Second, we selected consultations assessed by the GP as being 'completely psychosocial'.
The selected consultations included 139 GPs, of whom 105 were male (75.5%).
The importance of recording consecutive (not selected) consultations is heavily emphasised.
The patients in the selected consultations showed no differences in age and gender between the two study samples.
We selected consultations in which the GPs aimed to reassure worried patients and used their videotaped consultation as a stimulus for the interview.
To be able to clearly distinguish two periods, we selected consultations from two batches with an interval of almost 20 years.
All physicians in the selected consultations were trained in general practice and the majority (92% versus 94%) had more than 5 years experience.
Since we are interested in the association between the patient's symptoms and the discussion of lifestyle behaviour with GPs, we selected consultations where the patient exhibited only one symptom.
Reassurance needed to be an explicit goal of the GP since the selected consultations were to be used for interviews with GPs about the way they reassured patients and with patients about how they experienced their GP's reassuring efforts.
The analysis of the GP interviews indicated that GPs did not expect serious pathology to be present in any of the selected consultations, based upon their findings of the history taking, physical examination and, if applicable, additional investigations.
PAC treatment data were collected in 15 purposively-selected facilities, selected in consultation with the Reproductive Health Unit (RHU) of the Malawi Ministry of Health.
