RPS Conference 2010, Abstracts 2010 - Royal Pharmaceutical Society

62
Deprivation status and utilization of a non-NHS community pharmacy based
cardiovascular risk assessment service
Salah Waheedi 1 , Dai N John 1 , Marc Donovan 3 , Roger Walker 1,2
1 Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom, 2 Public Health Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom,
3 Boots, Wales, United Kingdom
Focal Points
• A retrospective analysis of clients who accessed a non-NHS CVD risk assessment service
was undertaken to identify their demographic and socio-economic characteristics.
• Of the 124 service users there were 33 (27%) males, 117 (94%) Caucasians, 43 (35%) from
the least deprived areas and 26 (21%) from the most deprived areas.
• There was no significant difference between the proportions of individuals from the least and
most deprived areas, referred to their GP because of CVD risk
• Different strategies for service delivery and publicity may be required to attract those who are
difficult to engage, such as males and minority ethnic groups.
Introduction
Community pharmacy has an important role in helping tackle health inequalities. 1 A number of
activities have been identified which may contribute to this agenda including the provision of
screening services, particularly if they can reach out to the more deprived sectors of society or
individuals who are more difficult to engage in healthcare. 2 Recent work has indicated that if a
cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment service is provided free of charge, recruitment
across all socio-economic groups can be achieved. 3 Whether a service that requires customer
payment will attract such a broad range of individuals is unknown. The present study was
undertaken to explore this.
Method
A walk-in CVD risk assessment service provided by a large, city centre Boots pharmacy with a
catchment area from across South Wales and beyond was evaluated. Individuals aged 40 to 74
years were eligible and charged £10 to access the service. Data were collected for the period
January 2008 to September 2009 and included demographic characteristics, lifestyle (smoking,
alcohol and exercise), body mass index, waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, blood
glucose, total cholesterol and high density lipoprotein. Advice and referral, if appropriate, was
offered. Residential postcodes for individuals were allocated to one of five deprivation quintiles
(Q1 = least deprived; Q5 = most deprived) using the Townsend Index. 4
Results
A total of 132 adults had their CVD risk assessed and 124 (94%) could be allocated a
deprivation quintile. Of the 124 service users there were 33 (27%) males, 117 (94%)
Caucasians, 43 (35%) from Q1 and 26 (21%) from Q5. Of the others, Q2, Q3 and Q4 accounted
for 13 (11%), 23 (19%) and 19 (15%) respectively. There were no significant differences in
demographic characteristics, lifestyle or test results between Q1 and Q5 except the mean (±
standard deviation) age for Q1 was higher (63 years ±7.1 v 56.9 years ±7.9, p = 0.001 Student’s
unpaired t-test) and the proportion of smokers in Q5 was higher (p = 0.026, Fisher's exact test).
Four of 43 (9%) individuals from Q1 and 5/26 (19%) from Q5 were referred to their GP because