Objective: To determine the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of frequent attenders and compare them with another group of routine attenders in three primary care centers.
Method: The sample is composed by 232 frequent attenders (defined by number of consultations in the last year of 12 or more) and 93 routine attenders. The instruments used are: a questionnaire for the evaluation of the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics and the 28-item Goldberg General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28).
Results: The logistic regression shows that increase of age, low level of education, presence of chronic disease, psychiatric diagnosis and presence of psychopathological <<minor>> symptomatology establish significant differences in the group of frequent attenders in relation to the routine attenders group. There are no significant differences between men and women.
Conclusion: Frequent attenders present higher rates of physical, mental and social complaints. Age, some chronic conditions and psychopathology are the most important factors for frequent attendance.