The impact of multimorbidity across the cancer care continuum.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Examining the impact of multimorbidity across the cancer care continuum using SPiRE data: a feasibility study
IRAS ID
193552
Contact name
Christine Campbell
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Scotland’s cancer survival rates are amongst the worst in Europe. Reasons for this are thought to include the influence of multimorbidity (the presence of two or more long-term conditions), which has the potential to impact healthcare; from screening participation, recognition of possible signs and symptoms of cancer, suitability and response to treatment, and survival. In Scotland most people aged 65 and older are multimorbid and evidence shows there are high levels of multimorbidity in European cancer populations. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of multimorbidity on cancer diagnostic pathways, treatments and survival in Scotland, and to help establish the utility of a new Primary Care dataset: the Scottish Primary Care Information Resource (SPIRE) within this framework.
An observational cohort study will be carried out using electronic record linkage. Patient cohorts diagnosed with colorectal or lung cancer during a five year period will be identified through the Scottish Cancer Registry and linked to routine health datasets using a unique Community Health Index (CHI) number. Two established proxy measures of multimorbidity will be explored using 1) SPIRE and 2) Prescribing Information Scotland (PIS) datasets.
Analyses will explore associations between the presence and degree of multimorbidity and stage at diagnosis, screening participation (colorectal cancer only), type of treatment and survival at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months. All analyses will be adjusted for age, gender, deprivation and general practice and, where appropriate, stage at diagnosis and treatment type.
The study findings (restricted to colorectal and lung cancer) will offer a prelude to future large-scale data-linkage studies examining the impact of multimorbidity across the cancer continuum. This study will provide important information and understanding of linking a new primary care data resource (SPIRE) to routinely collected medical records in Scotland for future primary care research.REC name
East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EM/0150
Date of REC Opinion
21 Apr 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion