Deprivation and death

People who live in deprived areas are more likely to die in hospital than those living in affluent areas, a report from the National End of Life Intelligence Care Network (NEoLCIN) shows. As other research has demonstrated recently, numbers of people dying at home have continued to rise. And surveys continue to report a preference for dying at home. Authors of the NEoLCIN report stress that the variation is not entirely connected with cause of death or progression of illness: access to care is also important. The report also considers variations in age and cause of death, demonstrating that people in the most deprived quintile of the population are more likely to die before the age of 65 and from respiratory illness or smoking related cancers.

It's your age

Implementation of those sections of the Equality Act 2010 that ban age discrimination in provision of services has been delayed. This aspect of the Act, which covers health services amongst others, was due to come into force on 1 April 2012, but will now take effect in October this year at the earliest. Meanwhile a report from DH on the impact of patient age on decision-making in oncology warns that "clinicians may over rely on chronological age" rather than pay attention to other factors, such as frailty or co-morbidities. A Europe-wide study on successful ageing notes that health in later life may have a strong connection with socioeconomic conditions in childhood.

No smoke

The good news (picked up by the media) is that smoke free legislation seems to have impacted positively on pregnancy complications. A new study documents the fall in numbers of pre-term deliveries and small for gestational age babies in Scotland since the smoking ban. Women and Health includes a systematic review of smoking cessation interventions that target women. A couple of studies on the relationship between smoking and socioeconomic status consider the importance of the disadvantaged smoker and the efficacy of interventions to reduce smoking-related inequalities.

On the map

Credit reference company Experian maps UK deprivation by local authority area, looking at risk of poverty, "financial exclusion" and long term unemployment as well as current conditions.

Incredible or grumpy?

The Department for Education (DfE) has published interim results from its trials of two parenting interventions, the Incredible Years and Supporting Parents with Kids (SPOKES) as part of the Helping Children Achieve study. There is also a paper on what the study has found about how parenting style influences child anti-social behaviour. Another DfE study, the High Need Families project, reports on developing and implementing a new parenting programme, the Helping Families programme, designed for families where there are children with severe and persistent conduct problems. A recent issue of Pulse includes rather more anecdotal evidence of outcomes from a parent and toddler group, beautifully named "grumpy mums". Community Practitioner includes an evaluation of the Strengthening Families programme, a family intervention aimed at improving school engagement and academic success in children aged 10-14.

Risky business

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation publishes a review on the perception and management of risk amongst users of adult social care services. This updates the review of research done for DH published in 2007 by the Social Policy Research Unit. There's a focus on the functioning of recent measures to mitigate risk, such as the POVA list and CRB checks, although thus far evidence for their effectiveness is limited. The report also notes that there is still little research on the experience of Black and Minority Ethnic communities as regards adult social care. A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies on the prevalence and risk of violence against adults with disabilities concludes that although it's clear that this group is at increased risk of violence, the quality of evidence is patchy. An article in the British Journal of Learning Disabilities evaluates an intervention to increase uptake of eye tests (offered as part of annual health checks) by people with learning disabilities.

Access all areas?

A round-up of studies that take a look at inequalities of access in a range of healthcare contexts:
A brief article in Public Health considers the effect of distance on the most socially deprived communities access to dental care in North East England. Access to and use of home healthcare services are found not to be affected by socio-economic status in a scoping review. There's a qualitative study of women's experience of antenatal care in the North West of England, particularly focusing on vulnerable groups. Finally, a study in Social Science and Medicine examines the role of education and income in socioeconomic inequalities in waiting times for elective surgery.