Family practice
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Using an SMS to improve bowel cancer screening: the acceptability and feasibility of a multifaceted intervention.
The Australian National Bowel Cancer Screening Program sends an immunochemical faecal occult blood test to Australians aged 50-74 years to screen for bowel cancer, but uptake is low (40.9%). The SMARTscreen trial demonstrated that sending a short messaging services (SMS) prompt from the participant's general practitioner (GP) increased the proportion of kit returns by 16.5%. This research aimed to determine the acceptability and feasibility of implementing SMARTscreen. ⋯ The SMS-based intervention was widely accepted by GP staff and participants. Future research should test the SMS with and without the weblink, and send the SMS at a more convenient time of the day/week.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
'It's what we should be doing anyway': using financial incentives to promote relational continuity in Australian General Practice-a nested case study analysis.
Relational continuity is a fundamental component of primary care. The 'Quality in General Practice Trial' (EQuIP-GP), was a 12-month cluster randomized trial, designed to investigate whether financial incentives can improve relational continuity in primary care. ⋯ Incentive models should be suitably flexible to accommodate diversity in patient and practice needs. Small changes can be made to existing practice routines that will improve awareness and conscientiousness of relational continuity. Further research should examine how feasible these routine changes would be in practices that do not already focus on continuity.
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Shifting tasks from General practitioners (GPs) to practice nurses (PNs) could help address the shortage of GPs in Europe. Internationally, PN-led care (PNLC) is feasible and offers similar health outcomes to usual care. However, PN-led consultations (PN-cons) or as PN-led dosage changes for permanent medication (PN-DCPM) are uncommon in German general practice offices (GPO). ⋯ Participants showed openness towards PN-cons and were more reserved towards PN-DCPM in German GPO. Further quantitative studies should assess how acceptance and rejection of PN-led care are distributed among patients, GPs, and PNs.
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The optimal control of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is defined by the innate mastery of self-management behaviours. This study is designed to condense the lived experiences of people with T2D in relation to factors 'exterior' to themselves into a universal self-management inventory (Assessment of Self-Management Questionnaire in Diabetes Mellitus-External Reality; ASQ-DM-EX). ⋯ The ASQ-DM-EX is a novel and holistic inventory that broadens the scope of diabetes assessment absent from contemporary self-management tools.
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Observational Study
Recent life events and adverse childhood experiences in predicting antenatal depression and anxiety: cross-sectional study.
Antenatal depression and anxiety are associated with preterm labour, low birth weight, and postpartum depression, and can impact the emotional and mental development of the child. Both adverse childhood experiences and recent stressful events are linked to negative health outcomes. However, certain events may be more impactful than others. ⋯ Recent stressful life events have a stronger association with postnatal mental health than adverse childhood events, implying that it might be useful for clinicians providing routine antenatal care to gather information on recent stressors.