Trend analysis of socioeconomic differentials in deaths from injury in childhood in Scotland, 1981-95.

Socioeconomic category influenced the use of the Glasgow Emergency Medical Service, with increased contact rates by children and adults from deprived areas. For elderly people, the highest contact rate was among the most affluent. While the effect of affluence on raising expectations and service use has been reported, this association has not previously been linked to age. 5 After contacting the emergency service, adults and elderly people from deprived areas were most likely to receive a home visit. The reasons for this are unclear and require further investigation. The lack of association between socioeconomic category and centre visit rates may be attributable to the provision of patient transport for anyone asked to attend a centre: those from deprived areas were far more likely to use the service. The cost of this service for 1998-9 will be around £240 000, yet may still be cheaper than taxi fares or home visits. While this requires economic evaluation, the evidence suggests that a free and accessible patient transport service may contribute to equity of access to out of hours primary care across the socioeconomic spectrum. Unit is supported by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Office Department of Health, but the views expressed in this paper are those of the authors alone. Contributors: COD contributed to the conception and design of the study, collection and analyses of the data, and coordinated writing of the paper; she will act as guarantor for the paper. AMcC performed statistical analyses and contributed to writing the paper. KM, ND, and PW contributed to the conception and design of the study, collection of the data, and to writing the paper. SJR contributed to the conception and design of the study, collection and analyses of the data, and to writing the paper. Funding: Glasgow Emergency Medical Service contributed towards data entry costs. Relation of out of hours activity by general practice and accident and emergency services with deprivation in Nottingham: longitudinal survey. Out of hours workload of a suburban general practice: deprivation or expectation. Injuries are a leading cause of death and disability among children in the United Kingdom, costing an estimated £200 million annually in direct costs to the NHS. 1 Recent research from England and Wales suggests that death rates from injury and poisoning have fallen in both sexes and all social classes. 2 The decline in those of lower social class has been much smaller, …