Status
Completed
Title
Dietary or weight loss advice for hypertension in diabetes in primary care
What were the objectives of the study?
The aim of this study was to find out the proportion of people with high blood pressure or diabetes who were receiving diet or weight loss advice from their doctor. We also wanted to investigate whether certain factors, such as age, weight, gender, socio-economic status or ethnicity, made some people more or less likely to receive this advice from a doctor. This is important as both these conditions can be improved through changes in diet and weight loss.
How was the research done?
We will search a medical record database of adults aged between 40-75, who are resident in England and are eligible for NHS Health Checks from April 2009 to March 2017. We will calculate how many of these adults with high blood pressure or diabetes have received diet or weight loss advice from their doctor. We will also extract information on these specific adults, including their age, weight, sex, socio-economic status and ethnicity, and see if this changed their likelihood of receiving dietary or weight loss advice.
Chief Investigator
Dr Carmen Piernas,
Lead Applicant Organisation Name
Sponsor
Oxford
Location of research
University of Oxford
Date on which research approved
01-Jul-2019
Project reference ID
OX22
Generic ethics approval reference
18/EM/0400
Are all data accessed are in anonymised form?
Yes
Brief summary of the dataset to be released (including any sensitive data)
GP data for patients aged 40-74 who are eligible for health checks from 2009-2017 and have a diagnosis or treatment for hypertension or diabetes. Data will include age, sex, ethnicity, social class, BMI, behavioural advice or support for weight loss or diet, information on diagnosis and treatment of hypertension and diabetes.
What were the main findings?
In this work, we found that only a minority of patients with hypertension or diabetes report receiving lifestyle advice or have a recording of this advice being delivered in their medical record. Whilst the proportion of patients receiving lifestyle advice for their hypertension or diabetes has increased over time, the proportion remains significantly lower than those receiving medication. Patients with hypertension who were overweight or obese were more likely to receive lifestyle advice than those of a healthy weight, whereas the opposite was true for diabetes. This study adds weight to the argument that interventions beyond guidelines are needed to improve the implementation of lifestyle modification as a treatment approach for these conditions.
Implications and Impact
This work will show how many people with high blood pressure and diabetes actually receive diet or weight loss advice from their doctor, and how this has changed over time. This may reveal that doctors are not advising enough people, or certain groups of people, to lose weight or change their diet to help manage their conditions.
Funding Source
No external funding
Public Benefit Statement
Research Team
Dr Carmen Piernas, Mr John Aaron Henry
Publications
-
Lifestyle advice for hypertension or diabetes: trend analysis from 2002 to 2017 in England
Authors: John A Henry, Susan A Jebb, Paul Aveyard, Cesar Garriga, Julia Hippisley-Cox and Carmen Piernas
Ref:
https://bjgp.org/content/early/2022/03/07/BJGP.2021.0493
Access Type
Trusted Research Environment (TRE)