By Colin Kenny, GP, Dromore
In 2003 the UK government made reducing health inequality a key priority of national health policy. Here, researchers assessed neighbourhoods of greater and lesser deprivation, annually, for the following outcomes: HbA1c control in people with diabetes; emergency hospitalisation for diabetes; and mortality from diabetes that could have been avoided through optimal-quality healthcare.
In diabetes, mortality declined faster, but emergency hospitalisations grew faster, in more deprived neighbourhoods compared with less deprived ones. Unequal growth in emergency hospitalisations for diabetes is likely to be partly due to increased diabetes prevalence and life expectancy, but it may also be due to overuse of glycaemic control medication.
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