Analyse von 20000 Anrufen bei der Telefon-Hotline der Deutschen Hochdruckliga e.V. DHL®

Background and objective: The cardiovascular hotline of the German Hypertension Society is a telephone information and support service which has been operated since 1992. This retrospective study was aimed at presenting a profile of the callers and the affected persons, a summary of the personal inquiries as well as significant changes over time based on three samples. Participants and methods: A total of 55,000 phone calls were made from 1992 to 2007. Data of 20,195 inquiries representing three periods (1992/1993, 1999/2000, 2006/2007) were analysed. Results: There were almost equal numbers of female and male callers. The same applied to the gender of the affected persons. In 80% of the calls the concerned persons themselves asked for informations. In 12% relatives called for a parent, occasionally for a child or a friend. In the three samples the average age of the affected persons increased from 56.4 to 63.7 years. In 1992/1993 calls mostly originated from areas of high population density in Germany but gradually from smaller towns, too. Conclusions: In the future more elderly persons will use the hotline and there will be more questions concerning topics of old age.