Author: capcbristol

Male victims of domestic abuse face barriers to accessing support services – new study

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by Dr Eszter Szilassy, Research Fellow, Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol

Men who experience domestic violence and abuse face significant barriers to getting help and access to specialist support services, our latest study shows.

Although the amount, severity and impact of domestic violence and abuse experienced by women is much higher than that experienced by men, men can also suffer significantly as a result of abuse from a partner, ex-partner or an adult family member.

An earlier study of 1,368 male patients in GP clinic waiting rooms in the UK found that more than one in four had experienced abusive behaviour from a partner or ex-partner. They were also between two and three times more likely to have symptoms of depression and anxiety.

The experiences of many men who are survivors of domestic violence and abuse are similar to those of women. Like … Read more

Public involvement in health research: what it’s like, what I’ve learned, and why it matters

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Interview with Louise Ting, Member of the Centre for Academic Primary Care Patient and Public Involvement Steering Group

Louise Ting has been involved in service delivery and health research from a patient and public perspective for over six years. She has a passion for ensuring that patient and public involvement (PPI) is done properly and is meaningful both for researchers and for public contributors. Louise is a member of the PPI Steering Group at the Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol.

How did you find out about public involvement in research?

I first heard about public involvement when there was a large-scale commissioning exercise in Bristol for procuring the next set of mental health services in the city. They were asking people who had used services in the past to give their views and help assess the different bids by potential providers.

There were lots … Read more

Including the views and experiences of parents and children in a clinical trial: The Best Emollient for Eczema (BEE) Study

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Dr Eileen Sutton

 

 

By Dr Eileen Sutton, Research Fellow and Trial Coordinator – BEE Study, Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol

Qualitative research in trials

Many clinical trials now include qualitative research methods – which can include interviews, focus groups, or observations – alongside clinical and survey data collection. These kinds of research methods can be used to help the design of trials or to help us understand what is going on when a treatment or service is delivered in a clinical trial. For example, we can interview research participants to find out more about how they have used or experienced a treatment, in much more detail than we could capture in a survey. Combining different research methods can help researchers to get a more complete picture.

Our research

Around 20% of children in the UK experience eczema, which is characterised by dry, itchy skin. Eczema can … Read more

Why GPs and patients need to talk more openly about death

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By Dr Lucy Pocock, GP Career Progression Fellow, Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol

Dealing with death is part of the job description for all doctors. For those working in general practice, this often means planning ahead, with GPs encouraged to keep a register of patients thought to be in the last year of their life.

One reason for this is to identify which patients might benefit from palliative and supportive care – the kind of care which focuses on symptom control, rather than cure. At the moment, these registers appear to consist mainly of patients with cancer. Yet most people (72%) in England don’t actually die of cancer. So why aren’t other dying patients being registered?

To answer this question, it is helpful to think about how we die. As a GP, I can often predict, to some degree, a decline … Read more

Children with eczema: the link to food allergies is not clear cut

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By Dr Matthew Ridd, GP and Senior Lecturer in Primary Healthcare, Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol
and Dr Robert Boyle, Consultant Paediatric Allergist, Imperial College London

Around one in five children have eczema – and even mild cases can have a big impact on both the child and their family. For many, symptoms will come and go before they start primary school, but for others it can indicate the beginning of a genetic tendency to develop allergic conditions such as hay fever or asthma (or both).

We also know that children with eczema are more likely to develop food allergies, especially if the condition starts in the first few months of life and is severe. Often parents will make the allergy diagnosis themselves – at the sudden onset of vomiting, diarrhoea or rash after eating scrambled egg, for example.

This can be frightening, but … Read more

After the trial: how a programme to improve the health care response to domestic violence and abuse fares in the real-world NHS

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By Dr Natalia Lewis, Research Fellow, Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol

A new paper by researchers from the University of Bristol and NIHR CLAHRC North Thames highlights the post-trial journey of an evidence-based domestic violence and abuse (DVA) intervention to the NHS front-line, and the human and contextual factors that influence how its effect is sustained over time.

IRIS (Identification and Referral to Improve Safety) is a general-practice-based DVA training, support and referral programme. The programme develops DVA awareness and skills among general practice staff and provides a referral pathway to a named DVA advocate (IRIS advocate educator) based in a third sector agency. IRIS advocate educators provide IRIS training and ongoing support, consultancy to practice staff, and advocacy to referred patients.

Following a successful randomised controlled trial, IRIS has been implemented in over 30 local authorities in the UK. The trial … Read more

Help us identify the unintended consequences of digital health tools in primary care

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By Dr Jeremy Horwood, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol and NIHR CLAHRC West, and Dr Andrew Turner, Senior Research Associate, NIHR CLAHRC West

Researchers from the DECODE study hosted a workshop late in 2018 to explore the unintended consequences of digital health tools used in primary care. The workshop was attended by members of the public, technology developers, GPs and key researchers in the field.

Digital health tools, such as health monitoring apps and online patient portals, are becoming commonplace, with NHS England supporting their use to improve patient access and care. But this increase in their use could lead to unintended consequences, both positive and negative. An understanding of these consequences is vital, so we can minimise the negative effects and harness the positive.

DECODE aims to improve how digital health tools are used in primary care by investigating … Read more

Much we can do and even more to learn about COPD

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Guest blog by Dr James Dodd
Consultant Senior Lecturer
Academic Respiratory Unit, University of Bristol
and Southmead Hospital, Bristol

What is COPD?

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is an umbrella term which includes ‘chronic bronchitis’ and ‘emphysema’. It causes a progressive decline in lung function and health. It is common, affecting 2% of the adult population, and is projected to become the third leading cause of death in the UK. People with COPD experience breathlessness, cough and wheeze and often suffer with repeated chest infections. These ‘exacerbations’ are the second most common reason for emergency admissions to hospital.

Sadly, around two of the three million people with COPD in the UK remain undiagnosed, meaning that they live with debilitating symptoms for many years before receiving the support and advice they need. These ‘missing millions’ are the driving force behind COPD awareness month and World COPD Day.

It is … Read more

Are online GP consultations the solution to increasing patient access to health care, while reducing GP workloads?

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by Dr Jeremy Horwood and Professor Chris Salisbury, Centre for Academic Primary Care and NIHR CLAHRC West

NHS England’s long-term plan released on 7 January sets out a commitment that over the next five years every patient will get the right to telephone or online GP consultation as part of its ‘digital first primary care offer‘.

Online consultations are seen as a solution to improve patient access to primary care, increase convenience (saving time waiting and travelling) and reduce face-to-face appointments, freeing up GP time. But our research has found that unless these systems are carefully implemented, the benefits policy makers are hoping for in relation to reductions in GP workload and increases in available appointments for patients might not be realised.

The Centre for Academic Primary Care-led Alt-Con study examined how a variety of technological alternatives to face-to-face GP consultations were being used in … Read more

What’s normal in children’s respiratory infections? Bristol parents helped us find out

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by Dr Emma Anderson
Senior Research Associate
Centre for Academic Primary Care

As any parent knows, children get coughs, colds and ear infections all the time. Symptoms of these respiratory infections – including runny nose, cough and sore throat – can seem never-ending.

In the EEPRIS Study, led by Professor Alastair Hay from the University of Bristol’s Centre for Academic Primary Care, we recruited parents across Bristol to tell us about their children’s respiratory symptoms as they became ill. Gathering information in the community means we are able to find out more about common respiratory illnesses than when we study those who have decided to consult their GP. It also gives us a more accurate picture of how likely parents are to consult for these common illnesses, something which has been surprisingly unclear.

Two of our main findings were that:

  • it takes up to three weeks for most
… Read more