Autore: Giuseppe Serra, Università di Udine
serra.giuseppe@spes.uniud.it
Marco Tomietto, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom; Andrew McGill, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom; Matthew D. Kiernan, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Categoria Primaria: Epidemiologia sociale
Categoria Secondaria: Sistemi informativi
Background Veterans are a vulnerable population, but obtaining comprehensive health data in the UK is difficult because veteran assistance is offered both by the NHS and a multitude of sector charities, each one working independently. The main aim of this paper is to present the results of the MONARCH project, the first attempt of creating a standardised registry of charity service users nationwide.
Method Data is anonymised, allowing both privacy protection and the unique identification of people to avoid double counts. Individual datasets are then cleaned, labelled, standardised, and linked with a fully automated process to create an aggregated dataset. The dataset is used to describe the population, using both a-priori and machine learning approaches. In addition, it will be linked to an online interactive dashboard accessible to stakeholders.
Results To date 5 national charities have shared data, for a total of 42,509 veterans with 128,423 needs. The mean age of beneficiaries was 60.1 years (SD 20.5), and 90% were male. 65% were receiving some other form of statutory benefit, 5% was homeless and 1% was imprisoned. 65% of the needs recorded concerned social wellbeing. 40% of veterans were helped at least in two different years.
Conclusions The dataset is the most comprehensive source of charity usage data in the UK to date. The first results draw an identikit of the typical charity user and reveal useful insights that can help allocate resources to build an effective preventive strategy.