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By Tom Brett
A recent publication from The University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle in BMJ Open (1) deals with patterns, prevalence and disease severity of multimorbid chronic conditions among a street-based vulnerable and marginalized population.
Our research brings new information on a disadvantaged cohort of patients who access an innovative, accredited, mobile outreach primary care medical service.
We have again used the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale among the 2587 patients seen over a six year period in the Fremantle area of Western Australia.
Disease patterns and severity were compared with 4583 mainstream patients from a similar geographical area.
A key finding from our research is that this population develops chronic conditions at a much earlier age especially when compared with earlier research worldwide from mainstream practices.
A positive outcome from our research was the willingness of Aboriginal patients to engage with the mobile, outreach primary care medical service. This compares very favourably with the traditional low attendance patterns of Aboriginal patients with mainstream practices.
(1) Brett T, Arnold-Reed DE, Troeung L, Bulsara MK, Williams A, Moorhead RG. Multimorbidity in a marginalised, street-health Australian population: a retrospective cohort study. BMJ Open. 2014 Aug 19;4(8):e005461. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-005461.