The Posh Club - ACE - Ref: 3233151
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The Posh Club: Does participation in an arts-based community intervention influence primary care service use and health outcomes?
IRAS ID
223696
Contact name
J. M. Jones
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Queen Mary University of London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
QMREC2017/39, Queen Mary University of London Reference Number
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Research Summary
Ageing is associated with increased risks of social isolation and loneliness due to bereavement, friendship loss and declines in physical/cognitive abilities. Loneliness has been linked with more frequent use of primary care clinics and emergency services. Loneliness, together with health declines, is therefore predicted to place burdens on health services, social services and the economy, increasing associated government expenditure to roughly £36 billion over the next 45 years). One avenue for helping older adults foster social connections is provision of group interventions. Limited – yet promising – evidence demonstrates that group interventions for older adults are associated with lower health-care service use, specifically subjective health, use and costs of health services and mortality, better self-reported health, fewer falls, lower over-the-counter medication intake and beneficial mental health/social outcomes. Further research is required to better understand associations between group-based interventions and primary care service use and health outcomes.
This study aims to retrospectively investigate the impact of The Posh Club (TPC), an arts-based community intervention for older adults, on primary health care use and health outcomes. This study will be analysed in conjunction with a previous research project at Queen Mary (QMREC2017/39) entitled “The Posh Club: Can a community-based arts service promote health, well-being, engagement and connections in older adults?”, in which older adults from Crawley, West Sussex and Hackney, London participated September 2017–January 2019.
For the current study, consent will be sought from previous QMREC2017/39 participants who consented to future research to access primary service use and health data for the periods immediately preceding and at approximately 3 and 6 months from first participation in the research project for the following measurements (as available) – number of hospital admissions and length of stays, number of GP calls and consultations, number of falls, number and amount of medications used, blood pressure, white blood cell count, total cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol.
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Summary of Results
The results have not been analysed because we were unable to collect the data as indicated. We received consent from 30 participants. We were only able to obtain responses from practices/surgeries for 11 of these participants and these data were usually incomplete (e.g., we might have some information about admission but no other data). The majority of information requests went unanswered. The research assistant attempted to collect some of the data in person but could not extract the data from the files (i.e., files incomplete or illegible). In other instances staff indicated that they just did not have capacity to help with this data request.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/EM/0411
Date of REC Opinion
12 Dec 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion