Health Improvement in General Practice: Organisation & Delivery Study

This report presents a scoping study examining the organization and delivery of health improvement activities within general practice and primary health-care teams. The study identifies the types and range of health improvement activities, knowledge gaps, and areas for further research. A comprehensive literature search, including reviews of titles and abstracts, data extraction from 1140 papers (with 658 included in the review and 347 in the evidence synthesis), and 45 individual and two group interviews with primary health-care staff were conducted. The findings reveal a focus on individual prevention approaches rather than a population-based approach, and highlight insufficient evidence to support many health improvement interventions in general practice. The study recommends future research should move beyond clinical research to include delivery systems and focus on chronic disease burdens, with reviews commissioned to examine the entire prevention pathway within primary care.