Rebate Adolescent Health (RAd Health)
Project Details
Looking for the RAd Health Study website (for participants)? Click here: https://radhealth.org.au/
Should Medicare fund a rebate for an adolescent and young person’s (14-24 years) health assessment in general practice?
RAd Health is a cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) that aims to investigate whether a Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) rebate is effective at increasing the detection and management of risk behaviours and health conditions and is cost-effective. This will provide evidence to inform MBS rebate decision making.
PROJECT SUMMARY
Adolescent health assessments have demonstrated improved health outcomes including detection of risky behaviour and physical and mental health conditions. Despite national guidelines recommending annual evidence-based health assessments for young people, adolescents remain a neglected population. The implications for young people include undetected sexually transmitted infections, unintended pregnancies, and lack of management for mental health and other conditions. In Australia, lack of consultation time has been reported as a major barrier for general practitioners to undertake regular young person’s assessments.
A Medical Benefits Scheme (MBS) rebated assessment, similar to that offered for 45-49 and 75+ year old and Aboriginal Health assessments, could facilitate these assessments. Enabling a longer, remunerated consultation for adolescents and young people could lead to improved health outcomes in the short-term and into adulthood. This trial will provide the first RCT evidence of whether a rebate for a young person’s health assessment is effective and cost-effective.
Informed by focus groups and interviews with key informants, the RAd Health team developed a young person’s health assessment template for clinicians, as well as resources for GPs, parents and young people .
We have also worked with the GRHANITE™ team at the University of Melbourne to design a data collection process and template for conducting the trial in general practices.
An Advisory Group was established to support the RAd Health Trial and its purpose is to:
- provide feedback, expert advice and input on clinical training and support needed for the trial and trial resources;
- provide current knowledge, expert advice and perspectives about adolescent health assessments in general practice;
- assist with the interpretation and translation of results into practice and policy, and
- build collaborative relationships between researchers and key stakeholders.
Recruitment to the project is now finished. We are working with 44 general practices throughout Victoria. Practices have all been randomised to either the intervention arm (receive the rebate) or control arm (do not receive the rebate).
A nested cohort study is also in progress. We are currently recruiting young people from participating clinics to complete online surveys about their health and wellbeing.
Thank you to all who have participated in the project thus far.
For the latest news and to access your induction training and other information related to the RAd health trial check out our website by following this link radhealth.org.au or scanning the QR code below.
If you have any questions about the trial, please send us an email at rad-health@unimelb.edu.au
Researchers
Professor Meredith Temple-Smith
Professor Rachel Skinner
Professor Rebecca Guy
Ms Hannah Murchie
Research Team
Project manager: Dr Cathy Watson
Research Officer: Ms Sara Newton
Research Officer: Ms Amelia Wardley
Research Officer: Ms Helen Bittleston
Finance Officer: Ms Jodie Lipman
Collaborators
Wellbeing Health & Youth (WH&Y) Commission
Victorian primary care practice-based Research and Education Network (VicREN)
Funding
National Health and Medical Research Council
Grant number: 1184842 | Funding period: 2020 – 2024
HREC ID 2022-23435-29990-3
Research Publications
Will a fee-for-service payment for a young people’s health assessment in general practice increase the detection of risk behaviors and improve health outcomes compared with no fee for service payment? Protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial (RAd Health Trial) is available in BMJ Open 2023; Aug 16; 13(8):e074154, here
Considerations for conducting a young person’s health assessment in the general practice setting: Insights from key informants in Victoria is available in the April 2023 issue of the AJGP, here.
August 2022: ‘Practice and patient considerations for conducting a young person’s health check in general practice: Insights from key informants’, Australasian Association for Academic Primary Care (AAAAPC) Annual Research Conference; oral presentation