ArticleInternational journal for equity in health2014
Understanding the inverse care law: a register and survey-based study of patient deprivation and burnout in general practice.
Article in International journal for equity in health, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 47 citations in OpenAlex.
- Burnout among general practitioners, a systematic quantitative review of the literature on determinants of burnout and their ecological value.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Pooled it
- Trial
- Geographical variation and area-level socioeconomic disadvantage in recognized depression: A nationwide register-based Danish cohort study.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
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- Unwarranted variation in potentially inappropriate medication in general practice: a Danish nationwide register-based cohort study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Danish primary care: a focus on general practice in the Danish healthcare system.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2025Article
- Chronic care provision in general practices and association with patient level outcomes: a nationwide cohort study.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Burnout and staff experiences of health inequalities in children's hospitals: a qualitative analysis.BMJ open · 2025Article
- General practice-related variation in oral anticoagulant treatment of atrial fibrillation: a nationwide cohort study.BJGP open · 2025Article
- Commonalities and differences in healthcare workers' perceptions of mental burden in Brazil, Colombia, and Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative cross-country study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
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- General practitioners' well-being in Belgium: results from the cross-sectional PRICOV-19 study.BMC primary care · 2024Article
- GP careers: diving in at the Deep End?The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2024Article
- Workload and GP burnout: a survey and register-based study in Danish general practice.BJGP open · 2024Article
- Census-Tract-Level Median Household Income and Median Family Income Estimates: A Unidimensional Measure of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status?International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Equity of referrals to type 2 diabetes rehabilitation in a universal welfare state.SSM - population health · 2022Article
- The impact of poverty and deprivation at the end of life: a critical review.Palliative care and social practice · 2021Review
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- Looking for the "Little Things": A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Medicines Monitoring for Older People Using the ADRe Resource.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Multimorbidity and GP burnout.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionAccording to the inverse care law, there is a mismatch between patients' medical needs and medical care supply. As an example, the number of doctors is often lower in areas with high deprivation compared to areas with no deprivation, and doctors with a deprived patient population may experience a high work pressure, have insufficient time for comprehensive tasks and be at higher risk for developing burnout. The mechanisms responsible for the inverse care law might be mutually reinforcing, but we know very little about this process. In this study, the association between patient deprivation and burnout in the general practitioners (GPs) was examined.
methodsActive GPs in the Central Denmark Region were invited to participate in a survey on job satisfaction and burnout and 601 GPs returned the questionnaire (72%). The Danish Regions provided information about which persons were registered with each practice, and information concerning socioeconomic characteristics for each patient on the list was obtained from Statistics Denmark. A composite deprivation index was also used.
resultsThere was significantly more burnout among GPs in the highest quartile of the deprivation index compared to GPs in the lowest quartile (OR: 1.91; 95% CI: 1.06-3.44; p-value: 0.032). Among the eight variables included in the deprivation index, a high share of patients on social benefits was most strongly associated with burnout (OR: 2.62; 95% CI: 1.45-4.71; p-value: 0.001).
conclusionsA higher propensity of GP burnout was found among GPs with a high share of deprived patients on their lists compared to GPs with a low share of deprived patients. This applied in particular to patients on social benefits. This indicates that beside lower supply of GPs in deprived areas, people in these areas may also be served by GPs who are in higher risk of burnout and not performing optimally.
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