SynthesisInternational journal of environmental research and public health2021
Socio-Economic Disparities in Access to Diagnostic Neuroimaging Services in the United Kingdom: A Systematic Review.
Synthesis in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Time to Diagnosis in Dementia: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis.International journal of geriatric psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Evaluating the Effectiveness of Primary Care Health Checks at Assessing Cardiovascular Risks among Ethnic Minorities in the UK: A Systematic Review.Reviews in cardiovascular medicine · 2025Pooled it
- National impact of ICD-11 stroke reclassification on projected incidence across the United Kingdom.European journal of public health · 2026Article
- Equity, diversity, and inclusion: variations in clinical and academic radiology.Insights into imaging · 2026Article
- Diagnostic Limitations, Patient Characteristics, and Confounding Factors Impacting Neurotologic Lesion Imaging: A Systematic Review.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Article
- An Artificial Intelligence Pipeline for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: From Data to Treatment Recommendations.International journal of general medicine · 2025Review
- The Social Determinants of Health in a Cohort of Romanian Patients with Diabetic and Nondiabetic Neuropathy.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Advancing the Frontier: Neuroimaging Techniques in the Early Detection and Management of Neurodegenerative Diseases.Cureus · 2024Review
- Review
- Irish general practitioner (GP) perspectives on impact of direct access radiology on patient care in the community: results from a mixed-methods study.Irish journal of medical science · 2024Article
- The constrained-disorder principle defines the functions of systems in nature.Frontiers in network physiology · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Socio-economic factors affecting health care can lead to delays in diagnosis of neurological conditions, consequentially affecting treatment and morbidity rates. This inequality in health care can leave patients from lower socio-economic backgrounds more vulnerable to a poorer quality of care from health care providers in the United Kingdom (U.K.).
aimsIn this systematic review, we assess the impact of socio-economic status on the use of diagnostic neuroimaging in the U.K., measured by the timeliness, accessibility and appropriate use of computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasonography, electroencephalography (EEG) and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). We specifically evaluate the non-surgical use of neuroimaging techniques as this relies on the judgment of primary care-givers (e.g., doctors and radiologists), where health disparities are most common. This study includes the analysis of diagnostic imaging used for dementia, minor head injury, stroke, cancer, epilepsy, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and Parkinson's disease. With this study, we aim to assess the health inequalities at disease diagnosis.
methodsUsing Medline (via Ovid), PubMed and Web of Science databases as sources of information, we critically appraise existing studies on neuroimaging use in the U.K. health care system, published between January 2010 and February 2021.
findingsA total of 18 studies were included in this research, revealing that there was an increase in patients of Black and Asian communities diagnosed with dementia and at an earlier age. There was little evidence to suggest that a lack of access to diagnostic imaging is associated with socio-economic status. However, there are data to suggest that people of a lower socio-economic background require more specialist services with diagnostic neuroimaging tools. In addition, there is evidence to suggest that diagnostic neuroimaging techniques could be utilised more effectively by health care workers to prevent unnecessary delays in diagnosis for patients in lower socio-economic areas.
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Registered trials
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