Understanding patterns of health and social care use in Scotland

Epidemiological and health economic analyses of linked social care and health data across Scotland’s population.

Overview

Despite growing demand for social care across Scotland, relatively little is known about the patterns and costs of social care use among people living with major illness. This project addresses that gap by linking, for the first time, national health and social care datasets to examine how people with serious health conditions use both health and social care services over time.

By generating robust, population-level evidence on care use and costs, this research will support better planning, more equitable resource allocation, and more informed policy decisions for health and social care in Scotland.

Funder

Chief Scientist Office (CSO), Scottish Government (HIPS/24/56)

Lead institution

University of Glasgow, in collaboration with University of Edinburgh

Data

Linked national health and social care records (Scotland)

Methods

Epidemiological analysis and health economic modelling

This project will address four research questions:

  1. What is the data quality of linked social care datasets in Scotland in terms of
    representativeness, variable completeness, and coding consistency over time and
    geography?
  2. How commonly do people use social care (overall and specific types) after
    experiencing severe common health conditions, frailty and multimorbidity? How does
    social care use vary over time and across sociodemographic groups (age, sex,
    socioeconomic status, and geography)?
  3. What are the overall health and social care cost profiles for different health
    conditions, frailty levels and multimorbidity? How do these vary across
    sociodemographic groups, time and during different life course periods (in the year
    prior to death compared to earlier)?
  4. What factors identifiable within social care data predict emergency
    hospitalisations among social care users? Can social care variables improve risk
    prediction for emergency hospitalisation?

Research team

Principal Investigator: Prof Srinivasa Vittal Katikireddi, University of Glasgow
Co-Investigator: Dr Elizabeth Lemmon, University of Edinburgh
Co-Investigator: Dr Eliud Kibuchi, University of Glasgow
Co-Investigator: Dr Claudia Gueue, University of Glasgow
Co-Investigator: Dr Denise Brown, University of Glasgow
Co-Investigator: Dr Juliette Malley, London School of Economics and Political Science
 
Get involved

We are committed to involving people with lived experience of health and social care in this research. If you would like to find out more about our patient and public involvement activities, or if you are interested in joining our Public Patient Group (PPG), please get in touch with elizabeth.lemmon@ed.ac.uk.

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