IntroductionAnnual monitoring of physical health of people with severe mental illness (SMI) in primary or secondary care is recommended in England.ObjectiveThe SMI Health Improvement Profile (HIP) was developed to target physical well-being in SMI through the role of the mental health nurse.AimThe primary aim was to investigate if health checks performed by community mental health nurses (CMHNs) trained to use the HIP improved the physical well-being of patients with SMI at 12 months.MethodsA single blind, parallel group randomised controlled trial of training to use the HIP (clustered at the level of the nurse). Physical well-being was measured in study patients using the physical component score of the SF36v2 at baseline and at 12 months.ResultsSixty CMHNs (working with 173 patients) were assigned to the HIP programme (training to use the HIP) or treatment as usual. The HIP was completed with 38 (42%) patients at baseline and 22 (24%) at follow-up in the HIP programme group. No effect of the HIP programme on physical health-related quality of life of study patients was identified, a finding supported by per protocol analyses.ConclusionsThis study found no evidence that CMHN delivered health checks following training to use the HIP are effective at improving the physical well-being of SMI patients at one year. More attention to methods that aim to enable the delivery, receipt and enactment of evidence-based interventions to improve physical health outcomes in this population is urgently required.ISRCTN: 41137900.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Clinical and cost-effectiveness of an intervention for reducing cholesterol and cardiovascular risk for people with severe mental illness in English primary care: a cluster randomised controlled trial
