How effective are expert patient (lay led) education programmes for chronic disease?

doi:10.1136/bmj.39227.698785.47

BMJ 2007;334:1254-1256 (16 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.39227.698785.47

Analysis

How effective are expert patient (lay led) education programmes for chronic disease?

Chris Griffiths, professor of primary care, Gill Foster, senior research fellow, Jean Ramsay, senior research fellow, Sandra Eldridge, reader in statistics, Stephanie Taylor, senior clinical lecturer in health services research

Centre for Health Sciences, Barts and The London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, London E1 2AT

Correspondence to: C Griffiths c.j.griffiths@qmul.ac.uk

Considerable hyperbole has surrounded the UK expert patientprogramme, and it has received considerable funding—butwill its impact meet expectations?

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

Chronic conditions now account for 60% of deaths worldwide andare imposing an increasing burden on society and health services.¹Self management programmes are commonly used to help patientslearn the skills to manage their own conditions better.² TheNHS in the United Kingdom, and countries in Europe (especiallyScandinavia), Australasia, and North America have chosen specificallyto use courses tutored by trained lay leaders, rather than healthprofessionals such as nurses.³ Considerable resources have beenallocated to support and run such programmes. A major attractionfor healthcare planners has been the expectation that such courseswill reduce use of health care and will deliver long term costsavings.⁴ More debate about the impact of lay led, self managementprogrammes is needed. This article opens up this debate andexamines the evidence that "expert patients" consume fewer healthcareresources, with particular reference to data from trials inthe UK.

Two . . . [Full text of this article]

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