Effect of social deprivation on blood pressure monitoring and control in England: a survey of data from the quality and outcomes framework

Objective To determine levels of blood pressure monitoring and control in primary care and to determine the effect of social deprivation on these levels

Number and timing of primary cleft lip and palate repair surgeries in England: whole nation study of electronic health records before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective: To quantify differences in number and timing of first primary cleft lip and palate (CLP) repair procedures during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021; 2020/2021) compared with the preceding year (1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020; 2019/2021)./ Design: National observational study of administrative hospital data./ Setting: National Health Service hospitals in England./ Study population: Children <5 years undergoing primary repair for an orofacial cleft Population Consensus and Surveys Classification of Interventions and Procedures-fourth revisions (OPCS-4) codes F031, F291)./ Main exposure: Procedure date (2020/2021 vs 2019/2020)./ Main outcomes: Numbers and timing (age in months) of first primary CLP procedures./ Results: 1716 CLP primary repair procedures were included in the analysis. In 2020/2021, 774 CLP procedures were carried out compared with 942 in 2019/2020, a reduction of 17.8% (95% CI 9.5% to 25.4%). The reduction varied over time in 2020/2021, with no surgeries at all during the first 2 months (April and May 2020). Compared with 2019/2020, first primary lip repair procedures performed in 2020/2021 were delayed by 1.6 months on average (95% CI 0.9 to 2.2 months). Delays in primary palate repairs were smaller on average but varied across the nine geographical regions./ Conclusion: There were significant reductions in the number and delays in timing of first primary CLP repair procedures in England during the first year of the pandemic, which may affect long-term outcomes

The influence of age, comorbidity and frailty on treatment with surgery and systemic therapy in older women with operable triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) in England: A population-based cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Surgery and chemotherapy use were studied among older women with early stage triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) in a population-based cohort. METHODS: Women aged ≥50 years with unilateral early (stage 1-3a) TNBC diagnosed in 2014-2017 were identified from English cancer registration data. Information on surgery and chemotherapy was from linked Hospital Episode Statistics and Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy datasets, respectively. Logistic regression was used to investigate the influences of patient age, comorbidity and frailty on uptake of surgery and chemotherapy. RESULTS: There were 7094 women with early stage TNBC. Overall rate of surgery was 94%, which only decreased among women aged ≥85 years (74%) and among the most frail. Among the 6681 women receiving surgery, 16% had neoadjuvant and 42% had adjuvant chemotherapy; the use of both decreased with age. More comorbidities and greater frailty were associated with lower rates of chemotherapy. There were differences in the uptake of chemotherapy across geographical regions and in the neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy regimens between age groups. CONCLUSION: Majority of older women with early TNBC had surgery, although some physically fit older women did not. Chemotherapy use varied by age and fitness

The impact of changing cigarette smoking habits and smoke-free legislation on orofacial cleft incidence in the United Kingdom: Evidence from two time-series studies

BACKGROUND: Both active and passive cigarette smoking have previously been associated with orofacial cleft aetiology. We aimed to analyse the impact of declining active smoking prevalence and the implementation of smoke-free legislation on the incidence of children born with a cleft lip and/or palate within the United Kingdom. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We conducted regression analysis using national administrative data in the United Kingdom between 2000–2018. The main outcome measure was orofacial cleft incidence, reported annually for England, Wales and Northern Ireland and separately for Scotland. First, we conducted an ecological study with longitudinal time-series analysis using smoking prevalence data for females over 16 years of age. Second, we used a natural experiment design with interrupted time-series analysis to assess the impact of smoke-free legislation. Over the study period, the annual incidence of orofacial cleft per 10,000 live births ranged from 14.2–16.2 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and 13.4–18.8 in Scotland. The proportion of active smokers amongst females in the United Kingdom declined by 37% during the study period. Adjusted regression analysis did not show a correlation between the proportion of active smokers and orofacial cleft incidence in either dataset, although we were unable to exclude a modest effect of the magnitude seen in individual-level observational studies. The data in England, Wales and Northern Ireland suggested an 8% reduction in orofacial cleft incidence (RR 0.92, 95%CI 0.85 to 0.99; P = 0.024) following the implementation of smoke-free legislation. In Scotland, there was weak evidence for an increase in orofacial cleft incidence following smoke-free legislation (RR 1.16, 95%CI 0.94 to 1.44; P = 0.173). CONCLUSIONS: These two ecological studies offer a novel insight into the influence of smoking in orofacial cleft aetiology, adding to the evidence base from individual-level studies. Our results suggest that smoke-free legislation may have reduced orofacial cleft incidence in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

Construction of the secondary care administrative records frailty (SCARF) index and validation on older women with operable invasive breast cancer in England and Wales:a cohort study

OBJECTIVES: Studies that use national datasets to evaluate the management of older women with breast cancer are often constrained by a lack of information on patient fitness. This study constructed a frailty index for use with secondary care administrative records and evaluated its ability to improve models of treatment patterns and overall survival in women with breast cancer. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: Women aged ≥50 years with oestrogen receptor (ER) positive early invasive breast cancer diagnosed between 2014 and 2017 in England. METHODS: The secondary care administrative records frailty (SCARF) index was based on the cumulative deficit model of frailty, using International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Injuries and Causes of Death, 10th revision codes to define a set of deficits. The index was applied to administrative records that were linked to national cancer registry datasets. The ability of the SCARF index to improve the performance of regression models to explain observed variation in the rate of surgery and overall survival was evaluated using Harrell's c-statistic and decision curve analysis. External validation was performed on a dataset of similar women diagnosed in Wales. RESULTS: The SCARF index captured 32 deficits that cover functional impairment, geriatric syndromes, problems with nutrition, cognition and mood, and medical comorbidities. In the English dataset (n=67 925), the prevalence of frailty in women aged 50-69, 70-79 and ≥80 years was 15%, 28% and 47%, respectively. Adding a frailty measure to regression models containing age, tumour characteristics and comorbidity improved their ability to: (1) discriminate between whether a woman was likely to have surgery and (2) predict overall survival. Similar results were obtained when the models were applied to the Welsh cohort (n=4 230). CONCLUSION: The SCARF index provides a simple and consistent method to identify frailty in population level data and could help describe differences in breast cancer treatments and outcomes

Mastectomy patterns among older women with early invasive breast cancer in England and Wales: A population-based cohort study.

INTRODUCTION: Older women with early invasive breast cancer (EIBC) are more likely to receive a mastectomy compared with younger women. This study assessed factors associated with receiving a mastectomy among older women with EIBC, with a particular focus on comorbidity and frailty. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Women diagnosed with EIBC (stages I-IIIa) aged ≥50 years from 2014 to 2019 in English and Welsh NHS organisations who received breast surgery were identified from cancer registration datasets linked to routine hospital data. Separate multivariable logistic regression models explored factors associated with mastectomy use, within each tumour stage (T1-T3). For each tumour stage, risk-adjusted rates of mastectomy were calculated for each NHS organisation and displayed using funnel plots. RESULTS: We included 106,952 women with EIBC: 23.4% received a mastectomy as their first breast cancer surgery. Receipt of mastectomy was more common among patients with a higher tumour stage (T1: 12.3%; T2: 37.6%; T3: 77.5%), and mastectomy use increased with age within each tumour stage category (50-59 vs 80 + years: 11.8% vs 26.3% for T1; 31.5% vs 56.9% for T2; 73.4% vs 90.3% for T3). Results from a multivariable regression model showed that more severe frailty was associated with mastectomy use for women with T1 (p = 0.002) or T2 (p = 0.003) tumours, but may not be for women with T3 tumours (p = 0.041). There was no association between comorbidity and mastectomy use after accounting for frailty (all p > 0.1). Adjusting for clinical and patient factors only slightly reduced the association between age and mastectomy use. Variation in mastectomy use between NHS organisations was greatest for women with T2 EIBC (unadjusted range: 17.7% to 68.4%). DISCUSSION: Older women with EIBC are more commonly treated with mastectomy. This could not be explained by tumour characteristics or physical fitness, raising questions about whether surgical decision-making inconsistently incorporates information on patient fitness and functional age

Concordance of cancer drug therapy information derived from routinely collected hospital admissions data and the Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT) dataset, for older women diagnosed with early invasive breast cancer in England.

BACKGROUND: Evaluating uptake of oncological treatments, and subsequent outcomes, depends on data sources containing accurate and complete information about cancer drug therapy (CDT). This study aimed to evaluate the consistency of CDT information in the Hospital Episode Statistics Admitted Patient Care (HES-APC) and Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT) datasets for early invasive breast cancer (EIBC). METHODS: The study included women (50 + years) diagnosed with EIBC in England from 2014 to 2019 who had surgery within six months of diagnosis. Concordance of CDT recorded in HES-APC (identified using OPCS codes) and SACT was evaluated at both patient-level and cycle-level. Factors associated with CDT use captured only in HES-APC were assessed using statistical models. RESULTS: The cohort contained 129,326 women with EIBC. Overall concordance between SACT and HES-APC on CDT use was 94 %. Concordance increased over the study period (91-96 %), and there was wide variation across NHS trusts (lowest decile of trusts had concordance≤77 %; highest decile≥99 %). Among women receiving CDT, 9 % (n = 2781/31693) of use was not captured in SACT; incompleteness was worst (18 %=47/259) among women aged 80 + and those diagnosed in 2014 (21%=1121/5401). OPCS codes in HES-APC were good at identifying patient-level and cycle-level use of trastuzumab or FEC chemotherapy (fluorouracil, epirubicin, cyclophosphamide), with 89 % and 93 % concordance with SACT respectively (patient-level agreement). Among cycles of solely oral CDT recorded in SACT, only 24 % were captured in HES-APC, compared to 71 % for intravenous/subcutaneous CDT. CONCLUSIONS: Combining information in HES-APC and SACT provides a more complete picture of CDT treatment in women aged 50 + receiving surgery for EIBC than using either data source alone. HES-APC may have particular value in identifying CDT use among older women, those diagnosed less recently, and in NHS trusts with low SACT data returns

School absence and achievement in children with isolated orofacial clefts.

OBJECTIVES: To examine school absence and academic achievement among 7-year-old children with isolated orofacial clefts in England. DESIGN: Analysis of educational data linked to national cleft registry and administrative hospital data. SETTING: English state schools. PATIENTS: 3523 children with isolated clefts aged 7 years between 2006 and 2014. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Annual school absence and reaching the national 'expected level' according to teacher-assessed academic achievement. RESULTS: Children with isolated clefts had higher mean annual school absence (10.5 days) than their peers in the national population (8.9 days). Total absence was higher in children with a cleft lip and palate (CLP; 11.3 days) or with a cleft palate only (CPO; 10.5 days) than in children with a cleft lip only (CLO; 9.5 days). The percentage reaching the expected academic level decreased with increasing school absence (from 77.4% (923/1192) with annual school absence ≤5 days to 43.4% (193/445) with annual school absence >20 days). However, differences in school absence did not explain that children with CPO (65.9% reaching expected level) or CLP (66.1% reaching expected level) had poorer levels of academic achievement than children with CLO (73.5% reaching expected level). Children with a cleft were twice as often recognised as having special education needs (40.5%) than their peers (21.6%). CONCLUSIONS: School absence and cleft type are both independently associated with school attainment at 7 years. Children with an isolated cleft, especially when the palate is involved, and those with high levels of school absence may benefit from increased support addressing their educational needs

Surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy for unilateral ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) in women aged over 70 years: A population based cohort study.

BACKGROUND: There is little clinical evidence to guide treatment decisions for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) in older women. This study evaluated how the management of DCIS in women aged 70 or more compared with women aged 50-69 in England and Wales. METHOD: The study identified women aged ≥50 years with new unilateral DCIS diagnosed between 2014 and 2016 from linked cancer registration and routine hospital datasets for England and Wales. Rates of surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy were examined by age, deprivation, fitness measures (comorbidity and frailty), method of presentation and tumour grade using multilevel logistic regression. RESULTS: 12,716 women were diagnosed with unilateral DCIS between 2014 and 2016, of whom 2,754 (22%) were aged ≥70 years and 74% were screen detected. High grade DCIS was common, irrespective of age and method of presentation. Fewer women aged ≥70 had surgery compared to women aged 50-69 (81% vs. 94%), which was only partly explained by poor fitness. Use of radiotherapy following breast conserving surgery was strongly associated with grade, and was received by less than 16% of all patients with low grade tumours. Over 70% of women aged 50-69 with high grade DCIS received radiotherapy, but this fell to 35% among women aged ≥80. Use of radiotherapy was not associated with patient fitness. CONCLUSION: Treatment decisions for women with DCIS varied by age at diagnosis. Lower rates of surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy in older women were only partly explained by patient fitness. Better evidence is needed to aid treatment selection for older women with DCIS

Evidence into practice: a national cohort study of NICE-recommended oncological drug therapy utilisation among women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in England.

BACKGROUND: Multiple drug treatments are approved for invasive breast cancer (IBC). We investigated uptake of NICE-recommended oncological drugs and variation by age, comorbidity burden and geographical region. METHODS: Women (aged 50+ years) diagnosed with IBC from 2014 to 2019, were identified from England Cancer Registry data and drug utilisation from Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy data. Interrupted time series analysis assessed national-level changes in drug use after publication of NICE recommendations. Regression models analysed variation in use. RESULTS: This national cohort included 168,449 women. Use of drugs recommended for first-line treatment varied, from 26.6% for CDK 4/6 inhibitors to 63.8% for HER2-targeting therapies. Utilisation of drugs with a NICE recommendation published between 2014 and 2019, increased among patients diagnosed around the time of publication, except in the case of pertuzumab for metastatic breast cancer (MBC) which was previously accessible via the Cancer Drugs Fund (though use of pertuzumab for MBC increased from 34.1% to 75.0% across the study period). Use of trastuzumab and neoadjuvant/adjuvant pertuzumab varied by geographical region. Use was low for ribociclib (2.2%), abemaciclib (2.3%) and for drugs recommended beyond the first-line setting. For all drugs, use after NICE recommendation varied by age at diagnosis and increased as stage increased. CONCLUSIONS: Use of NICE-recommended drugs for IBC in routine care is variable, with lowest use among women aged 70+ years. Improving access to effective treatments is an important step in improving outcomes