Access to and utilisation of GP services among Burmese migrants in London: a cross-sectional descriptive study

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: An estimated 10,000 Burmese migrants are currently living in London. No studies have been conducted on their access to health services. Furthermore, most studies on migrants in the United Kingdom (UK) have been conducted at the point of service provision, carrying the risk of selection bias. Our cross-sectional study explored access to and utilisation of General Practice (GP) services by Burmese migrants residing in London. METHODS: We used a mixed-method approach: a quantitative survey using self-administered questionnaires was complemented by qualitative in-depth interviews for developing the questionnaire and triangulating the findings of the survey. Overall, 137 questionnaires were received (a response rate of 57%) and 11 in-depth interviews conducted. The main outcome variables of the study included GP registration, barriers towards registration, GP consultations, barriers towards consultations, and knowledge on entitlements to health care. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, association tests, and a multivariate analysis using logistic regression. The qualitative information was analysed using content analysis. RESULTS: The respondents were young, of roughly equal gender (51.5% female), well educated, and had a fair level of knowledge on health services in the UK. Although the GP registration rate was relatively high (80%, 109 out of 136), GP service utilisation during the last episode of illness, at 56.8% (54 out of 95), was low. The statistical analysis showed that age being younger than 35 years, lacking prior overseas experience, having an unstable immigration status, having a shorter duration of stay, and resorting to self-medication were the main barriers hindering Burmese migrants from accessing primary health care services. These findings were corroborated by the in-depth interviews. CONCLUSIONS: Our study found that having formal access to primary health care was not sufficient to ensure GP registration and health care utilisation. Some respondents faced difficulties in registering with GP practices. Many of those who have registered prefer to forego GP services in favour of self-medication, partly due to long waiting times and language barriers. To ensure that migrants enjoy the health services they need and to which they are entitled, more proactive steps are required, including those that make health services culturally responsiv

Greater London Authority (GLA) Household Survey, 2002

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.This survey was commissioned by the GLA and undertaken by Taylor Nelson Sofres. Over 8,150 interviews were achieved, sufficient for detailed data analysis at London city level and less detailed analysis at 'groups of boroughs' level. No specific report of findings has been written, because the survey is intended primarily to support policy development, including the linkages between multiple aspects of needs. The data have so far been used by a wide range of GLA policy teams, government research analysts, and academics. The survey has also formed the basis for follow-up interview surveys (based on the 75%+ of respondents who gave permission at the end of the main interview), on topics such as access to e-governance.Main Topics:The survey covered a wide range of policy areas in moderate detail – household and personal characteristics (including income and savings), employment, transport, crime, health, disability, housing needs, moving intentions and history, use of the internet and access to standard lifestyle commodities.<br

DMAG briefings 2003

Contents: Briefings 1-13 (no. 9 missing) for the year 2003. Title fron CD-ROM label. In PDF format. System requirements: IBM compatible PCAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:3605. 701085V(2003/1-2003/13) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

DMAG briefings 2002

Contents: Briefings 1-12 for the year 2002. Title fron CD-ROM label. In PDF format. System requirements: IBM compatible PCAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:3605. 701085V(2002/1-2002/12) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Disabled people and the labour market An analysis of the Labour Force Survey for London 2001/02

Title from coverAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:3605. 701085(2003/1) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Trade union membership in London An analysis of Labour Force Survey data (Autumn 2001)

Title from coverAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:3605. 701085(2003/18) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Public sector employment in London An analysis of Labour Force Survey data 2001/02

Title from coverAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:3605. 701085(2003/17) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Exome-wide study of ankylosing spondylitis demonstrates additional shared genetic background with inflammatory bowel disease

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a common chronic immune-mediated arthropathy affecting primarily the spine and pelvis. The condition is strongly associated with HLA-B*27 as well as other human leukocyte antigen variants and at least 47 individual non-MHC-associated variants. However, substantial additional heritability remains as yet unexplained. To identify further genetic variants associated with the disease, we undertook an association study of AS in 5,040 patients and 21,133 healthy controls using the Illumina Exomechip microarray. A novel association achieving genome-wide significance was noted at CDKAL1. Suggestive associations were demonstrated with common variants in FAM118A, C7orf72 and FAM114A1 and with a low-frequency variant in PNPLA1. Two of the variants have been previously associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD; CDKAL1 and C7orf72). These findings further increase the evidence for the marked similarity of genetic risk factors for IBD and AS, consistent with the two diseases having similar aetiopathogenesis

Choice set imputation in atomistic spatial choice models

Constructing the universal choice set in spatial choice models developed at the level of elemental alternatives (atomistic models) is challenging because disaggregate data on the attributes of nonchosen alternatives are often not available. Even when the disaggregate data on nonchosen alternatives are available, matching two data sources will inevitably be error prone given that they might be collected at different times and they might have different coding for categorical variables. An important practical question in the estimation of such atomistic models, therefore, is how to construct the universal choice set in the absence of disaggregate data on the attributes of the nonchosen alternatives. This paper presents a novel approach for spatial imputation of attributes of nonchosen alternatives for estimation and application of atomistic spatial choice models in the absence of disaggregate data. The proposed approach uses the iterative proportional fitting algorithm to impute the attributes of nonchosen alternatives from aggregated data on elemental alternatives. The proposed method is validated with a Monte Carlo experiment and applied to real data in the London residential location choice context