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Demographic and health profiles of people with severe mental illness in general practice in Australia: a cross-sectional study.
- Source :
- Australian Journal of Primary Health; 2022, Vol. 28 Issue 5, p408-416, 9p
- Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- Background: People with severe mental illness have a higher rate of premature death than the general population, largely due to primary care preventable diseases. There has been little research on the health profile of this population attending Australian general practices. Methods: In this nationwide cross-sectional study, MedicineInsight data for adult patients regularly attending general practices in 2018 were analysed to estimate the prevalence of schizophrenia or bipolar disorders (SBD) and investigate the health profile of people with SBD compared with other patients. Multilevel models clustered by practice (n = 565) and patient, and practice characteristics were created. Results: The prevalence of recorded SBD was 1.91% (95% CI = 1.88%–1.94%) among the 618 849 patients included. Patients with recorded SBD were more likely than other patients to have records of health risk factors, particularly smoking (aOR = 3.8, 95% CI = 3.6–3.9) and substance use (aOR = 5.9, 95% CI = 5.6–6.3), and higher probabilities of comorbidities including cardiovascular diseases (aOR = 1.3, 95% CI = 1.2–1.4), cancer (aOR = 1.1, 95% CI = 1.0–1.2), diabetes mellitus type 2 (aOR = 2.2, 95% CI = 2.0–2.3), chronic kidney diseases (aOR = 1.7, 95% CI = 1.5–2.0), chronic liver diseases (aOR = 3.3, 95% CI = 2.6–4.0) and chronic respiratory diseases (aOR = 1.7, 95% CI = 1.7–1.8). Conclusions: The higher prevalence of health risk factors and comorbidities among patients with recorded SBD underscores the need for proactive health risk monitoring and preventive care to address this health inequity. People with severe mental illness die about 20 years earlier than those in the general population, mostly due to preventable diseases. Data on those who attend general practice in Australia are lacking. This study describes higher rates of socioeconomic disadvantage, risk factors such as smoking and chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus type 2 relative to other patients. The results add further weight to the call for more proactive preventive care for people with severe mental illness to address this health inequity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- COMORBIDITY
TUMOR risk factors
SUBSTANCE abuse risk factors
DIABETES risk factors
PSYCHIATRIC epidemiology
RESPIRATORY disease risk factors
CARDIOVASCULAR diseases risk factors
CHRONIC kidney failure
CONFIDENCE intervals
SCIENTIFIC observation
FAMILY medicine
CROSS-sectional method
SCHIZOPHRENIA
HEALTH status indicators
LIVER diseases
DISEASE prevalence
DESCRIPTIVE statistics
DEMOGRAPHY
SMOKING
ODDS ratio
SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC factors
DATA analysis software
BIPOLAR disorder
DISEASE risk factors
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14487527
- Volume :
- 28
- Issue :
- 5
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Australian Journal of Primary Health
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 159597810
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1071/PY21240