Social patterning of telephone health-advice for diarrhoea and vomiting: analysis of 24 million telehealth calls in England - 01/02/19
, Tanith C. Rose a, b, Alex J. Elliot d, e, Gillian Smith d, e, Roger Morbey d, e, Paul Loveridge d, James Lewis g, Gareth Studdard h, Mara Violato a, f, Sarah J. O'Brien a, b, Margaret Whitehead a, b, David C. Taylor-Robinson a, b, Jeremy I. Hawker a, i, †, Benjamin Barr a, b, †Highlights |
• | Disadvantaged areas were associated with higher risk of gastrointestinal infection (GI) calls to the National Health Service (NHS) telephone advice services in England. |
• | This trend was seen across age groups. |
• | This may reflect differential exposure or vulnerability to GI infections by socioeconomic status. |
• | It may also reflect differential propensity to call about GI infections by socioeconomic status. |
Summary |
Objectives |
Gastrointestinal (GI) infections are common and most people do not see a physician. There is conflicting evidence of the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) on risk of GI infections. We assessed the relationship between SES and GI calls to two National Health Service (NHS) telephone advice services in England.
Methods |
Over 24 million calls to NHS Direct (2010–13) and NHS 111 (2013–15) were extracted from Public Health England (PHE) syndromic surveillance systems. The relationship between SES and GI calls was assessed using generalised linear models (GLM).
Results |
Adjusting for rurality and age-sex interactions, in NHS Direct, children in disadvantaged areas were at lower risk of GI calls; in NHS 111 there was a higher risk of GI calls in disadvantaged areas for all ages (0–4 years RR 1.27, 95% CI 1.25–1.29; 5–9 years RR 1.43, 95% CI 1.36–1.51; 10–14 years RR 1.36, 95% CI 1.26–1.41; 15–19 years RR 1.59, 95% CI 1.52–1.67; 20–59 years RR 1.50, 95% CI 1.47–1.53, 60 years and over RR 1.12, 95% CI 1.09–1.14).
Conclusions |
Disadvantaged areas had higher risk of GI calls in NHS 111. This may relate to differences in exposure or vulnerability to GI infections, or propensity to call about GI infections.
Le texte complet de cet article est disponible en PDF.Keywords : Diarrhoea, Vomiting, Inequalities, Syndromic surveillance
Plan
Vol 78 - N° 2
P. 95-100 - février 2019 Retour au numéro
Article précédent
- Communicating antimicrobial resistance and stewardship in the national press: Lessons from sepsis awareness campaigns
- L. Rush, C. Patterson, L. McDaid, S. Hilton
- Risk factors for mortality among carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae carriers with focus on immunosuppression
- Haggai Bar-Yoseph, Nadav Cohen, Alexander Korytny, Elias R. Andrawus, Razi Even Dar, Yuval Geffen, Khetam Hussein, Mical Paul
Bienvenue sur EM-consulte, la référence des professionnels de santé.
L’accès au texte intégral de cet article nécessite un abonnement.
Déjà abonné à cette revue ?