Prevalence statistics

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Prevalence is a measure of the frequency of a disease or health condition in a population at a particular point in time (and is different to incidence, which is a measure of the number of newly diagnosed cases within a particular time period).

General medical services (GMS)

Prevalence is a measure of the frequency of a disease or health condition in a population at a particular point in time. The collection of prevalence data allows practices to case find those patients that require specific management. Disease Prevalence data was previously collected as an integral part of the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF), which has now been replaced by a Clinical Care Domain within the Northern Ireland Contract Assurance Framework (NICAF), a key feature of the 2024/25 GMS Contract. The NICAF still requires General Practices to maintain disease registers, allowing prevalence data to continue to be collected.