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Background: This scoping survey is a preliminary part of the Scottish Care of Older People (SCoOP) audit programme, which aims to assess specialist service provision for older people with frailty in Scotland, and provide benchmarking data for improving services., Methods: The survey was distributed to nominated consultant geriatricians based in 12 of the 14 Scottish health boards who completed data to the 'best of their knowledge'. Data collected were: consultant and specialty doctor level workforce; days of frailty unit operation; multidisciplinary team discussion frequency; and, physiotherapy and occupational therapy availability. Consultant cover was correlated with population data, and scores for service components used to derive separate acute and community service provision scores., Results: Consultant geriatrician availability varies widely across Scottish health boards with a median of 1.45 [range: 0.54-2.40; interquartile range (IQR): 0.71-2.28] full-time equivalent consultant geriatricians per 10,000 people ≥65 years. Variation was also present in the service provision scores [score range 0 (none) to 1.0 (very good)]: for acute services, the median national service provision score was 0.81 (range: 0.50-0.89; IQR: 0.75-0.85) and for community services 0.60 (range: 0.48-0.82; IQR: 0.52-0.65)., Conclusions: This report clearly demonstrates mismatch between workforce and services in both acute and community settings in the context of the population size. Future surveys will build on this preliminary information to audit service provision for older people at an individual hospital level., Competing Interests: No conflict of interests declared

Background: Adults living in long-term care are a significant and complex population who are under-represented in research using traditional methodologies., Methods: The aim of this study was to provide the first description of the adult care home population and their homes, using routinely collected data. A retrospective descriptive analysis was performed using the Scottish Care Home Census (SCHC) between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2016., Results: Data are from 1,299 care home services (79.3-89.7% completeness), including 34,399-39,311 residents per year across all regions of Scotland. A total of 68% of residents are female, with median age 84 years. 27% fund their own care. Over 85% of self-funded residents receive free personal care allowance. Around 60% require care from a registered nurse and 49% have a formal diagnosis of dementia. The majority of admissions come from hospital (46%). Between 13 and 17% of residents die annually, with a median time to death of 596-653 days., Conclusions: This study provides the most comprehensive descriptive data of UK care home residents available. There is scope to enhance the information available through linkage to other routine sources., Competing Interests: EL and JR are employed as Statisticians in the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Analysis Division, which is the data controller for the Scottish Care Home Census. JKB is supported by an NHS Education Scotland Scottish Clinical Research Excellence Development Scheme (SCREDS) clinical lectureship. The funders played no part in the design, conduct or analyses of the research. Funding for the associated data linkage project was provided through the Scottish Informatics and Linkage Collaboration.

Historians have long used maternity records to understand the evolution of maternity services. More recently, epidemiologists have become interested in obstetric hospital records as a source of data (e.g. birth weight, social class), to study the influence of early life on future health and disease: life course epidemiology. Edinburgh and Aberdeen are unusual in holding detailed records from several maternity institutions. The records of 1936 are of particular interest because all children born in this year and at school in Scotland at age 11 sat a cognitive ability test, the Scottish Mental Survey 1947. This study aims to describe the maternity services in Edinburgh and Aberdeen in 1936, between the First and Second World Wars. Understanding the richness of data in birth records, the manner in which they were recorded, and the context of the institutions in their community is essential for interpreting life course epidemiology studies.