An ESRC/NIH health disparities study of discrimination and disparities in health; health service use in the UK and US

South East London Community Health (SELCoH) study is a follow up study of the community psychiatric and physical morbidity of adults, age 16 years and over from randomly selected households in the south London boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth. Participants were identified through use of the random household sampling as described and used for the Household Survey of the National Survey of Psychiatric morbidity (1). The sample is stratified across the two boroughs to ensure a similar sample size for each area. Individuals were eligible for participation providing they lived in a household in the catchment area. No further exclusion criteria applied. Recruitment for phase 1 (hereafter SELCoH-I), was done between 2008 and 2010, with the final data-set containing information on 1698 adults, aged between 16 and 90 years, from 1075 randomly selected households across two London boroughs. Further details on SELCoH’s organisation, sample and procedures may be found elsewhere (2). Most (94%) of the SELCoHI study participants agreed to be contacted for future studies.

The second phase of SELCoH (hereafter SELCoH-II) is a coordinated follow up of participants that participated in the SELCoHI who have agreed to be followed up. This study is also shared with the study entitled, ‘An Health Disparities Study of Discrimination & Disparities in Health & Health Service Use in the UK and US (Health Disparities study) for which the UK sample is drawn from SELCoH I. Thus SELCoHII aimed to update the locally relevant prevalence estimates and to investigate the influence of deleterious experiences across different demographic groups.

Recruitment of SELCoH study participants began by sending a letter describing the study. This was sent two weeks in advance of interviewers visiting a household. During each household visit, interviewers attempted contact with a resident. Where contact was achieved, potential participants were given study information, reminded that their continued engagement was voluntary and, where possible, scheduled for an in-home interview. A maximum of four contact attempts (inclusive of any messages and/or home visits) were permitted per eligible individual. Closely supervised, trained interviewers conducted face-to-face interviews with computer assisted interview schedules. The survey questionnaire collected information on the following topics: (1) demographics; (2) migration; (3) socioeconomic status (SES); (4) ethnic identity (5)work attitude and experience (6) psychosocial factors (e.g., social support); (7) neighbourhood characteristics; (8) social adversity; (9) health behaviours; (10) physical and mental health status; (11) treatment and health service use; (12) access to technology; (13) the experience of unfair treatment and discrimination; (14) coping methods; (15) wellbeing. Translators employed by the SLAM NHS Trust were used in interviews with non-English speaking adults upon request. Participants were able to end the interview at any time and compensated for their time. We also provided an option to do a telephone interview for participants who moved out of London.

References

1. Jenkins R, Bebbington P, Brugha T, Farrell M, Gill B, Lewis G, Meltzer H, Petticrew M: The National Psychiatric Morbidity surveys of Great Britain-strategy and methods. Psychological Medicine 1997, 27(4): 765-774.

2. Hatch SL, Frissa S, Verdecchia M, Stewart R, Fear NT, Reichenberg A, Morgan C, Kankulu B, Clark J, Gazard B, Medcalf R, the SELCoH study team, Hotopf M: Identifying socio-demographic and socioeconomic determinants of health inequalities in a diverse London community: the South East London Community Health (SELCoH) study. BMC Public Health (2011) 11:861

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