Primary Care Unit Research Briefing LGBT+ people are more likely to be living with long-term physical or mental health problems, and more likely to report poorer healthcare outcomes. University of Cambridge statistician Dr Catherine Saunders has explored these inequalities over the last five years by studying health data provided by large numbers of people, painstakingly […]
Public health experts urge government to put health at centre of levelling up agenda
COVID-19 has exacerbated health inequalities, say researchers Health needs to be at the heart of the Government’s levelling up agenda, say researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Newcastle. The team have today published practical guidance on how to reduce health inequalities. Based on decades of research around tackling health inequalities at local and regional […]
Cuts to public health laid bare in new analysis
The Health Foundation and the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) are today calling on the government to increase funding for public health. The years of underinvestment are documented in new analysis commissioned by the Health Foundation and conducted by a team led by John Ford and Mike Kelly. The analysis shows that the […]
LGBTQ+ public involvement panel choose priority themes for research into health of sexual and gender minority populations
Health services delivery, the prevention of health problems, and the intersectionality of sexual orientation and gender identity with other disadvantages are top priorities for LGBTQ+ health research, according to a new research prioritisation exercise carried out with members of the public. The topics were chosen from a list of healthcare research themes by a panel of people identifying as Lesbian, Gay, […]
Worsening GP shortages in disadvantaged areas likely to widen health inequalities
Areas of high socioeconomic disadvantage are being worst hit by shortages of GPs, a trend that is only worsening with time and is likely to widen pre-existing health inequalities, say researchers at the University of Cambridge. The government has made reducing health inequalities a core commitment, but this will be challenging with the increasing shortage […]
Missing data in UK primary care databases: eight key scenarios where prescription data are absent
Primary care electronic health records provide prescribing data in a large proportion of research studies. However, there are many scenarios where a medication is prescribed but this is not recorded in electronic health records, and so researchers need to be aware of common scenarios where missing prescription data could undermine their research. Scenarios where […]