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Characteristics of children who do not attend their hospital appointments, and GPs’ response: a mixed methods study in primary and secondary care

Overview of attention for article published in British Journal of General Practice, June 2017
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (84th percentile)
  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (55th percentile)

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19 X users
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2 Facebook pages

Citations

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20 Dimensions

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70 Mendeley
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Title
Characteristics of children who do not attend their hospital appointments, and GPs’ response: a mixed methods study in primary and secondary care
Published in
British Journal of General Practice, June 2017
DOI 10.3399/bjgp17x691373
Pubmed ID
Authors

Lydia Rm French, Katrina M Turner, Hannah Morley, Lisa Goldsworthy, Debbie J Sharp, Julian Hamilton-Shield

Abstract

Children who do not attend (DNA) their hospital outpatient appointments are a concern because this potentially compromises the child's health and incurs financial cost. Little is known about children who DNA or the views of GPs to non-attendance. To describe the characteristics of children who DNA hospital paediatric outpatient appointments, and explore how GPs view and respond to DNAs. A mixed methods study of data from all new referrals to a children's hospital in the South West of England between 1 September and 31 October 2012. Data were extracted from patients' hospital and GP records, and Stata was used to analyse the data quantitatively. Analysis focused on describing the characteristics of children who DNA, and the process of care that followed. Practices that had either the highest or lowest number of DNAs were purposefully sampled for GPs who had referred children to secondary care at the study hospital within the previous year. Interviews were held between May 2014 and July 2015, and were analysed thematically. Children who DNA are more likely to be from an area of greater deprivation (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 1.02, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.00 to 1.02, P = 0.04), and with a child protection alert in their hospital notes (AOR 2.72, 95% CI = 1.26 to 5.88, P = 0.01). Non-attendance is communicated poorly to GPs, rarely coded in patients' GP records, and few GP practices have a formal policy regarding paediatric DNAs. Non-attendance at hospital outpatient appointments may indicate a child's welfare is at risk. Communication between primary and secondary care needs to be improved, and guidelines developed to encourage GPs to monitor children who DNA.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 19 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 70 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 70 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 11 16%
Researcher 11 16%
Student > Bachelor 11 16%
Student > Ph. D. Student 9 13%
Other 4 6%
Other 10 14%
Unknown 14 20%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 23 33%
Nursing and Health Professions 13 19%
Psychology 7 10%
Engineering 3 4%
Computer Science 2 3%
Other 7 10%
Unknown 15 21%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 13. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 13 April 2022.
All research outputs
#2,540,096
of 23,577,761 outputs
Outputs from British Journal of General Practice
#1,199
of 4,387 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#49,305
of 317,807 outputs
Outputs of similar age from British Journal of General Practice
#44
of 98 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,577,761 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 89th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,387 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 19.4. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 72% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 317,807 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 84% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 98 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 55% of its contemporaries.