The prevalence and persistence of ethnic and racial harassment and its impact on health: a longitudinal analysis

Institute for Social and Economic Research | May 2019 | The prevalence and persistence of ethnic and racial harassment and its impact on health: a longitudinal analysis

The prevalence and persistence of ethnic and racial harassment and its impact on health:
a longitudinal analysis, presents the findings from the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) of a longitudinal study of the prevalence of ethnic and racial harassment and its impact on health during the period 2009 to 2014. The research was conducted by researchers at the University of Essex using data from the large-scale household panel survey. As part of this study, the research team also looked at measures that can protect ethnic minorities against the mental health costs associated with ethnic and racial harassment.

Image source: iser.essex.ac.uk

Key findings

• Ethnic minorities are most likely to experience ethnic and racial harassment and anticipate it in streets, shops and public transport.
•  Chinese men and women, Pakistani men, Indian-Sikh men, Indian-Muslim men and Bangladeshi women are more likely to report such experiences than others – around 15%.
•  For most ethnic groups, twice as many people anticipate or fear harassment than actually experience it, with the exception of black Caribbean and black African groups.
• Women are more likely than men to feel unsafe and avoid places, but men are more likely to report actually experiencing ethnic and racial harassment.
• These patterns persist after account for contextual factors that vary across
  ethnic groups.
• The likelihood of experiencing ethnic and racial harassment is lower for those
  living with a higher proportion of their own ethnic group members after taking
  into account area level deprivation

The ISER researchers hope their findings will increase awareness among the public, policy-makers, healthcare professionals and law enforcement agencies about how common such harassment experiences are. (Source: ISR).

Institute for Social and Economic Research

Briefing 

 

We still need to talk about boards

NHS Providers | May 2019 | We still need to talk about boards

NHS Providers published We need to talk about boards in 2015, but in the context of the Long-Term Plan a revised version of  the paper has been produced, this sets out NHS Providers’ rationale for board leadership now and in the future.
Full details from NHS Providers

We still need to talk about boards

Report Synopsis – National Clinical Audit of Specialist Rehabilitation following Major Injury

Health Quality Improvement Partnership | May 2019 | Report Synopsis – National Clinical Audit of Specialist Rehabilitation following Major Injury

Health Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) have produced a synopsis of the third and final report on the provision of specialist rehabilitation following major trauma. The review was formed of three parts: an organisational audit, a prospective clinical audit, and a feasibility study.

The report found that access to specialist rehabilitation appears limited and needs much closer attention paid to the implementation of the standards that already exist. There will be different models of improving such access, depending on the set up of the services in the different areas of the country. Nevertheless, when designing and managing trauma networks compliance needs to be reviewed to these standards to see how it can be improved (Source: HQIP).

Report Synopsis – National Clinical Audit of Specialist Rehabilitation following Major Injury

Lancet:Large trial says aspirin safe for brain bleed stroke patients

RESTART Collaboration | 2019| Effects of antiplatelet therapy after stroke due to intracerebral haemorrhage (RESTART): a randomised, open-label trial | The Lancet | DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(19)30840-2

A new study published in The Lancet reports that patients who experience stroke as part of a brain hemorrhage are able to take medicines such as aspirin, without raising their risk factor of experiencing another stroke.

Summary

Background

Antiplatelet therapy reduces the risk of major vascular events for people with occlusive vascular disease, although it might increase the risk of intracranial haemorrhage. Patients surviving the commonest subtype of intracranial haemorrhage, intracerebral haemorrhage, are at risk of both haemorrhagic and occlusive vascular events, but whether antiplatelet therapy can be used safely is unclear. We aimed to estimate the relative and absolute effects of antiplatelet therapy on recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage and whether this risk might exceed any reduction of occlusive vascular events.

Methods

The REstart or STop Antithrombotics Randomised Trial (RESTART) was a prospective, randomised, open-label, blinded endpoint, parallel-group trial at 122 hospitals in the UK. We recruited adults (more than or equal to 18 years) who were taking antithrombotic (antiplatelet or anticoagulant) therapy for the prevention of occlusive vascular disease when they developed intracerebral haemorrhage, discontinued antithrombotic therapy, and survived for 24 h. Computerised randomisation incorporating minimisation allocated participants (1:1) to start or avoid antiplatelet therapy. We followed participants for the primary outcome (recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage) for up to 5 years. We analysed data from all randomised participants using Cox proportional hazards regression, adjusted for minimisation covariates. This trial is registered with ISRCTN (number ISRCTN71907627).

Findings

Between May 22, 2013, and May 31, 2018, 537 participants were recruited a median of 76 days after intracerebral haemorrhage onset: 268 were assigned to start and 269 (one withdrew) to avoid antiplatelet therapy. Participants were followed for a median of 2·0 years. 12 (4%) of 268 participants allocated to antiplatelet therapy had recurrence of intracerebral haemorrhage compared with 23 (9%) of 268 participants allocated to avoid antiplatelet therapy  participants allocated to antiplatelet therapy experienced major haemorrhagic events compared with 25 (9%) participants allocated to avoid antiplatelet therapy, and 39 [15%] participants allocated to antiplatelet therapy had major occlusive vascular events compared with 38 [14%] allocated to avoid antiplatelet therapy.

Interpretation

These results exclude all but a very modest increase in the risk of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage with antiplatelet therapy for patients on antithrombotic therapy for the prevention of occlusive vascular disease when they developed intracerebral haemorrhage. The risk of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage is probably too small to exceed the established benefits of antiplatelet therapy for secondary prevention.

Funding

Read the full article in The Lancet

In the news:

OnMedica Large trial says aspirin safe for brain bleed stroke patients

A life course approach to the prevention of ill health

The latest edition of Health Matters from Public Health England focuses on taking a life course approach to the prevention of ill health and explores the evidence base for this approach. The resource signposts to evidence-based interventions and tools, as well as to evaluation and monitoring techniques.

Unlike a disease-oriented approach, which focuses on interventions for a single condition often at a single life stage, a life course approach considers the critical stages, transitions, and settings where large differences can be made in promoting or restoring health and wellbeing.

Image source: publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk

A life course approach values the health and wellbeing of both current and future generations. It recognises that:

• there are a wide range of protective and risk factors that interplay in health and wellbeing over the life span
• maintaining good functional ability is the main outcome of the life course approach to health
• functional ability can be enhanced throughout life by a supportive environment
• by altering policies, environments, and societal norms, inequalities affecting the life course trajectory can be reduced, which could benefit the whole population across the lifespan, as well as future generations

In terms of tackling health inequalities across the life course, there are multiple actions that can be taken, for which PHE have relevant resources. These include:

1. Building healthy and resilient communities
2. Adopting a place-based approach to health
3. Tackling housing and fuel poverty
4. Taking action on poverty and health
5. Taking action on health and justice

Full resource: Health Matters: Prevention – A Life Course Approach

See also: Health matters blog

Insulin Safety Week: National campaign promotes insulin safety

Diabetes Times | May 2019 | National campaign promotes insulin safety

This week to mark Insulin Safety Week (20-26 May 2019) over 500 diabetes teams predominantly in hospitals from the UK and Ireland  will promote the message of insulin safety. 

According to the results from the latest National Diabetes Inpatient Audit, extrapolated by the Diabetes Times, two in five people with diabetes on insulin (40 per cent) experience an error related to the administration of the drug while in hospital.

In response, the seven-day awareness campaign in an attempt to reduce incidents of insulin errors as part of Insulin Safety Week.

A total of 343 sites, mainly hospitals and GP surgeries, took part in the first-ever national Insulin Safety Week in May 2019, building on interest generated by successful local campaigns across the country in 2017, including in Leicester, Hastings, Eastbourne and Southampton.

Full, unabridged story from Diabetes Times

Patients with heart failure: women, older people and deprived people populations more likely to receive suboptimal care, finds study

Conrad, N. et al. | 2019| Diagnostic tests, drug prescriptions, and follow-up patterns after incident heart failure: A cohort study of 93,000 UK patients| PLOS Medicine| https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002805

A retrospective population-based study, that used linked primary and secondary health lectronic health records from 93,000 patients who were diagnosed with heart failure between 2002 and 2014, aimed to investigate the medical care received by heart failure patients in the UK from diagnosis up to a year later. The authors find that management of heart failure patients in the UK presents important shortcomings that affect screening, continuity of care, and medication titration and disproportionally impact women and older people. They also report that patients were most likely to be diagnosed in hospital rather than by their general practitioner, received insufficient follow-up after hospitalisation, and dosages prescribed to patients were too low. Moreover, gaps in care were more common in women, older people, and, to some extent, socioeconomically deprived individuals.

 

Why was this study done?

• Heart failure is a common, costly, and severe condition—it affects about 2% of the population in high-income countries, with mortality rates comparable to the gravest forms of cancer.
• Effective treatments exist but involve a complex process of investigations, stepwise initiation of medicines, and dose adjustments that in practice is often challenging to follow.
• Over the past decade, the UK introduced separate programmes to evaluate and improve the management of heart failure patients in primary and secondary care. However, patients’ trajectories of care across different healthcare settings have not been studied.

What did the researchers do and find?

• We aimed to investigate the medical care received by heart failure patients in the UK from diagnosis up to a year later.
• We investigated trajectories of care, including where patients were diagnosed, investigations that were performed, and medications they received, examined changes over time and if results differed according to patients’ age, sex, or socioeconomic status.
• Our results show that the medical care received by heart failure patients presents important gaps. Patients were more likely to be diagnosed in hospital rather than by their general practitioner, received insufficient follow-up after hospitalisation, and dosages prescribed to patients were too low. Moreover, gaps in care were more common in women, older people, and, to some extent, socioeconomically deprived individuals.

What do these findings mean?

• Heart failure care in the UK presents important gaps that pertain to patients’ long-term care needs and are likely to negatively impact patients’ health and quality of life.
• Nationwide quality improvement programmes have failed to identify these gaps, essentially because they evaluate each individual healthcare setting on its own. To further improve patient care, health systems may need to reflect on patients’ journey across the continuum of care.
• Women, older people, and deprived populations are particularly prone to receiving suboptimal care. Research that helps us understand the reasons behind these disparities, or models of care that take each group’s specificities into account, could help.  (Source: Conrad et al. 2019)

Full article available from PLOS Medicine

In the news:

OnMedica Heart failure less likely to be diagnosed in primary care