Journal of epidemiology and community health
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J Epidemiol Community Health · Oct 1992
Prediction of general practice workload from census based social deprivation scores.
The aim was to compare the ability of census based social deprivation scores devised by Jarman, Carstairs, and Townsend to predict workload in general practice. ⋯ For identifying social pressures on general practice workload the Jarman index is less valid than other census based scores because it fails to include car ownership and housing tenure. A more rational scheme for compensating general practitioners would directly weight the capitation fee for children aged under five years and allocate current deprivation payments according to the Townsend index or a similar score. This would redistribute resources from London to deprived areas in northern England.