from the Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol
The Game of Stones research study offered men £400 for losing weight
A major UK study led by health experts at the University of Stirling in partnership with the universities of Bristol; New Brunswick, Canada; Aberdeen; Glasgow and Queen’s University Belfast, has found that offering text messages with financial incentives is effective in helping men to lose weight.
A major clinical trial investigating whether GP use of rapid diagnostic tests for respiratory (chest) infections can reduce same-day antibiotic prescribing in primary care has completed recruitment early.
The RAPID-TEST trial, led by Professor Alastair Hay at the Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol, originally aimed to complete recruitment of 514 patients by September 2024. With enormous interest in the trial from GP practices across the Bristol, Bath, Swindon, North/North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire areas, the target was met five months early.
Every year, millions of people in the UK seek help for respiratory infections, such as coughs, colds, chest infections, sore throats and earaches. On average, GPs and nurses give antibiotics to half of these patients. This is more than is necessary because most respiratory infections are caused by viruses, including COVID-19, and antibiotics only work on bacteria. This is needlessly contributing to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), but since clinicians don’t always know who needs them, they are often given ‘just in case’.
The trial was launched in November 2022, thanks to an award of £1.6 million from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NIHR). The tests (only available within the trial) are carried out in GP surgeries rather than sent to a laboratory and detect the presence of viruses and some bacteria, with results available on the same day.
Professor Hay, a GP and Professor of Primary Care, believes that recruitment has been successful due to a combination of factors, including:
Professor Hay said: “I am delighted the trial has recruited so well and I am particularly grateful to the study team, GP practice staff and patients, without whom studies of this kind would not be possible. There is still much to be done, including an important patient and clinician survey, and we expect to have results available early in 2025.”
Dr Alison Humphrey, GP Partner at one of the GP practices taking part in the study, said: “The staff at Hope House Surgery have appreciated being part of this important and well-run study, delivering rapid test results within the surgery which enables us to provide the best possible patient care and antibiotic stewardship. We are very grateful to all our patients for being so willing to participate. We are looking forward to hearing the results and seeing how this will improve or change patient care in the future.”
Professor Rebecca Kearney, Director of Bristol Trials Centre, said: “Bristol Trials Centre is very pleased that the results from this important research question will be implemented ahead of schedule due to the successful collaboration of teams and partner organisations involved.”
For a full list of all the participating GP practices, see the RAPID-TEST website.
See also:
Editorial in British Journal of General Practice (BJGP), 2020: Point-of-care testing for respiratory infections during and after COVID-19 by Hannah Thornton, Tanzeela Khalid and Alastair Hay.
Listen to the BJGP podcast – a more in-depth discussion about the issues raised in the BJGP editorial with Professor Alastair Hay.
Novel multi-virus rapid respiratory microbiological point-of-care testing in primary care: a mixed-methods feasibility evaluation. Tanzeela Khalid, Lorna Duncan, Hannah Thornton, Gemma Lasseter, Peter Muir, Zara Abigail Toney, Alastair Hay. Published in Family Practice. March 2021.
The Centre for Academic Primary Care (CAPC) at the University of Bristol is a leading centre for primary care research in the UK, one of nine forming the NIHR School for Primary Care Research. It sits within Bristol Medical School, an internationally recognised centre of excellence for population health research and teaching. Follow on X: @capcbristol and LinkedIn
Bristol Trials Centre (BTC) is a UKCRC-registered Clinical Trial Unit. We offer a wide range of expertise in trials methodology, study design, study management, statistical analyses and data management, including bespoke database design. It sits within Bristol Medical School, an internationally recognised centre of excellence for population health research and teaching. Follow on X: @BrsTrialsCentre
The mission of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. We do this by:
NIHR is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. Its work in low and middle income countries is principally funded through UK Aid from the UK government.
As part of the programme for this year’s Society for Academic Primary Care Annual Scientific Meeting (SAPC ASM), which we are hosting in Bristol on 3-5 July, we are inviting submissions for an art exhibition on the theme of water and health. Successful submissions will be displayed at the conference and online. There will be prizes of £150 for outstanding entries. Anyone is welcome to make a submission, including delegates to the conference.
The exhibition is being organised by Dr Alan Kellas and Dr Catherine Lamont-Robinson from Bristol Medical School. Both Alan and Catherine lead a Year 3 medical student research project around ‘Blue Health’, which is the inspiration for the exhibition titled: ‘Turning the tide: water as medicine – exploring water’s role in sustaining health for our global and community futures: a multimedia enquiry and collaboration between arts and science, evidence and practice, medicine and ecology’.
Clinicians have found the ‘CHIldren with acute COugh’ (CHICO) intervention valuable in supporting decision-making around antibiotic prescribing and facilitating discussions with carers about concerns and treatment options, according to University of Bristol led research published in the British Journal of General Practice.
Childhood respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are common, often leading to unnecessary antibiotic use and contributing to antimicrobial resistance. The qualitative study aimed to explore how clinicians implemented the CHICO intervention, using interviews to understand its acceptability and use.
The University of Bristol is home to a new Centre for Applied Excellence in Skin and Allergy Research (CAESAR), which has been established to improve the diagnosis and treatment of common skin and allergy problems in primary care.
Directed by Matthew Ridd, GP and Professor of Primary Health Care at the Centre for Academic Primary Care, it comprises a multi-disciplinary group of 20 people with a focus on childhood eczema and food allergy.
First-year University of Bristol PhD student, Anna Pathmanathan, is exploring respiratory health outcomes and antibiotic prescribing trends among different ethnicities. She shared information about her project during one of the People in Health West of England’s researcher coffee catch-ups.
Anna is part of the Centre for Academic Primary Care and her PhD project is looking at the relationship between ethnicity, antibiotic resistance and respiratory health outcomes.
Evidence on the effectiveness of knowledge sharing techniques and approaches in National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded research could be improved, according to a newly published systematic review, which was supported by the NIHR Dissemination and Knowledge Mobilisation team.
The study, published in BMC Health Research Policy and Systems, looked at NIHR funded research that described knowledge sharing techniques or approaches. The researchers concluded that there is little evidence of the effectiveness of these approaches in these studies in influencing change in practice or ongoing research. However, this doesn’t mean they aren’t effective in instigating change or impacting on practice, rather that clear evidence for this has not yet been produced.
You can now register for this year’s Society for Academic Primary Care Annual Scientific Meeting (SAPC ASM) , which is being held at the University of Bristol on 3-5 July.
The conference will welcome over 300 delegates from across the country and beyond. The Society for Academic Primary Care (SAPC) is the leading organisation championing academic primary care in the UK. The theme for the conference is ‘Sustainable Primary Care: healthy systems, healthy people’.
A new study exploring the use of repeat antibiotic prescriptions for the same respiratory tract infection (RTI) episode – known as repeat ‘within-episode’ prescriptions – in primary care has found high rates of their use in England, despite evidence that they are of little benefit. The study authors, from the Universities of Bristol and Bath, King’s College London, and University Medical Center Utrecht, are calling for a reduction in their use and to make them a target for antimicrobial stewardship interventions.
RTIs are one of the most common reasons people visit a GP in the UK. Many RTIs are caused by viruses and current primary care guidelines recommend a no or delayed antibiotic prescribing strategy in the vast majority of patients. Despite this, 54% of RTI consultations in UK primary care result in an antibiotic prescription, and RTIs account for 60% of antibiotic prescribing in primary care worldwide. As such, RTIs are one of the key drivers of antimicrobial resistance.
General practice teams changed their services to better include patients with severe and multiple disadvantage (SMD) after facilitated collaboration with people with lived experience according to a paper published in the British Journal of General Practice. Implementing these changes brought joy and satisfaction to general practice staff and increased connections with patients and community organisations.
The changes which were implemented using existing funding available to general practices included: