The invisible asthmatic : developing geographies of asthma in England
The invisible asthmatic : developing geographies of asthma in England
Despite afflicting over 3 million individuals in England, asthma has largely escaped the attention of contemporary medical geography. This is surprising, given the widespread nature of the condition, its perceived increase in incidence and its high cost to the UK National Health Service (NHS).
A specifically spatial analysis of asthma has largely been precluded due to the lack of routinely collected information on this condition. Whilst a number of secondary datasets do provide limited information on disease, they are generally unsuitable for the epidemiological analysis of ill-health due to their self-reported nature, temporal separation from the experience of disease and their utilisation of broad reporting categories.
This thesis records the current state of biomedical, lay and geographical knowledge concerning the disease and reports on an unique analysis of the spatial distribution of asthma utilising methods derived from Bayes theorem and records sourced from mortality records and the HES (Hospital Episodes Statistics) system. The HES reporting system is currently used to fulfil the administrative requirements of the internal market of health care within the NHS. Access to this information source is highly restricted and this situation is set to worsen with increasing concerns relating to matters of patient and commercial confidentially. At the start of this research, this project was one of only four in the UK with access to this data, and the only project to be conducted outside of the biomedical professions.
This research provides the first comprehensive spatial analysis of the only treatable chronic illness to be increasing in England, and illustrates beyond a doubt that asthma morbidity displays distinct spatial patterns. Significantly, these patterns are not reflected in the distribution of mortality cases. The widespread use of data derived from death certificates as a surrogate indicator of morbidity would therefore appear inappropriate.
University of Southampton
1998
More, Alan
(1998)
The invisible asthmatic : developing geographies of asthma in England.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
Despite afflicting over 3 million individuals in England, asthma has largely escaped the attention of contemporary medical geography. This is surprising, given the widespread nature of the condition, its perceived increase in incidence and its high cost to the UK National Health Service (NHS).
A specifically spatial analysis of asthma has largely been precluded due to the lack of routinely collected information on this condition. Whilst a number of secondary datasets do provide limited information on disease, they are generally unsuitable for the epidemiological analysis of ill-health due to their self-reported nature, temporal separation from the experience of disease and their utilisation of broad reporting categories.
This thesis records the current state of biomedical, lay and geographical knowledge concerning the disease and reports on an unique analysis of the spatial distribution of asthma utilising methods derived from Bayes theorem and records sourced from mortality records and the HES (Hospital Episodes Statistics) system. The HES reporting system is currently used to fulfil the administrative requirements of the internal market of health care within the NHS. Access to this information source is highly restricted and this situation is set to worsen with increasing concerns relating to matters of patient and commercial confidentially. At the start of this research, this project was one of only four in the UK with access to this data, and the only project to be conducted outside of the biomedical professions.
This research provides the first comprehensive spatial analysis of the only treatable chronic illness to be increasing in England, and illustrates beyond a doubt that asthma morbidity displays distinct spatial patterns. Significantly, these patterns are not reflected in the distribution of mortality cases. The widespread use of data derived from death certificates as a surrogate indicator of morbidity would therefore appear inappropriate.
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Published date: 1998
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 463330
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/463330
PURE UUID: 1cc33158-4de7-401f-b09b-893b2d298867
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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 20:50
Last modified: 04 Jul 2022 20:50
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Author:
Alan More
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