Moving beyond individual choice in policies to reduce health inequalities: the integration of dynamic with individual explanations.

Background: A strong focus on individual choice and behaviour informs interventions designed to reduce health inequalities in the UK. We review evidence for wider mechanisms from a range of disciplines, demonstrate that they are not yet impacting on programmes, and argue for their systematic inclusion in policy and research. Methods: We identified potential mechanisms relevant to health inequalities and their amelioration from different disciplines and analysed six policy documents published between 1976 and 2010 using Bacchi's 'What's the problem represented to be?' framework for policy analysis. Results: We found substantial evidence of supra-individualistic and relational mechanisms relevant to health inequalities from sociology, history, biology, neuroscience, philosophy and psychology. Policy documents sometimes expressed these mechanisms in policy rhetoric but rarely in policy recommendations, which continue to focus on individual behaviour. Discussion: Current evidence points to the potential of systematically applying broader thinking about causal mechanisms, beyond individual choice and responsibility, to the design, implementation and evaluation of policies to reduce health inequalities. We provide a set of questions designed to enable critique of policy discussions and programmes to ensure that these wider mechanisms are considered.

Perceptions of self-rated health among stroke survivors: a qualitative study in the United Kingdom.

BACKGROUND: Self-rated health predicts health outcomes independently of levels of disability or mood. Little is known about what influences the subjective health experience of stroke survivors. Our aim was to investigate stroke survivors' perceptions of self-rated health, with the intention of informing the design of interventions that may improve their subjective health experience. METHODS: We conducted semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 28 stroke survivors recruited from a stroke unit and follow-up outpatient clinic, 4-6 months after stroke, to explore what factors are perceived to be part of self-rated health in the early stages of recovery. Qualitative data were analysed using a thematic analysis approach to identify underlying themes. RESULTS: Participants' accounts show that stroke survivors' perceptions of self-rated health are multifactorial, comprising physical, psychological and social components. Views on future recovery after stroke play a role in present health experience and are shaped by psychosocial resources that are influenced by past experiences of ill-health, dispositional outlook such as degree of optimism, a sense of control and views on ageing. CONCLUSIONS: Severity of physical limitations alone does not influence perceptions of self-rated health among stroke survivors. Self-rated health in stroke survivors is a multidimensional construct shaped by changes in health status occurring after the stroke, individual characteristics and social context. Understanding the factors stroke survivors themselves associate with better health will inform the development of effective approaches to improve rehabilitation and recovery after stroke.

Changes in diet, cardiovascular risk factors and modelled cardiovascular risk following diagnosis of diabetes: 1-year results from the ADDITION-Cambridge trial cohort.

AIMS: To describe change in self-reported diet and plasma vitamin C, and to examine associations between change in diet and cardiovascular disease risk factors and modelled 10-year cardiovascular disease risk in the year following diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes. METHODS: Eight hundred and sixty-seven individuals with screen-detected diabetes underwent assessment of self-reported diet, plasma vitamin C, cardiovascular disease risk factors and modelled cardiovascular disease risk at baseline and 1 year (n = 736) in the ADDITION-Cambridge trial. Multivariable linear regression was used to quantify the association between change in diet and cardiovascular disease risk at 1 year, adjusting for change in physical activity and cardio-protective medication. RESULTS: Participants reported significant reductions in energy, fat and sodium intake, and increases in fruit, vegetable and fibre intake over 1 year. The reduction in energy was equivalent to an average-sized chocolate bar; the increase in fruit was equal to one plum per day. There was a small increase in plasma vitamin C levels. Increases in fruit intake and plasma vitamin C were associated with small reductions in anthropometric and metabolic risk factors. Increased vegetable intake was associated with an increase in BMI and waist circumference. Reductions in fat, energy and sodium intake were associated with reduction in HbA1c , waist circumference and total cholesterol/modelled cardiovascular disease risk, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Improvements in dietary behaviour in this screen-detected population were associated with small reductions in cardiovascular disease risk, independently of change in cardio-protective medication and physical activity. Dietary change may have a role to play in the reduction of cardiovascular disease risk following diagnosis of diabetes.

Changes in physical activity and modelled cardiovascular risk following diagnosis of diabetes: 1-year results from the ADDITION-Cambridge trial cohort.

AIMS: To describe change in physical activity over 1 year and associations with change in cardiovascular disease risk factors in a population with screen-detected Type 2 diabetes. METHODS: Eight hundred and sixty-seven individuals with screen-detected diabetes underwent measurement of self-reported physical activity, cardiovascular disease risk factors and modelled cardiovascular disease risk at baseline and 1 year (n = 736) in the ADDITION-Cambridge trial. Multiple linear regression was used to quantify the association between change in different physical activity domains and cardiovascular disease risk factors at 1 year. RESULTS: There was no change in self-reported physical activity over 12 months. Even relatively large changes in physical activity were associated with relatively small changes in cardiovascular disease risk factors after allowing for changes in self-reported medication and diet. For every 30 metabolic equivalent-h increase in recreational activity (equivalent to 10 h/brisk walking/week), there was an average reduction of 0.1% in HbA(1c) in men (95% CI -0.15 to -0.01, P = 0.021) and an average reduction of 2 mmHg in systolic blood pressure in women (95% CI -4.0 to -0.05, P = 0.045). CONCLUSIONS: Few associations were observed between change in different physical activity domains and cardiovascular disease risk factors in this trial cohort. Cardiovascular disease risk reduction appeared to be driven largely by factors other than changes in self-reported physical activity in the first year following diagnosis.

Predictors of anxiety and depression among people attending diabetes screening: a prospective cohort study embedded in the ADDITION (Cambridge) randomized control trial.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify factors predicting anxiety and depression among people who attend primary care-based diabetes screening. DESIGN: A prospective cohort study embedded in the ADDITION (Cambridge) randomized control trial. METHODS: Participants (N= 3,240) at risk of diabetes were identified from 10 primary care practices and invited to a stepwise screening programme as part of the ADDITION (Cambridge) trial. Main outcome measures were anxiety and depression at 12 months post-screening assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). RESULTS: Hierarchical linear regressions showed that demographic, clinical, and psychological variables collectively accounted for 52% of the variance in HADS anxiety scores and 53% of the variance in HADS depression scores 12 months after diabetes screening. Screening outcome (positive or negative for diabetes) was not related to differences in anxiety or depression at 12 months. Higher number of self-reported (diabetes) symptoms after first attendance was associated with higher anxiety and depression at 12-month follow-up, after controlling for anxiety and depression after first attendance. CONCLUSION: Participants in a diabetes screening programme showed low scores on anxiety and depression scales after first appointment and 1 year later. Diagnosis of diabetes was shown to have a limited psychological impact and may be less important than symptom perception in determining emotional outcomes after participation in diabetes screening.

Can informed choice invitations lead to inequities in intentions to make lifestyle changes among participants in a primary care diabetes screening programme? Evidence from a randomized trial.

OBJECTIVE: To test whether information about benefits and harms of screening for type 2 diabetes increases intentions to make lifestyle changes amongst attenders, predominantly among the socially advantaged and those with a strong future time orientation. STUDY DESIGN: Planned subgroup analysis of attenders for screening participating in a randomized controlled trial of an informed choice invitation vs a standard invitation to attend for type 2 diabetes screening. METHODS: Potentially eligible participants were identified from practice registers using routine data which were used to calculate risk scores for diabetes for all aged 40-69 years without known type 2 diabetes and area deprivation based on post code. In total, 1272 individuals in the top 25% risk category were randomized to receive one of two invitations to attend their practices for screening: an informed choice invitation or a standard invitation. The subsequent attenders completed self-report measures of future time orientation and deprivation immediately before undergoing a screening test. RESULTS: Individual-level deprivation demonstrated a significant moderator effect [F (4,635) = 4.32, P = 0.002]: individuals who were high in deprivation had lower intentions to engage in lifestyle change following receipt of the informed choice invitation. However, intentions were not patterned by deprivation when it was assessed at the area-level using the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2007. The hypothesized moderating effect of future time orientation on invitation type was also supported [F(14,613) = 2.46, P = 0.002): individuals low in future time orientation had markedly lower intentions to engage in lifestyle change following receipt of an informed choice invitation compared with a standard invitation for screening. CONCLUSION: Efforts to enhance informed choice where the implications of diagnosis are a requirement for lifestyle change may require that the immediate benefits are communicated, and efforts to address the apparent barriers to diabetes self-care are made, if the potential for inequity is to be avoided.

Who attends a UK diabetes screening programme? Findings from the ADDITION-Cambridge study.

AIMS: One of the factors influencing the cost-effectiveness of population screening for Type 2 diabetes may be uptake. We examined attendance and practice- and individual-level factors influencing uptake at each stage of a diabetes screening programme in general practice. METHODS: A stepwise screening programme was undertaken among 135, 825 people aged 40-69 years without known diabetes in 49 general practices in East England. The programme included a score based on routinely available data (age, sex, body mass index and prescribed medication) to identify those at high risk, who were offered random capillary blood glucose (RBG) and glycosylated haemoglobin tests. Those screening positive were offered fasting capillary blood glucose (FBG) and confirmatory oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT). RESULTS: There were 33 539 high-risk individuals invited for a RBG screening test; 24 654 (74%) attended. Ninety-four per cent attended the follow-up FBG test and 82% the diagnostic OGTT. Seventy per cent of individuals completed the screening programme. Practices with higher general practitioner staff complements and those located in more deprived areas had lower uptake for RBG and FBG tests. Male sex and a higher body mass index were associated with lower attendance for RBG testing. Older age, prescription of antihypertensive medication and a higher risk score were associated with higher attendance for FBG and RBG tests. CONCLUSIONS: High attendance rates can be achieved by targeted stepwise screening of individuals assessed as high risk by data routinely available in general practice. Different strategies may be required to increase initial attendance, ensure completion of the screening programme, and reduce the risk that screening increases health inequalities.

Does the association between self-rated health and mortality vary by social class?

Self-rated health (SRH) predicts future mortality. Individuals in different social classes with similar physical health status may have different reference levels and criteria against which they judge their health, therefore the SRH-mortality relationship may vary according to social class. We examine the relationship between SRH and mortality by occupational social class in a prospective study of 22,457 men and women aged 39-79 years, without prevalent disease, living in the general community in Norfolk, United Kingdom, recruited using general practice age-sex registers in 1993-1997 and followed up for an average of 10 years. As expected, SRH was related to subsequent mortality. The age and sex adjusted hazard ratio for mortality for those with poor compared to those with excellent SRH was 4.35 (95% confidence interval 3.38-5.59, P<0.001). The prevalence of poor or moderate SRH was higher in manual than in non-manual classes. However, SRH was similarly related to mortality in manual and non-manual classes: when non-manual classes are compared with manual classes for each category of SRH, the 95% confidence intervals for the mortality hazard ratios overlap. There was no evidence of an interaction between social class and SRH in either men or women. Thus in this population, SRH appears to predict mortality in a similar manner in non-manual and manual classes.

Self-monitoring of blood glucose changed non-insulin-treated Type 2 diabetes patients' beliefs about diabetes and self-monitoring in a randomized trial.

AIMS: To determine whether differences in beliefs about diabetes and its treatment resulted from different intensities of self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) in non-insulin treated patients with Type 2 diabetes in the Diabetes Glycaemic Education and Monitoring (DiGEM) trial. METHODS: Patients (n = 453) were randomized to usual care, less-intensive SMBG and more intensive SMBG. Beliefs about diabetes were measured with a standard questionnaire (the revised Illness Perceptions Questionnaire; IPQ-R). Changes in beliefs were analysed using analysis of covariance (ancova) with adjustment for baseline values. Mediation analyses assessed whether differences in behavioural outcomes between groups could be attributed to differences in beliefs. RESULTS: Completed questionnaires were returned by 339 patients (74.8%). Respondents were mean (+/- sd) age 65.9 +/- 10 years and with diabetes duration of 4.8 +/- 4.7 years (median 36, range 1-384 months). Concerns about the consequences of diabetes increased in both self-monitoring groups, relative to control subjects [P = 0.004; Cohen's d standardized effect size = 0.19 less intensive and d = 0.36 more intensive monitoring]. No other beliefs about diabetes differed between groups. Beliefs about the importance of self-testing increased in both self-monitoring groups relative to the usual-care group (P < 0.001; d = 0.57 less intensive and d = 0.63 more intensive monitoring). Changes in psychological well-being did not differ between groups, but control patients reported greater increases in general (P = 0.014) and specific (P < 0.001) dietary adherence than did patients in the self-monitoring groups. These outcomes were not mediated by intervention-related changes in beliefs. CONCLUSIONS: Despite changes in some beliefs about diabetes differing between groups there were no corresponding changes in self-reported health behaviours. This suggests that changes in illness beliefs resulting from SMBG do not cause changes in diabetes-related health behaviours.

How much might cardiovascular disease risk be reduced by intensive therapy in people with screen-detected diabetes?

AIMS: To assess the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk of people with screen-detected Type 2 diabetes and to estimate the risk reduction achievable through early intensive pharmacological intervention. METHODS: In ADDITION-Cambridge, diabetic patients were identified among people aged 40-69 years through a stepwise screening procedure including a risk score, random and fasting capillary blood glucose, HbA(1c) and oral glucose tolerance test. In those without prior macrovascular disease, 10-year CVD risk was computed using UK Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) and Framingham engines. The absolute risk reduction achievable and its plausible range were predicted using relative risk reductions for individual therapies from published trials and sensitivity analysis. RESULTS: Of the 867 individuals with undiagnosed diabetes, 19% had pre-existing CVD, 97% were overweight or obese, 86% had hypertension, 75% had dyslipidaemia, 20% had microalbuminuria and 18% were smokers. Of those with hypertension, 35% were not prescribed drugs and 42% were suboptimally treated. Of participants with dyslipidaemia, 68% were not prescribed medications and 22% were poorly controlled. Median 10-year CVD risk was 34.0%[interquartile range (IQR) 26.2-44.6] in men and 21.5% (IQR 15.7-28.7) in women using the UKPDS engine; 38.6% (IQR 27.8-53.0) in men and 24.6% (IQR 17.2-32.9) in women using Framingham equations. In the most conservative scenario (no additive effect of therapies), the absolute risk reduction achievable through multifactorial therapy ranged from 4.9 to 9.5% (UKPDS) and from 5.4 to 10.5% (Framingham). The corresponding ranges of numbers needed to treat were 11-20 and 10-19. CONCLUSIONS: People with screen-detected diabetes have an adverse cardiovascular risk profile, which is potentially modifiable through application of existing treatment recommendations.

The validity of dietary assessment in general practice.

OBJECTIVE: To validate a range of dietary assessment instruments in general practice. METHODS: Using a randomised block design, brief assessment instruments and more complex conventional dietary assessment tools were compared with an accepted "relative" standard--a seven day weighed dietary record. The standard was checked using biomarkers, and by performing test-retest reliability in additional subjects (n = 29). OUTCOMES: Agreement with weighed record. Percentage agreement with weighed record, rank correlation from scatter plot, rank correlation from Bland-Altman plot. Reliability of the weighed record. SETTING: Practice nurse treatment room in a single suburban general practice. SUBJECTS: Patients with risk factors for cardiovascular disease (n = 61) or age/sex stratified general population group (n = 50). RESULTS: Brief self completion dietary assessment tools based on food groups caten during a week show reasonable agreement with the relative standard. For % energy from fat and saturated fat, non-starch polysaccharide, grams of fruit and vegetables and starchy foods consumed the range of agreement with the standard was: median % difference -6% to 12%, rank correlation 0.5 to 0.6. This agreement is of a similar order to the reliability of the weighed record, as good as or better than test standard agreement for more time consuming instruments, and compares favourably with research instruments validated in other settings. Under-reporting of energy intake was common (40%) and more likely if subjects were obese (body mass idex (BMI) > or = 30 60% under-reported; BMI < 30 29%, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Under-reporting of absolute energy intake is common, particularly among obese patients. Simple self assessment tools based on food groups, designed for practice nurse dietary assessment, show acceptable agreement with a standard, and suggest such tools are sufficiently accurate for clinical work, research, and possibly population dietary monitoring.

Medically unexplained physical symptoms in primary care: a comparison of self-report screening questionnaires and clinical opinion.

This study was undertaken to assess recognition of medically unexplained physical symptoms by general practitioners (GPs), and the feasibility of using a screening procedure based on validated self-report questionnaires. GPs identified unexplained physical symptoms as the main clinical problem for 19% of attending patients. Screening instruments identified 35% of patients as having multiple unexplained physical symptoms, of whom 5% were probable cases of somatization disorder. Nine percent of attending patients reported high levels of health anxiety. Twenty percent were probable cases of mood disorder: in half of these, psychological symptoms were not documented in the casenotes. Patients with more somatic symptoms and higher health anxiety were more likely to be recognized by the GP: higher levels of mood symptoms did not predict recognition. The screening procedure used in this study shows promise and merits further investigation.

Review of the epidemiology of sudden infant death syndrome and its relationship to temperature regulation.

Infants dying suddenly and unexpectedly now account for 20% of all infant deaths in England and Wales, and the incidence shows no sign of falling. Recent work relating sudden infant death to a raised environmental temperature and a raised body temperature, implicates fever as a possible contributory cause of death; some infants may be unable to control their febrile response to infection, or to thermoregulate effectively, when well wrapped and heated. Death might then result from apnoea, occurring in a critical sleep state. These ideas have increased the interest in describing the normal practices of parents in caring for the environment of their infants in health and disease, and the effect of their behaviour on the child's temperature. Studies of these areas depend on collecting and interpreting data from young children during their day to day lives, and present a challenge of great relevance to primary care research.

'Will you help me with my research?' Gaining access to primary care settings and subjects.

This paper is concerned with the negotiation of agreement to carry out research in primary care settings. It is argued that this is a key part of any research project, and that careful handling of this process will not only improve response rates, but will also often enhance the quality of the data obtained. A number of strategies for negotiating access are proposed which have been developed and applied in primary care settings. These strategies depend on creating a sense of collective ownership of projects between researchers and participants which contributes to the successful completion of the projects and provides a positive atmosphere for further collaboration.

General practice based diabetes surveillance: the views of patients.

Forty three patients with non-insulin dependent diabetes registered at two suburban practices were interviewed at least one year after the introduction of an organized general practice based system of diabetic surveillance and the results compared with data gathered from interviews administered before the introduction of the system. Structured data from the two interviews were compared in relation to the importance which patients attached to diabetes and its medical review, patients' preference for place of future review and the health professionals from whom they wished to receive diabetes care. Patients' ratings of the performance of health professionals on various aspects of care were compared with the ratings given before the introduction of the new service. At the follow-up interviews the reasons behind patients' responses to the structured questions were explored using a qualitative method. The introduction of a general practice based diabetes service was marked by an improvement in attendance for diabetes monitoring (56% before introduction, 98% in the year following introduction). This was associated with an increase in the importance which patients attached to diabetes and its medical review. After experience of diabetes care in general practice, patients remained enthusiastic about general practice involvement and confident in their general practitioners' knowledge about diabetes management. In spite of an improvement in the patients' ratings of hospital doctors' communication skills, they continued to rate general practitioners significantly more highly in these skills (P < 0.01) and in terms of convenience and accessibility (P < 0.001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Readiness for lifestyle advice: self-assessments of coronary risk prior to screening in the British family heart study. Family Heart Study Group.

BACKGROUND: Where health professionals and patients hold similar views of a problem, health outcomes may be better. AIM: The aims of this paper were to document how attenders at primary care cardiovascular screening clinics perceived their risks of coronary heart disease prior to screening; the degree of similarity between perceived level of risk and an epidemiologically derived risk score; and the relative importance assigned to individual risk factors by subjects compared with those assigned by the risk score. METHOD: These issues were investigated in 3725 middle aged men and women who accepted an invitation to attend health screening as part of the British family heart study. RESULTS: Overall, there was a tendency for subjects to be optimistic (37%) rather than pessimistic (21%) when judging their risk of coronary heart disease. Nevertheless, there were strong significant associations between perceived risk and the levels of individual risk factors, particularly personal and family medical history and body mass index. There was also a strong association with the overall risk score though a large minority (31%) held views of their risk of coronary heart disease that were quite different from those based upon the epidemiologically derived index of risk. Respondents accorded greater importance to smoking and parental death from coronary heart disease and less importance to cholesterol level and blood pressure than did the risk score. CONCLUSION: Possible explanations for the observed disagreement are over-optimism or the relative importance given to individual risk factors. The relationships between patients' perceptions of risk and the epidemiological indices likely to be espoused by health professionals are important in understanding the difficulties in communication that might arise in offering lifestyle advice after screening for cardiovascular risk.

The psychological impact of cardiovascular screening and intervention in primary care: a problem of false reassurance? British Family Heart Study Group.

BACKGROUND: There have been many reports of the adverse psychological effects of screening. Here we discuss the results of a randomized controlled study--one of the first to address this issue. AIM: To determine the extent to which participation in a population-based intervention programme that aims to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases raises concerns about health, or undermines a belief in the ability to reduce that risk. METHOD: A randomized controlled trial involving 13 general practices in England, Wales and Scotland was conducted. Two thousand, nine hundred and eighty-four middle-aged men and women undergoing cardiovascular risk-screening and intervention, and a randomized comparison group of 3,576 men and women from the same practices, who were not offered the intervention, were compared on three outcomes: perception of current health, perceived risk of suffering a heart attack, and perceived ability to reduce the risk of suffering a heart attack. RESULTS: We found no evidence to suggest that participation in this one-year, population-based intervention programme, to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease raised concerns about health or risk of a heart attack; indeed, those in the intervention group were slightly more optimistic about their health. Alterations in perceptions of current health and the risk of suffering a heart attack were associated directly with true alterations in risk factors. A more noticeable effect on participants in this intervention programme was a reduction in their perceived ability to further reduce their risks of a heart attack. This was associated with a decrease in weight and with quitting smoking. CONCLUSION: Contemporary screening and intervention programmes in primary care, aimed at reducing risk of cardiovascular disease, do not necessarily lead to raised anxiety or concern about health. A more subtle effect of screening would appear to be one of reassurance in the face of continuing, albeit reduced, risk.

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.

The discipline and literature of general practice.

In response to a review recently carried out by the Royal College of General Practitioners, the British Journal of General Practice is soon to be issued in a new and expanded format. While continuing to develop its primary role as a leading scientific journal of record, the journal will accommodate a monthly selection of integrated news, information and features. The editorial board welcomes the opportunities provided by these changes, but wishes to emphasize the continuing importance of general practice as a scientific discipline in its own right and to reaffirm its commitment to the publication of high-quality, peer-reviewed original research papers. It is hoped that the newlook journal will have a wide appeal. But, as the first-and still the foremost-journal of general practice in the world, it will continue to be a journal of record serving both its authors and the academic community worldwide.

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.