clerks is 6.1%, and those rates of every 10 year groups are also higher in laborers than in clerks.
3. Types of hypertension, in the type of hypertension the percentile proportion of only diastolic hypertension is about 67.6%, that of both systolic and diastolic hypertension is about 27%, and that of only systolic hypertension is about 5.4%. And then, in the clerks, the percentile proportion of only diastolic hypertension is about 75.4%, that of both systolic and diastolic hypertension is about 21.3% and that of only systolic hypertension is about 3.3%, and in the laborers, the percentile proportion of only diastolic hypertension is about 54.9%, that of both systolic and diastolic hypertension is about 35.9%, and that of only systolic hypertension is about 9.2%. The above results showed that the percentile proportion of only systolic hypertension was higher in laborers than in clerks.