Summary Background There are concerns that the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK might have worsened physical and mental health, and reduced use of health services. However, the scale of the problem is unquantified, impeding development of effective mitigations. We aimed to ascertain what has happened to general practice contacts for acute physical and mental health outcomes during the pandemic. Methods Using de-identified electronic health records from the Clinical Research Practice Datalink (CPRD) Aurum (covering 13% of the UK population), between 2017 and 2020, we calculated weekly primary care contacts for selected acute physical and mental health conditions: anxiety, depression, self-harm (fatal and non-fatal), severe mental illness, eating disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, acute alcohol-related events, asthma exacerbation, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation, acute cardiovascular events (cerebrovascular accident, heart failure, myocardial infarction, transient ischaemic attacks, unstable angina, and venous thromboembolism), and diabetic emergency. Primary care contacts included remote and face-to-face consultations, diagnoses from hospital discharge letters, and secondary care referrals, and conditions were identified through primary care records for diagnoses, symptoms, and prescribing. Our overall study population included individuals aged 11 years or older who had at least 1 year of registration with practices contributing to CPRD Aurum in the specified period, but denominator populations varied depending on the condition being analysed. We used an interrupted time-series analysis to formally quantify changes in conditions after the introduction of population-wide restrictions (defined as March 29, 2020) compared with the period before their introduction (defined as Jan 1, 2017 to March 7, 2020), with data excluded for an adjustment-to-restrictions period (March 8–28). Findings The overall population included 9 863 903 individuals on Jan 1, 2017, and increased to 10 226 939 by Jan 1, 2020. Primary care contacts for almost all conditions dropped considerably after the introduction of population-wide restrictions. The largest reductions were observed for contacts for diabetic emergencies (odds ratio 0·35 [95% CI 0·25–0·50]), depression (0·53 [0·52–0·53]), and self-harm (0·56 [0·54–0·58]). In the interrupted time-series analysis, with the exception of acute alcohol-related events (0·98 [0·89–1·10]), there was evidence of a reduction in contacts for all conditions (anxiety 0·67 [0·66–0·67], eating disorders 0·62 [0·59–0·66], obsessive-compulsive disorder [0·69 [0·64–0·74]], self-harm 0·56 [0·54–0·58], severe mental illness 0·80 [0·78–0·83], stroke 0·59 [0·56–0·62], transient ischaemic attack 0·63 [0·58–0·67], heart failure 0·62 [0·60–0·64], myocardial infarction 0·72 [0·68–0·77], unstable angina 0·72 [0·60–0·87], venous thromboembolism 0·94 [0·90–0·99], and asthma exacerbation 0·88 [0·86–0·...

BackgroundLaboratory testing is an integral part of day-to-day primary care practice, with approximately 30 % of patient encounters resulting in a request. However, research suggests that a large proportion of requests does not benefit patient care and is avoidable. The aim of this systematic review was to comprehensively search the literature for studies evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to improve primary care physician use of laboratory tests.MethodsA search of PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase and Scopus (from inception to 09/02/14) was conducted. The following study designs were considered: systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials (RCTs), controlled clinical trials (CCTs), controlled before and after studies (CBAs) and interrupted time series analysis (ITSs). Studies were quality appraised using a modified version of the Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) checklist. The population of interest was primary care physicians. Interventions were considered if they aimed to improve laboratory testing in primary care. The outcome of interest was a volume of laboratory tests.ResultsIn total, 6,166 titles and abstracts were reviewed, followed by 87 full texts. Of these, 11 papers were eligible for inclusion in the systematic review. This included four RCTs, six CBAs and one ITS study. The types of interventions examined included education, feedback, guidelines, education with feedback, feedback with guidelines and changing order forms. The quality of included studies varied with seven studies deemed to have a low risk of bias, three with unclear risk of bias and one with high risk of bias. All but one study found significant reductions in the volume of tests following the intervention, with effect sizes ranging from 1.2 to 60 %. Due to heterogeneity, meta-analysis was not performed.ConclusionsInterventions such as educational strategies, feedback and changing test order forms may improve the efficient use of laboratory tests in primary care; however, the level of evidence is quite low and the quality is poor. The reproducibility of findings from different laboratories is also difficult to ascertain from the literature. Some standardisation of both interventions and outcome measures is required to enable formal meta-analysis.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13012-015-0356-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The prevalence of smoking in Indonesia is one of the highest in the world. Since 2007, some tobacco control policies have been implemented by the Indonesian government. However, evidence on the effectiveness of such policies at reducing tobacco use in Indonesia is scarcely available. Using both cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of individual and household data from two waves of the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS), this study explored changes in smoking patterns among Indonesian adults between 2007 and 2014 controlling for sociodemographic factors. Overall, there was no statistically significant change in the prevalence of smoking between 2007 and 2014. However, cigarettes became more affordable. Smokers in 2014 consumed more cigarettes (β: 0.95; 0.73, 1.17) and spent more money on cigarettes (β: IDR 2,775; IDR 1,124, IDR 4,426) compared to those in 2007. Males, individuals <55 years old and those with lower levels of education had a higher likelihood of being smokers in 2014. Respondents with lower education levels and those under 26 years of age had higher odds of initiating smoking during the study period. Similarly, smoking cessation between 2007 and 2014 was more likely among respondents with higher levels of education and aged above 40 years. In conclusion, the implementation of tobacco control measures does not appear to have had a positive impact on smoking behaviours among adults in Indonesia between 2007 and 2014. Instead, cigarette consumption increased differentially across socio-demographic groups. Hence, tailored tobacco control interventions targeting the most socially disadvantaged population may be necessary in Indonesia.

Background: Globally around 50 million people have dementia. Risk factors for dementia such as hypertension and diabetes are more common in Black, Asian, and other ethnic minorities. There are also marked ethnic inequalities in care seeking, likelihood of diagnosis, and uptake of treatments for dementia. Nevertheless, ethnic differences in dementia incidence and prevalence remain under-explored. Objective: To examine published peer-reviewed observational studies comparing age-specific or age-adjusted incidence or prevalence rates of dementia between at least two ethnic groups. Methods: We searched seven databases on 1 September 2019 using search terms for ethnicity, dementia, and incidence or prevalence. We included population-based studies comparing incidence or prevalence of dementia after accounting for age of at least two ethnic groups in adults aged 18 or more. Meta-analysis was conducted for eligible ethnic comparisons. Results: We included 12 cohort studies and seven cross-sectional studies. Thirteen were from the US, and two studies each from the UK, Singapore, and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. The pooled risk ratio for dementia incidence obtained from four studies comparing Black and White ethnic groups was 1.33 (95% CI 1.07–1.65; I-squared = 58.0%). The pooled risk ratio for dementia incidence comparing the Asian and White ethnic groups was 0.86 (95% CI 0.728–1.01; I-squared = 43.9%). There was no difference in the incidence of dementia for Latino ethnic group compared to the White ethnic group. Conclusion: Evidence to date suggest there are ethnic differences in risk of dementia. Better understanding of the drivers of these differences may inform efforts to prevent or treat dementia.

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate the association between oral anticoagulant type (direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) vs vitamin K antagonists (VKAs)) and incident dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) among patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation (AF).MethodsUsing linked electronic health record (EHR) data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink in the UK, we conducted a historical cohort study among first-time oral anticoagulant users with incident non-valvular AF diagnosed from 2012 to 2018. We compared the incidence of (1) clinically coded dementia and (2) MCI between patients prescribed VKAs and DOACs using Cox proportional hazards regression models, with age as the underlying timescale, accounting for calendar time and time on treatment, sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, clinical comorbidities and medications.ResultsOf 39 200 first-time oral anticoagulant users (44.6% female, median age 76 years, IQR 68–83), 20 687 (53%) were prescribed a VKA and 18 513 (47%) a DOAC at baseline. Overall, 1258 patients (3.2%) had GP-recorded incident dementia, incidence rate 16.5 per 1000 person-years. DOAC treatment for AF was associated with a 16% reduction in dementia diagnosis compared with VKA treatment in the whole cohort (adjusted HR 0.84, 95% CI: 0.73 to 0.98) and with a 26% reduction in incident MCI (adjusted HR 0.74, 95% CI: 0.65 to 0.84). Findings were similar across various sensitivity analyses.ConclusionsIncident EHR-recorded dementia and MCI were less common among patients prescribed DOACs for new AF compared with those prescribed VKAs.