Exploring older adult patient experiences of serious infection
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding the diagnosis and management of serious infection from the perspective of older adult patients and their carers: a qualitative interview study
IRAS ID
213517
Contact name
Gail Hayward
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Infection is common amongst the elderly, and serious infections carry a high risk of death. General Practitioners can find it difficult to diagnose serious infection in the elderly as the symptoms and tests are less reliable than in younger patients. In a recent interview study with GPs we found that they rely heavily on the opinion of the patient and carer in both diagnosing serious infection and deciding whether the patient needs to go into hospital. Despite the importance of these opinions, we do not know how patients and their carers determine whether they require an acute assessment by a GP for symptoms which could be consistent with serious infection, or their opinions and preferences regarding being looked after in the community compared to being admitted to hospital.
We plan to interview up to 30 elderly patients, and where possible their carers, who have recently contacted the GP with symptoms which could be due to a serious infection. We aim to explore what led them to contact the GP, and their opinions regarding the different options for managing their condition. We will audio-record the interviews and describe and compare the different beliefs and perspectives which emerge from our analysis. We intend that our findings will help to improve our understanding of when and why elderly patients present to the GP with these conditions and will contribute to the development of new types of medical care for the elderly, which may help reduce avoidable hospital admissions in this population.
REC name
London - Fulham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/1902
Date of REC Opinion
21 Oct 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion