EMBOSS: Reach and Effect of a Person-centred Integrated-care Approach for Chronic Diseases and MultimorBidity in Patients of Low sOcio- Economic StatuS in General Practice

In the Netherlands, 28% of the population is lowly educated, i.e. the level of education is MBO1 (secondary vocational education) or lower, which is the main indicator of low socioeconomic status. Low-educated people suffer 2-4 times more often than high-educated people from diabetes mellitus, COPD, coronary disease (often in combination) and of the risk factors contributing to these diseases. The healthy life-expectancy for low educated people is 14 years shorter, the health outcomes are worse (more complications of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes), because of high levels of chronic stress due to challenging living circumstances, negatively influencing self-confidence and executive functions, limited health and digital literacy - all determinants of effective self-management. Most people with chronic diseases are being cared for in general practice (GP). However, professionals in GP often struggle with the care for low-educated patients, experiencing difficulties in recognizing patients with low (health) literacy, and in adapting communication and advice to the needs of this group. Low-educated patients more often visit the GP, and are more often referred to costly secondary care.

Many interventions for chronic diseases fail to show effectiveness in low-SES groups. The reasons are multiple:

1. materials and procedures used are too complicated,
2. daily survival sets different priorities,
3. communication and approach by healthcare professionals don't suit the needs and skills of this population, actions or materials are too expensive.

Effectiveness of interventions can be improved by involving low-SES patients in the development and by training healthcare professionals. Low-educated patients should be explicitly recruited in intervention evaluation studies as this population is underrepresented in clinical studies, which impedes generalizability of results. Chronic care for patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2), COPD and/or cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in GP is carried out through disease management programmes. However, major limitations of these programmes are that it focused on a single disease, while half of the patients suffers from multimorbidity. Also, the programmes do not truly reflect the needs of patients who experience this disease management as fragmented with too little attention for the partienst personal context. Therefore, a more generic disease management (GDM) programme including a person-centred and integrated-care (PC-IC) approach seems to be a promising strategy. Such an approach puts the patient at the centre of care, tailoring chronic care to the individual's needs and addressing all the issues important to him. It starts with a comprehensive biopsychosocial assessment of all relevant problems. Subsequently, a personalised treatment plan is made with individualised goals, actions and professionals involved. The programme responds to the needs and context of the 'whole' patient to provide the right care in the right place at the right time. It supposes to stimulate patient's self-management.

Currently, in the Netherlands, some regional projects with GDM programmes and PC-IC approaches are running, of which 'OPTIMA FORMA' may be the best known. This project started in 2018 and consists of three stages in which a GDM programme including a PC-IC approach is developed, tested and evaluated in three large Dutch primary care cooperatives, i.e Nijmegen, Arnhem, and Doetinchem. However, in 'OPTIMA FORMA' as in other ongoing projects, there is no specific attention for or involvement of people with low SES. This will obviously reduce the effectiveness of this approach in low SES patients, as one third of the population with chronic diseases consists of patients with low SES. The investigators there is an urgent need for PC-IC interventions that specifically address the needs of low SES population in order to be effective. Therefore, the investigators supported the three primary care cooperatives who participate in OPTIMA FORMA with the development of a GDM programme specifically for low SES patients. With help from patients with low SES and the healthcare professionals of the low SES patient, the investigators collected information on experiences, facilitators, and barriers from the previously conducted pilot study of OPTIMA FORMA PHASE2 (CMO 2021-8106).