Family practice patients' perception of symptoms.

One hundred family practice patients aged 18 or greater were divided into infrequent and frequent user categories. They were surveyed regarding their perceptions about a list of 20 symptoms on 6 perceptual scales. Perception of symptoms was not related to frequency of attendance, sex of patient, education, or marital status. Age of the patient was the major factor influencing perception of symptoms. Probably due to the heterogeneity of the study population, several previously described factors which were thought to influence perception of symptoms and frequency of attendance were not replicated in this study.