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Biomedical subjects

A L Kinmonth

Publications and source records attributed to A L Kinmonth.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

What determines the cost-effectiveness of diabetes screening?

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The cost-effectiveness of screening for diabetes is unknown but has been modelled previously. None of these models has taken account of uncertainty. We aimed to describe these uncertainties in a model where the outcome was CHD risk. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Our model used population data from the Danish Inter99 study, and simulations were run in a theoretical population of 1,000,000 individuals. CHD risk was estimated using the UK Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) risk engine, and risk reduction from published randomised clinical trials. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis was used to provide confidence intervals for modelled outputs. Uncertain parameter values were independently simulated from distributions derived from existing literature and deterministic sensitivity analysis performed using multiple model runs under different strategy choices and using extreme parameter estimates. RESULTS: In the least conservative model (low costs and multiplicative risk reduction for combined treatments), the 95% confidence interval of the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio varied from pound23,300-82,000. The major contributors to this uncertainty were treatment risk reduction model parameters: the risk reduction for hypertension treatment and UKPDS risk model intercept. Overall cost-effectiveness ratio was not sensitive to decisions about which groups to screen, nor the costs of screening or treatment. It was strongly affected by assumptions about how treatments combine to reduce risk. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Our model suggests that there is considerable uncertainty about whether or not screening for diabetes would be cost-effective. The most important but uncertain parameter is the effect of treatment. In addition to directly influencing current policy decisions, health care modelling can identify important unknown or uncertain parameters that may be the target of future research.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Evidence against the use of lumbar spine radiography for low back pain.

AIM: To review abnormalities reported on plain radiographic examination of the lumbar spine in patients referred with low back pain by general practitioners. Additionally, we evaluated and stratified the prevalence of these abnormalities by age. Finally, the diagnostic impact of lumbar spine radiography for the diagnosis of degenerative change, fracture, infection and possible tumour, was modelled. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective review of 2007 radiographic reports of patients referred with low back pain for lumbar spine radiography to a large radiology department was performed. The reports were classified into different diagnostic groups and subsequently stratified according to age. The potential diagnostic impact of lumbar spine radiography was modelled by using the prevalence of conditions studied as pre-test probabilities of disease. RESULTS: The prevalence of reported lumbar spine degeneration increased with age to 71% in patients aged 65-74 years. The overall prevalence of fracture, possible infection, possible tumour was low in our study population: 4, 0.8 and 0.7%, respectively. Fracture and possible infection showed no association with age. Possible tumour was only reported in patients older than 55 years of age. CONCLUSION: Although the prevalence of degenerative changes was high in older patients, the therapeutic consequences of diagnosing this abnormality are minor. The prevalence of possible serious conditions was very low in all age categories, which implies radiation exposure in many patients with no significant lesions.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Patient concerns in their first year with type 2 diabetes: patient and practice nurse views.

One year after diagnosis, 250 patients with type 2 diabetes identified concerns related to having diabetes, in response to an open question and checklist. Their practice nurses independently reported what they believed were the patients' concerns. Nurses identified patients' main concerns in only 20% of cases. Patients' most frequent main concerns were 'fear of getting worse', 'following dietary advice' and 'damage caused by diabetes'. Nurses most frequently cited 'following dietary advice', 'illness or pain unrelated to diabetes' and 'overweight'. BMI over 25 was related to patient concerns about 'overweight' but not 'following dietary advice' nor 'taking exercise', mentioned also by people of lower weight. Only 19/106 patients with raised HbA1c levels reported concerns about high blood glucose levels. Nurse education in patient-centred care should build on the findings that patients focus more on current and future burden of symptoms and treatment than on blood glucose levels.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Problems with the performance of the SF-36 among people with type 2 diabetes in general practice.

OBJECTIVE: To validate the short form-36 (SF-36) among people with type 2 diabetes in general practice, and to make comparisons with the Audit of Diabetes Dependent Quality of Life (ADDQoL). DESIGN: Postal survey with one reminder. SETTING: Four general practices. PATIENTS: One hundred and eighty-four eligible patients (30-70 years) with type 2 diabetes on 14 general practitioner lists. MEASURES: SF-36 response rates, distribution of dimension scores and internal consistency. Median scores in relation to sociodemography and self-reported health. Comparisons with ADDQoL scores. RESULTS: One hundred and thirty-one patients responded (71%). Distributions of SF-36 dimension scores were mostly skewed. Internal consistency and construct validity were acceptable, with predictable sociodemographic trends. People with illness related to or unrelated to diabetes scored significantly lower on most dimensions. SF-36 dimension scores correlated best with relevant diabetes-specific ADDQoL scores amongst respondents reporting no comorbidity. CONCLUSIONS: Although valid and reliable, SF-36 scores are strongly affected by non-diabetic comorbidity in type 2 diabetes, supporting the complementary use of a diabetes-specific measure, providing information about the impact of diabetes specifically.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Journeys and pathways: exploring the role of professional development advice and educational guidance for practitioners expressing interest in research.

BACKGROUND: Recent policy reports highlight the need to increase the number of primary care practitioners with academic experience, research skills and higher level qualifications. Various courses, training schemes and awards are available but it is not clear what advice and support might best assist practitioners to access and successfully pursue such opportunities. AIM: To understand and document the professional development support needs of primary care practitioners who wish to develop their own paths forward in research. METHOD: A research adviser based in the Unit of General Practice, University of Cambridge invited enquiries on any aspect of research activity from practitioners. Summaries of contacts, enquiries and other relevant issues were prepared on a monthly basis. Through the process of offering help and through reflexive engagement with the summaries we sought to understand and document practitioner support needs. FINDINGS: Many enquiries from practitioners concerned professional development. Practitioners requested help before embarking on a new course of action and during the course of their progress along a chosen track. The advice required went beyond the provision of information about the opportunities which existed and often evolved into a mentoring relationship. The impact of the advice offered can be viewed in terms of contribution to the journey of the individual practitioner and contribution to nationally recognized strategic aims. CONCLUSION: The need for professional development advice and educational guidance for those interested in research may be more widespread than appreciated. If this need is to be successfully addressed we should consider the skills and expertise required of advisers and the specific outcomes to be anticipated from their roles.

Education, Medical, Continuing↗
PubMed2001

Experiences and expectations of the new genetics in relation to familial risk of breast cancer: a comparison of the views of GPs and practice nurses.

BACKGROUND: Advances in genetics may change the practice of medicine in many ways. Ascertaining practitioners' perceptions about managing the risk of familial breast cancer can give an insight into the current and expected impact on general practice to inform relevant education. Little is known about the practice nurses' (PNs) views of the new genetics in comparison with those of the GP. OBJECTIVES: Our aim was to describe and compare the views of GPs and PNs on their experiences and expectations of the new genetics in relation to managing familial risk of breast cancer. METHOD: A questionnaire, assessing views on the current and future impact of genetic advances in general and on the management of women with a familial risk of breast cancer, was sent to all GPs and PNs in the 66 practices of the Cambridge and Huntingdon Health Authority. RESULTS: There was a 69% response rate. The words 'cautious', 'mixed feelings', 'hopeful' and 'optimistic' were used most frequently in response to views on genetic advances, but PNs chose more positive words than GPs (P < 0.001). PNs were also more optimistic than GPs in relation to the future positive impact of genetics on practice (P < 0.0001). Sixty-one per cent of GPs and 45% of PNs agreed that genetic advances in relation to breast cancer were already affecting their work. A minority of practitioners had attended recent educational events in risk assessment for breast cancer, and only 8% of GPs reported a practice policy on familial breast cancer risk management. CONCLUSIONS: GPs and PNs show a cautious optimism in relation to advances in genetics, with PNs most optimistic. Many perceive that genetic advances in relation to breast cancer are already affecting their workloads, yet educational attendance and practice policies are lacking. Given PN involvement, multi-professional education may be appropriate. Education about risk management, including family history and genetics, might be better integrated into more general teaching on the prevention and management of breast cancer, than taught alone.

Breast Neoplasms↗
PubMed2001

Prevalence of untreated asthma in a population sample of 6000 older adults in Bristol, UK.

BACKGROUND: A study was undertaken to estimate the prevalence of untreated asthma in older adults. METHODS: A cross sectional population based survey of 6000 men and women aged 65 years and over was performed in 21 general practices in north Bristol, south west England. The main outcome measure was untreated asthma as defined by a two stage process comprising a respiratory questionnaire (symptoms suggestive of asthma or doctor diagnosed asthma not receiving respiratory treatment) followed by lung function tests (significant reversibility following bronchodilators or corticosteroids and/or significant within day variability in peak expiratory flow). RESULTS: 4792 of the 6000 participants (80%) completed the respiratory questionnaire and, of those not receiving respiratory treatment, 55 reported a previous doctor diagnosis of asthma and a further 696 had symptoms suggestive of asthma. Lung function testing in 280 of 501 randomly selected individuals from these groups resulted in 38 being defined as having asthma and an estimated population prevalence for untreated asthma of 2.4% (95% CI 1.6% to 3.6%) in men and 1.2% (95% CI 0.7% to 2.1%) in women. Most subjects (84%) with untreated asthma had moderate or severe disease. Untreated asthma was most common in individuals with doctor diagnosed asthma (21%) and those with breathlessness or wheeze (13-20%). CONCLUSION: Untreated asthma in the elderly is a common and important problem. Opportunistic use of appropriate lung function tests in older people with a history of doctor diagnosed asthma or wheeze or breathlessness at rest could identify untreated asthmatics who might benefit from treatment.

Aged↗
PubMed2001

Influence of socio-economic deprivation on the prevalence and outcome of depression in primary care: the Hampshire Depression Project.

BACKGROUND: Health inequalities exist for many disorders, but the contribution of deprivation to the prevalence and outcome of depressive symptoms in primary care populations has been infrequently studied. AIMS: To examine the influence of Jarman under-privileged area (UPA) scores on the prevalence and outcome of depressive symptoms in general practice patients. METHOD: 18 414 patients attending 55 representative practices completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and a questionnaire for employment status. Outcome of those screening positive was assessed at 6 weeks and 6 months. RESULTS: The UPA score accounted for 48.3% of the variance between practices in prevalence of depressive symptoms. Attending a high UPA score practice predicted persistence of depressive symptoms to 6 months. CONCLUSIONS: The socio-economic deprivation of a practice locality is a powerful predictor of the prevalence and persistence of depressive symptoms.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Dimensional perspective on the recognition of depressive symptoms in primary care: The Hampshire Depression Project 3.

BACKGROUND: Most studies of the recognition of depression in primary care have used a categorical definition of depression. This may overstate the extent of the problem. AIMS: Our objective was to investigate the relationship between severity and recognition of depression, and its modification by patient and practitioner characteristics. METHOD: An association study in multiple consecutive adult cohorts of 18 414 primary care consultations drawn from a representative sample of 156 general practitioners in Hampshire, UK. RESULTS: There was a curvilinear relationship between the severity of depression and practitioners' ratings of depression. One case of probable depression was missed in every 28.6 consultations. Anxiety and unemployment altered the chances of recognition, but age, gender and deprivation scores did not. CONCLUSIONS: A dimensional approach to severity of depression shows that general practitioners may be better able to recognise depression than previous categorical studies have suggested. Efforts to improve the care of depression should therefore focus on doctors who have been shown to have difficulty making the diagnosis and on improving the treatment of identified patients.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Effects of a clinical-practice guideline and practice-based education on detection and outcome of depression in primary care: Hampshire Depression Project randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Depression is a major individual and public-health burden throughout the world and is managed mainly in primary care. The most effective strategy to reduce this burden has been believed to be education of primary-care practitioners. We tested this assumption by assessing the effectiveness of an educational programme based on a clinical-practice guideline in improving the recognition and outcome of primary-care depression. METHODS: We carried out a randomised controlled trial in a representative sample of 60 primary-care practices (26% of the total) in an English health district. Education was delivered to practice teams and quality tested by feedback from participants and expert raters. The primary endpoints were recognition of depression, defined by the hospital anxiety and depression (HAD) scale, and clinical improvement. Analysis was by intention to treat. FINDINGS: The education was well received by participants, 80% of whom thought it would change their management of patients with depression. 21409 patients were screened, of whom 4192 were classified as depressed by the HAD scale. The sensitivity of physicians to depressive symptoms was 39% in the intervention group and 36% in the control group after education (odds ratio 1.2 [95% CI 0.88-1.61]). The outcome of depressed patients as a whole at 6 weeks or 6 months after the assessment did not significantly improve. INTERPRETATION: Although well received, this in-practice programme, which was designed to convey the current consensus on best practice for the care of depression, did not deliver improvements in recognition of or recovery from depression.

Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic↗
PubMed2000

Diabetes care: the effectiveness of systems for routine surveillance for people with diabetes.

BACKGROUND: There is wide variation in the extent of general practice involvement in diabetes care. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of involving primary care professionals in the routine review and surveillance for complications of people with established diabetes mellitus compared with secondary care specialist follow up. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched the Cochrane Diabetes Group specialised register, The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE (January 1966 to December 1996), EMBASE (to December 1996), Cinahl (to December 1996), National Research Register (to December 1996), PsycLIT (to December 1996), HealthSTAR (to December 1996), CRIB (to December 1996), Dissertation Abstracts (to December 1996), and reference lists of articles. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised trials in which people with diabetes were allocated to a system of review and surveillance for complications by primary care professionals. Outcomes included mortality, metabolic control, cardiovascular risk factors, quality of life, functional status, satisfaction, hospital admissions, costs, completeness of screening, and development of complications. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: The reviewer assessed trial quality and extracted data. Analysis was on an intention to treat basis. General practice care was categorised into routine or prompted care and a stratified analysis undertaken. MAIN RESULTS: Five trials involving 1058 people were included. Results were heterogeneous between trials. In those schemes featuring more intensive support through a prompting system for general practitioners and patients, there was no difference in mortality between hospital and general practice care (odds ratio 1.06, 95% confidence interval 0.53 to 2.11), HbA1 tended to be lower (a weighted difference in means of -0.27%, 95% confidence interval -0.59 to 0.03) and losses to follow up were significantly lower (odds ratio 0.37, 95% confidence interval 0.22 to 0.61) in primary care. However, schemes with less well-developed support for family doctors were associated with adverse outcomes for patients. Quality of life, cardiovascular risk factors, functional status and the development of complications were infrequently assessed. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS: Unstructured care in the community is associated with poorer follow up, greater mortality and worse glycaemic control than hospital care. Computerised central recall, with prompting for patients and their family doctors, can achieve standards of care as good or better than hospital outpatient care, at least in the short term. The evidence supports provision of regular prompted recall and review of people with diabetes by willing general practitioners and demonstrates that this can be achieved, if suitable organisation is in place.

Diabetes Mellitus↗
PubMed2000

Interventions to prevent weight gain: a systematic review of psychological models and behaviour change methods.

OBJECTIVE: To identify and review published interventions aimed at the prevention of weight gain. DESIGN: A systematic review of published interventions aimed at the prevention of weight gain. METHODS: Search strategies-we searched eight databases, manually checked reference lists and contacted authors. Inclusion and exclusion criteria-studies of any design, in which participants were selected regardless of weight or age, were included. Interventions targeting a specific subgroup, multifactorial interventions, interventions aimed at weight loss, and those with an ambiguous aim were excluded. Data extraction-data were extracted on behaviours targeted for change, psychological model, behaviour change methods and modes of delivery, methodological quality, characteristics of participants, and outcomes related to body weight and self-reported diet and physical activity. Classification and validation-a taxonomy of behaviour change programmes was developed and used for classification of underlying model, behaviour change methods, and modes of delivery. The data extraction and subsequent classification were independently validated. RESULTS: Eleven publications were included, describing five distinct interventions in schools and four in the wider community. Where diet and physical activity were described, positive effects were usually obtained, but all were measured by self-report. Effects on weight were mixed but follow-up was generally short. Smaller effects on weight gain were found among low-income participants, students and smokers. Many participants in the community-based studies were overweight or obese. Study dropout was higher among thinner and lower-income subjects. CONCLUSION: Interventions to prevent weight gain exhibited various degrees of effectiveness. Definite statements about the elements of the interventions that were associated with increased effect size cannot be made as only one of the five studies that involved an RCT design reported a significant effect on weight. This intervention involved a correspondence programme and a mix of behaviour change methods including goal setting, self-monitoring and contingencies. Future interventions might be more effective if they were explicitly based on methods of behaviour change that have been shown to work in other contexts. Effective interventions would be more easily replicated if they were explicitly described. Effectiveness might be more precisely demonstrated if more objective measures of physical activity and diet were used, and if the follow-up was over a longer period. International Journal of Obesity (2000) 24, 131-143

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed2000

Can dietary assessment in general practice target patients with unhealthy diets?

Diet is important in the aetiology and management of many conditions in primary care. Although valid dietary assessment is required for both clinical work and research, no dietary assessment instruments have been validated among patients seen in primary care. A range of simple self-completion dietary assessment questionnaires and established research instruments were compared with an accepted reference standard, a seven-day weighed record, in 111 subjects assessed in a practice nurse-run treatment room. Simple self-completion tools based on food groups and portion sizes perform as well (likelihood ratios for a positive test = 2 to 3) as much more time-consuming instruments. The error in using such instruments is comparable with the error of the standard itself. There is little justification for using time-consuming dietary assessment questionnaires, since simple tools are accurate enough to be clinically useful--to allow practice nurses to target patients for counselling and waste less time on inappropriate counselling--and also useful for research.

Confidence Intervals↗
PubMed1999

Effect of antidepressant drug counselling and information leaflets on adherence to drug treatment in primary care: randomised controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate two different methods of improving adherence to antidepressant drugs. DESIGN: Factorial randomised controlled single blind trial of treatment leaflet, drug counselling, both, or treatment as usual. SETTING: Primary care in Wessex PARTICIPANTS: 250 patients starting treatment with tricyclic antidepressants. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Adherence to drug treatment (by confidential self report and electronic monitor); depressive symptoms and health status. RESULTS: 66 (63%) patients continued with drugs to 12 weeks in the counselled group compared with 42 (39%) of those who did not receiving counselling (odds ratio 2.7, 95% confidence interval 1.6 to 4.8; number needed to treat=4). Treatment leaflets had no significant effect on adherence. No differences in depressive symptoms were found between treatment groups overall, although a significant improvement was found in patients with major depressive disorder receiving drug doses of at least 75 mg (depression score 4 (SD 3.7) counselling v 5.9 (SD 5.0) no counselling, P=0.038). CONCLUSIONS: Counselling about drug treatment significantly improved adherence, but clinical benefit was seen only in patients with major depressive disorder receiving doses >/=75 mg. Further research is required to evaluate the effect of this approach in combination with appropriate targeting of treatment and advice about dosage.

Adult↗