Young people's use of NHS Direct: a national study of symptoms and outcome of calls for children aged 0-15.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

National Health Service (NHS) Direct provides 24/7 expert telephone-based healthcare information and advice to the public in England. However, limited research has explored the reasons to why calls are made on behalf of young people, as such this study aimed to examine call rate (CR) patterns in younger people to enable a better understanding of the needs of this population in England.

Setting

NHS Direct, England, UK.

Participants and methods

CRs (expressed as calls/100 persons/annum) were calculated for all calls (N=358 503) made to NHS Direct by, or on behalf of, children aged 0-15 during the combined four '1-month' periods within a year (July 2010, October 2010, January 2011 and April 2011). χ² Analysis was used to determine the differences between

SUBMITTER: Cook EJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3863119 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature