Optimising self-management of long-term multi-morbidity in people who are experiencing socioeconomic deprivation

Most of health funding is spent on long-term health conditions. It is therefore important to understand how we can best support people to manage their conditions as well as they can. People who are experiencing social and economic deprivation are more likely to have a long-term health condition, for it to be more severe and to have multiple long-term conditions. Despite this, research has shown that services and resources for managing these health conditions may not be as beneficial for people who are experiencing social and economic deprivation. Little is known about why this might be. Therefore, we want to explore how we can improve self-management by identifying what the difficulties are and what helps when self-managing multiple long-term health conditions in people who are experiencing social and economic deprivation. This will help to reduce the inequality in healthcare.

We are conducting three studies including two reviews which will identify and bring together all research on this topic. One review will look at the views and experiences of people experiencing social and economic deprivation and are managing more than one long-term health conditions. The other view will at studies that have tried to improve the way these people manage their conditions. We will assess how well the research was conducted and therefore how reliable the findings are. These reviews will provide us with a summary of all the current evidence on this topic. The third study will build on these findings by speaking with up to 50 people currently experiencing social and economic deprivation and who have multiple long-term health conditions, as well as their carers. We will ask what makes managing their health conditions harder or easier. We will explore how education, income, access to information, their expectations and attitudes to health and government policies might impact self-management in this group. This will help identify factors so self-management support and resources are more inclusive for disadvantaged people and to help them manage their health conditions.

Amount awarded: £129,861