PhD Student

Course start: March 2019

First Supervisor: Professor David Hewson
Second Supervisor: Professor Gurch Randhawa

Thesis Title

Evaluation of an integrated care service for older people (over the age of 65 years) with different frailty levels.

Abstract

Frailty is an age-associated condition in which a person loses reserves due to an accumulation of multiple deficits making individuals vulnerable to minor stressors. It is associated with adverse outcomes such as falls, fractures, emergency hospital admission, institutionalisation and mortality. Frailty is posing a huge challenge in terms of burden on NHS in the UK. The British Geriatric society launched its ‘fit for frailty’ model to prevent and manage frailty-using concepts of integrated care. It is a holistic approach, which identifies elderly population at risk of or having frailty and manages their condition proactively using multidisciplinary team thus preventing adverse outcomes. The Luton Clinical Commissioning Group has followed the national guidelines to develop the framework of frailty for Luton which aims at case finding frail elderly (65 years and over) and provide them appropriate interventions proactively. In order to assess the effectiveness of this framework and get recommendations for programme improvement, a robust evaluation is required. The aim of this study is to evaluate the framework of frailty in Luton.

A mixed-methods approach will be used to achieve the aim. The first objective is to synthesise evidence on the effectiveness of integrated care interventions for elderly with different frailty levels. The second objective is to conduct a qualitative study to assess the perspectives of stakeholders about the content of the framework of frailty programme, mechanisms the various interventions are likely to generate and the outcomes associated with it. Furthermore, a quantitative study will be done to test the hypotheses and assumptions of the stakeholders regarding the expected outcomes. Moreover, a qualitative study will be conducted to examine the experiences of the service users and their carers about the programme. Finally, findings from all the individual studies will be triangulated to evaluate the effectiveness of the integrated care service i.e. the framework of frailty in Luton. Findings will be shared with stakeholders, which will help to improve the service.

Area of Interest

Quantitative research, mixed-methods research, quality of care, global health

Publications

• Khan, N.N. and Puthussery, S., 2019. Stakeholder perspectives on public-private partnership in health service delivery in Sindh province of Pakistan: A qualitative study. Public health, 170, pp.1-9.
• Uzair, B., Bano, A., Niazi, M.B.K., Khan, F., Habiba, U., Khan, N.N. and Khan, B..A., 2018. In vitro antifungal activity of 9, 10-dihydrophenanthrene-2-carboxylic acid isolated from a marine bacterium: Pseudomonas putida. J. Pharm. Sci, 31(6), pp.2733-2736.

Qualifications

• MSc in Public Health, University of Bedfordshire

Experience

• Research Specialist, Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan