By Adam Legge
Rates of influenza immunisation and GP supply are both associated with admission rates for COPD, according to UK research.
Researchers from Imperial College London looked at admission rates for COPD across all English PCTs and compared them against practice statistics from over 8,000 GP practices.
Some factors strongly associated with admission rates were unsurprising such as smoking prevalence – accounting for 59% of the variation in admission rates and deprivation - at 51%.
But although overall clinical QOF scores only accounted for a non-significant 2.1% of the variation, influenza vaccination accounted for 6.6% of the variation.
GP supply - the number of GPs per 100,000 of the population - accounted for 14.4% of the variation.
Study lead Dr Michael Soljak, honorary clinical senior lecturer in the school of public health at Imperial College London said: ‘Hospital admissions for COPD were strongly associated with deprivation scores and smoking prevalence.
‘This relationship has been documented previously – but primary care supply less often. This highlights the need for adequate primary care provision in deprived areas.'
Thorax, online 12 November.
Influenza vaccination and GP supply influence COPD admissions
