The correlation between National Health Service trusts' clinical trial activity and both mortality rates and care quality commission ratings: a retrospective cross-sectional study

Jonker, Leon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5867-4663 and Fisher, Stacey Jayne (2018) The correlation between National Health Service trusts' clinical trial activity and both mortality rates and care quality commission ratings: a retrospective cross-sectional study. Public Health, 157 . pp. 1-6.

Preview

PDF - Accepted Version Available under License CC BY-NC-ND Download (246kB) | Preview

Abstract

Objectives: Evidence supporting the notion that clinical research activity in itself is of benefit to organisations as a whole is inconclusive. In the recent past, a positive association between research activity and reduced mortality has been shown. This study aimed to ascertain if clinical research activity is associated with established organisational outcome measures.

Study design: Retrospective cross-sectional study.

Methods: For 129 English National Health Service hospital Trusts, National Institute for Health Research study activity data, Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator (SHMI) scores and Care Quality Commission (CQC) ratings were collected. Research activity was controlled for Trust size by dividing it by clinical staffing levels. Multiple linear regression and Spearman correlation analyses were performed.

Results: Although there is a significant association between the number of studies and participants with both SHMI score and CQC rating, one particular variable is correlated more significantly than others: the number of participants recruited into interventional studies. It shows a significant correlation with better CQC ratings (standardised coefficient beta 0.26, P-value 0.003) and lower SHMI scores (standardised coefficient beta −0.50, P-value 0.001).

Conclusions: The mortality-related results corroborate with other published data showing a correlation between increased research and reduced deaths. Furthermore, there is also a statistically significant association between clinical trials activity and improved CQC ratings. However, these tie-ins are predominantly driven by the number of participants in interventional research rather than observational research activity.

Item Type:	Article
Journal / Publication Title:	Public Health
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	1476-5616
Departments:	Professional Services > Marketing & Student Recruitment
Additional Information:	Leon Jonker is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Cumbria, UK.
Depositing User:	Anna Lupton
Date Deposited:	14 Feb 2018 10:59
Last Modified:	12 Jan 2024 19:33
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/3603

Downloads