Concussion affects 1.2% of the population annually; rural regions and children have higher rates of concussion.

Using administrative health care linked databases, all residents of Ontario with a physician diagnosed concussion were identified using ICD-9 code 850 or ICD-10 code S06. Cases were tracked for 2 years for concussion-related health care utilization with relevant specialist physicians (i.e., neurology, otolaryngology, physiatry, psychiatry, ophthalmology). Billing codes, specialist codes, and time from index to visit were analyzed. Factors associated with increased specialist visits were also examined.

In total, 1,022,588 cases were identified between 2008 and 2014 with 2 years of post-concussion health care utilization available. Follow-up by physician within 3 days of injury occurred in only 14% of cases. Mean time between ED diagnosis and follow-up by a physician was 83.9 days, whereas for rural regions it was >100 days. About half of adults (51.9%) and children (50.3%) had at least 1 specialist visit following concussion. Mean time between injury and first specialist visit was 203.8 (SD 192.9) days for adults, 213.5 (SD 201.0) days for rural adults, and 276.0 (SD 202.6) days for children. There were 67,420 neurology visits, 70,404 psychiatry visits, 13,571 neurosurgery visits, 19,780 physiatry visits, 101,788 ENT visits, and 103,417 ophthalmology visits in the 2 years tracking period. Factors associated with more specialist use included age > 18 years, urban residence, and pre-injury psychiatric history.

There are discrepancies in post-concussion health care utilization based on age group and rural/urban residence. Addressing these risk factors could improve concussion care access.

Bipolar disorder is a source of marked disability, morbidity and premature death. There is a paucity of research on personalised psychosocial interventions for bipolar disorder, especially in low-resource settings. A pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) of a culturally adapted psychoeducation intervention for bipolar disorder (CaPE) in Pakistan reported higher patient satisfaction, enhanced medication adherence, knowledge and attitudes regarding bipolar disorder, and improvement in mood symptom scores and health-related quality of life measures compared with treatment as usual (TAU).

The current protocol describes a larger multicentre RCT to confirm the clinical and cost-effectiveness of CaPE in Pakistan. Trial registration: NCT05223959.

A multicentre individual, parallel-arm RCT of CaPE in 300 Pakistani adults with bipolar disorder. Participants over the age of 18, with a diagnosis of bipolar I or II disorder who are currently euthymic, will be recruited from seven sites: Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Hyderabad and Quetta. Time to recurrence will be the primary outcome assessed using the Longitudinal Interval Follow-up Evaluation (LIFE). Secondary measures will include mood symptoms, quality of life and functioning, adherence to psychotropic medications, and knowledge and attitudes regarding bipolar disorder.

This trial will assess the effectiveness of the CaPE intervention compared with TAU in reducing the time to recurrence for people with bipolar disorder currently in remission in Pakistan and determine the effect on clinical outcomes, quality of life and functioning.

A successful trial might lead to rapid implementation of CaPE in clinical practice, not only in Pakistan, but also in other low-resource settings, including those in high-income countries, to improve clinical outcomes, social and occupational functioning, and quality of life in South Asian and other minority group patients with bipolar disorder.

People with serious mental illness (SMI) experience higher mortality partially attributable to higher long-term condition (LTC) prevalence. However, little is known about multiple LTCs (MLTCs) clustering in this population.

People from South London with SMI and two or more existing LTCs aged 18+ at diagnosis were included using linked primary and mental healthcare records, 2012–2020. Latent class analysis (LCA) determined MLTC classes and multinominal logistic regression examined associations between demographic/clinical characteristics and latent class membership.

The sample included 1924 patients (mean (s.d.) age 48.2 (17.3) years). Five latent classes were identified: ‘substance related’ (24.9%), ‘atopic’ (24.2%), ‘pure affective’ (30.4%), ‘cardiovascular’ (14.1%), and ‘complex multimorbidity’ (6.4%). Patients had on average 7–9 LTCs in each cluster. Males were at increased odds of MLTCs in all four clusters, compared to the ‘pure affective’. Compared to the largest cluster (‘pure affective’), the ‘substance related’ and the ‘atopic’ clusters were younger [odds ratios (OR) per year increase 0.99 (95% CI 0.98–1.00) and 0.96 (0.95–0.97) respectively], and the ‘cardiovascular’ and ‘complex multimorbidity’ clusters were older (ORs 1.09 (1.07–1.10) and 1.16 (1.14–1.18) respectively). The ‘substance related’ cluster was more likely to be White, the ‘cardiovascular’ cluster more likely to be Black (compared to White; OR 1.75, 95% CI 1.10–2.79), and both more likely to have schizophrenia, compared to other clusters.

The current study identified five latent class MLTC clusters among patients with SMI. An integrated care model for treating MLTCs in this population is recommended to improve multimorbidity care.

Individuals with eating disorders have a high mortality risk. Few population-based studies have estimated this risk in eating disorders other than anorexia nervosa.

To investigate all-cause mortality in a population-based cohort of individuals who received hospital-based care for an eating disorder (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or eating disorder not otherwise specified) in Ontario, Canada.

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 19 041 individuals with an eating disorder from 1 January 1990 to 31 December 2013 using administrative healthcare data. The outcome of interest was death. Excess mortality was assessed using standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) and potential years of life lost (PYLL). Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to examine sociodemographic and medical comorbidities associated with greater mortality risk.

The cohort had 17 108 females (89.9%) and 1933 males (10.1%). The all-cause mortality for the entire cohort was five times higher than expected compared with the Ontario population (SMR = 5.06; 95% CI 4.82–5.30). SMRs were higher for males (SMR = 7.24; 95% CI 6.58–7.96) relative to females (SMR = 4.59; 95% CI 4.34–4.85) overall, and in all age groups in the cohort. For both genders, the cohort PYLL was more than six times higher than the expected PYLL in the Ontario population.

Patients with eating disorders diagnosed in hospital settings experience five to seven times higher mortality rates compared with the overall population. There is an urgent need to understand the mortality risk factors to improve health outcomes among individuals with eating disorders.

Health technology assessment (HTA) is value-laden. Consideration of ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI), and patient values (ELSI+), is challenged by lack of conceptual clarity and the multi-disciplinary nature of ELSI + . This study used concept mapping to identify key concepts in the ELSI+ domain and their interrelationships.

We conducted a scoping review using Medline and EMBASE (2000-2016, English language) with search terms related to ethics, legal/law, social/society/patient, “ELSI”, and HTA/technology/assessment. Items from the review and additional items from an expert brainstorming session were consolidated into 80 ELSI+-related statements which were entered into Concept Systems® Global MAX software. Participants (N = 38; 36 percent researchers, 21 percent academics; 42 percent self-identified as HTA experts) sorted the statements into thematic groups that made sense to them, and rated the statements on their importance in decision-making about adoption of technologies in Canada: 1 (not at all important), 5 (extremely important), 2, 3, and 4 (unlabeled). We used Concept Systems® Global MAX software to create and analyze concept maps with four to 16 clusters, which were reviewed by the study team.

We selected the map with five clusters because its clusters represented different concepts and the statements within each cluster represented the same concept. Based on the concepts, we named these clusters: patient preferences and experiences, patient quality of life and function, patient burden/harm, fairness, and organizational. The highest mean importance ratings were for the statements in the patient burden/harm (3.82) and organizational (3.92) clusters.

This study suggests an alternative approach to conceptualize the domains originally described as “ELSI+”. We identified clusters of relevant concepts that focus on patient perspectives (preferences, experiences, quality of life, function), burden and harm, fairness (individual and societal), and organizational issues. Basing ELSI+ on conceptual consonance, rather than academic disciplines or traditions, provides a framework for coherent consideration of ELSI+ in HTA.

As life expectancy increases, more people have chronic psychiatric and medical health disorders. Comorbidity may increase the risk of premature mortality, an important challenge for health service delivery.

Population-based cohort study in Ontario, Canada of all 11 246 910 residents aged ⩾16 and <105 on 1 April 2012 and alive on 31 March 2014. Secondary analyses included subjects having common medical disorders in 10 separate cohorts. Exposures were psychiatric morbidity categories identified using aggregated diagnosis groups (ADGs) from Johns Hopkins Adjusted Clinical Groups software® (v10.0); ADG 25: Persistent/Recurrent unstable conditions; e.g. acute schizophrenic episode, major depressive disorder (recurrent episode), ADG 24: Persistent/Recurrent stable conditions; e.g. depressive disorder, paranoid personality disorder, ADG 23: Time-limited/minor conditions; e.g. adjustment reaction with brief depressive reaction. The outcome was all-cause mortality (April 2014–March 2016).

Over 2 years' follow-up, there were 188 014 deaths (1.7%). ADG 25 conferred an almost threefold excess mortality after adjustment compared to having no psychiatric morbidity [adjusted hazard ratio 2.94 (95% CI 2.91–2.98, p < 0.0001)]. Adjusted hazard ratios for ADG 24 and ADG 23 were 1.12 (95% CI 1.11–1.14, p < 0.0001) and 1.31 (95% CI 1.26–1.36, p < 0.0001). In all 10 medical disorder cohorts, ADG 25 carried significantly greater mortality risk compared to no psychiatric comorbidity.

Psychiatric disorders, particularly those graded persistent/recurrent and unstable, were associated with excess mortality in the whole population, and in the medical disorder cohorts examined. Future research should examine whether service design accounting for psychiatric disorder comorbidity improves outcomes across the spectrum of medical disorders.

Consideration of ethical, legal, and social issues plus patient values (ELSI+) in health technology assessment (HTA) is challenging because of a lack of conceptual clarity and the multi-disciplinary nature of ELSI+. We used concept mapping to identify key concepts and inter-relationships in the ELSI+ domain and provide a conceptual framework for consideration of ELSI+ in HTA.

We conducted a scoping review (Medline and EMBASE, 2000–2016) to identify ELSI+ issues in the HTA literature. Items from the scoping review and an expert brainstorming session were consolidated into eighty ELSI+-related statements, which were entered into Concept Systems® Global MAX™ software. Participants (N = 38; 36 percent worked as researchers, 21 percent as academics; 42 percent self-identified as HTA experts) sorted the statements into thematic groups, and rated them on importance in making decisions about adopting technologies in Canada, from 1 (not at all important) to 5 (extremely important). We used Concept Systems® Global MAX™ software to create and analyze concept maps with four to sixteen clusters.

Our final ELSI+ map consisted of five clusters, with each cluster representing a different concept and the statements within each cluster representing the same concept. Based on the concepts, we named these clusters: patient preferences/experiences, patient quality of life/function, patient burden/harm, fairness, and organizational. The highest mean importance ratings were for the statements in the patient burden/harm (3.82) and organizational (3.92) clusters.

This study suggests an alternative approach to ELSI+, based on conceptual coherence rather than academic disciplines. This will provide a foundation for incorporating ELSI+ into HTA.