Abstract Body

Background and Purpose

Socioeconomic deprivation is a major determinant of excess morbidity and mortality.In general practice research therefore, accurate estimations of the socioeconomic status (or deprivation score) of patients attending GP services would improve analyses. Currently in Ireland there is no formally recognised way to achieve this. We describe one such potential method using an Open data approach.

Methods

Area deprivation scores were based on the 2016 Pobal Haase-Pratschke (HP) Deprivation Index for Enumerative Districts (EDs), derived from the 2016 Census of Population. Each practice’s area deprivation score was calculated as the average HP index deprivation score for the ED of each practice and of all the adjacent EDs, weighted for population. Practice locations were mapped onto their corresponding area deprivation score using information from the Health Service Executive (HSE) online “Service Finder”.

Results

16 GP practices were studied with wide geographical distribution in Munster, Leinster and Connaught. Their characteristics were 5 rural, 1 mixed and 10 urban, with 65.5 full time equivalent (FTE) GPs and a patient population of 36,327. The practice deprivation scores ranged from -6.28 (marginally below average) to +6.82 (marginally above average).

Conclusions

We describe here a straightforward method for calculating a practice’s deprivation score in Ireland. Further studies examining any relationships between our deprivation score methodology and patient outcomes are required.