The PhD defense will take place

Monday October 31st 2022 13:00
Psykiatriens Festsal (Mødelokale D)
Mølleparkvej 10, Indgang 6 (ved kantinen)
Aalborg Universitetshospital Psykiatrien

And online via teams Klik her for at deltage

About the PhD thesis

A mortality gap exists between people with or people without mental illness. Poor physical health is the main cause of the excess mortality among people with mental illness. Decreasing excess mortality among people with severe mental illness has become a national priority in Denmark and is one of the national goals in the Danish National Quality Program.

Emergency care is an essential component of universal healthcare and, for some people, it is the primary point of access to the healthcare system. In emergency settings, disparities have been described among people with mental illness suffering from heart attacks or cardiac arrest. However, there is a paucity of detailed data from large population-based studies.

This thesis investigates the association between mental illness and disparities in emergency care. Using nationwide cohort designs, we investigated disparities in three different settings:

Study I investigated the quality of prehospital care.

Study II and III investigated the quality of acute stroke care.

Study IV investigated the quality of emergency surgical care.

Across all four studies, disparities are identified, contributing to the excess mortality observed among people with mental illness. Monitoring disparities in the healthcare system is important in order to be able to evaluate local, regional and national initiatives targeting this vulnerable groups and keep a political focus on the demand to defeat excess mortality.

In conclusion, these studies contribute to shed light on the field of health disparities among people with a history of mental illness.