Accurate deprivation scores are needed

doi:10.1136/bmj.a2926

Published 10 December 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2926
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2926

Letters

QOFing whine

Accurate deprivation scores are needed

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Linking the location of a general practice building to a deprivationscore is not ideal.¹ As Ashworth and colleagues point out, wefound in our study in Rotherham that deprivation scores basedon the location of the practice building were a valid proxyfor the "true" practice population deprivation score, but onlyin the sense that there was a high correlation between them.²

However, using the location of the practice building we underestimatedthe association between deprivation and mortality that we foundusing a score based on postcode data from the whole practicepopulation. McLean et al showed a similar underestimation ina much larger study of Scottish practices.³

The negative association between deprivation and blood pressuremonitoring in English general practice may be greater than Ashworthand colleagues were able to show. Thus we should be cautiousbefore we conclude that inequalities in blood pressure monitoringand control in . . . [Full text of this article]

Mark Strong, MRC fellow¹

¹ ScHARR, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4DA

m.strong@sheffield.ac.uk

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Article

Effect of social deprivation on blood pressure monitoring and control in England: a survey of data from the quality and outcomes framework: Mark Ashworth, Jibby Medina, and Myfanwy Morgan
BMJ 2008 337: a2030. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]