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The feasibility of identifying health inequalities in social prescribing referrals and declines using primary care patient records

BACKGROUND: Social prescribing (SP) is part of universal personalised care and available to everyone in the UK National Health Service. However, emerging evidence suggests access disparities in social prescribing. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of using primary care records to acces...

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Autores principales: Khan, Koser, Al-Izzi, Rachel, Montasem, Alexander, Gordon, Clare, Brown, Heather, Goldthorpe, Joanna
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: F1000 Research Limited 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10593349/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37881458
http://dx.doi.org/10.3310/nihropenres.13325.2
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author Khan, Koser
Al-Izzi, Rachel
Montasem, Alexander
Gordon, Clare
Brown, Heather
Goldthorpe, Joanna
author_facet Khan, Koser
Al-Izzi, Rachel
Montasem, Alexander
Gordon, Clare
Brown, Heather
Goldthorpe, Joanna
author_sort Khan, Koser
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Social prescribing (SP) is part of universal personalised care and available to everyone in the UK National Health Service. However, emerging evidence suggests access disparities in social prescribing. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of using primary care records to access and analyse data on social prescribing. Our secondary aim was to compare characteristics of patients who are offered referral, referred to or decline referral for social prescribing to explore possible inequalities in access to social prescribing. METHODS: Patient records (n=3086) were extracted from 11 GP practices across Northwest England for accepted, offered and declined social prescribing referrals. Patient demographics collected included sex, age, ethnicity, mental and physical health diagnoses. Patient characteristics in social prescribing referrals were compared to the overall practice population (practice information from Public Health England). Referral and decline rates were compared by group (e.g. male/female decline rates). RESULTS: GP referral data showed inconsistent recording of wider determinants of health. Patient age, sex and mental and physical health conditions were consistently recorded. Other variables (marital status, interpreter need, education, disability, sexual orientation, non-English language, nationality) were recorded only sporadically and could not be used for analysis. Practices varied in referral patterns. Our preliminary findings identified under-referring of younger age groups and Asians, and higher declined referrals among individuals with physical health diagnoses. CONCLUSIONS: Recording discrepancies meant that many patient factors could not be used to identify trends in social prescribing referrals and declines and assess equity. Primary care data recording must be consistent to understand SP referral trends and inequalities relating to the wider determinants of health. Preliminary results suggest some patient groups may be underrepresented in SP referrals, however this requires further investigation.
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spelling pubmed-105933492023-10-25 The feasibility of identifying health inequalities in social prescribing referrals and declines using primary care patient records Khan, Koser Al-Izzi, Rachel Montasem, Alexander Gordon, Clare Brown, Heather Goldthorpe, Joanna NIHR Open Res Research Article BACKGROUND: Social prescribing (SP) is part of universal personalised care and available to everyone in the UK National Health Service. However, emerging evidence suggests access disparities in social prescribing. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of using primary care records to access and analyse data on social prescribing. Our secondary aim was to compare characteristics of patients who are offered referral, referred to or decline referral for social prescribing to explore possible inequalities in access to social prescribing. METHODS: Patient records (n=3086) were extracted from 11 GP practices across Northwest England for accepted, offered and declined social prescribing referrals. Patient demographics collected included sex, age, ethnicity, mental and physical health diagnoses. Patient characteristics in social prescribing referrals were compared to the overall practice population (practice information from Public Health England). Referral and decline rates were compared by group (e.g. male/female decline rates). RESULTS: GP referral data showed inconsistent recording of wider determinants of health. Patient age, sex and mental and physical health conditions were consistently recorded. Other variables (marital status, interpreter need, education, disability, sexual orientation, non-English language, nationality) were recorded only sporadically and could not be used for analysis. Practices varied in referral patterns. Our preliminary findings identified under-referring of younger age groups and Asians, and higher declined referrals among individuals with physical health diagnoses. CONCLUSIONS: Recording discrepancies meant that many patient factors could not be used to identify trends in social prescribing referrals and declines and assess equity. Primary care data recording must be consistent to understand SP referral trends and inequalities relating to the wider determinants of health. Preliminary results suggest some patient groups may be underrepresented in SP referrals, however this requires further investigation. F1000 Research Limited 2023-08-30 /pmc/articles/PMC10593349/ /pubmed/37881458 http://dx.doi.org/10.3310/nihropenres.13325.2 Text en Copyright: © 2023 Khan K et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Khan, Koser
Al-Izzi, Rachel
Montasem, Alexander
Gordon, Clare
Brown, Heather
Goldthorpe, Joanna
The feasibility of identifying health inequalities in social prescribing referrals and declines using primary care patient records
title The feasibility of identifying health inequalities in social prescribing referrals and declines using primary care patient records
title_full The feasibility of identifying health inequalities in social prescribing referrals and declines using primary care patient records
title_fullStr The feasibility of identifying health inequalities in social prescribing referrals and declines using primary care patient records
title_full_unstemmed The feasibility of identifying health inequalities in social prescribing referrals and declines using primary care patient records
title_short The feasibility of identifying health inequalities in social prescribing referrals and declines using primary care patient records
title_sort feasibility of identifying health inequalities in social prescribing referrals and declines using primary care patient records
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10593349/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37881458
http://dx.doi.org/10.3310/nihropenres.13325.2
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