We thank all of the WRAs, general practices and participants who were involved in this research, without whom this study would have not been possible. We particularly thank the participating local authorities for funding and delivering the welfare rights advice services evaluated in this study. The intervention costs were also, in part, supported through a grant from the North East Strategic Health Authority, which ceased to exist in March 2013. This grant also funded the training of the WRAs and primary care staff involved in the study. We thank the Primary Care Research Network and Comprehensive Local Research Network for their support for the study. We are grateful to the Newcastle Clinical Trials Unit and specifically to Christine Harle and Chris Speed for their support with research governance. We would like to thank Erin Graybill, Health Economist, who developed the draft economic analysis plan and contributed to the design and conduct of the economic analysis, before moving on to study for a PhD. We are extremely grateful to our team of interviewers who collected data intermittently over a 3-year period. They are Pat Parr, Jackie Price, Patricia Bell, Victor Ball, Gemma Musson, Ursula Balderson, Susan Clarke, Margaret McDermott, Pauline Winship, Andrea Hird and Nichol Watson. We are grateful to Lavinia Miceli and Astrid Macintyre for their administrative support, Rosemary Bell for her invaluable knowledge and advice of the welfare system, and Sarah Batty, who assessed intervention fidelity. Professor Greg Rubin collaborated on the study and helped with study design. We thank members of the independent TSC for their advice on study management, analysis and interpretation. Thanks must also go to Anne Corden and Peter Allmark for their informal peer review of our final report.
Contributions of authors
Catherine Haighton (Lecturer, Public Health) contributed to the study design and the development of methods, managed the project overall, helped with the data analysis and interpretation, and drafted text in the report.
Suzanne Moffatt (Senior Lecturer, Sociology of Health and Illness) conceived the idea for the study, contributed to the study design and the development of methods, led the embedded qualitative study, helped with the data analysis and interpretation, and drafted text.
Denise Howel (Senior Lecturer, Statistics) conceived the idea for the study, contributed to the study design and the development of methods, led the statistical analysis for the main trial, contributed to the data analysis and interpretation, and drafted text.
Mel Steer (Research Associate) conducted qualitative interviews, contributed to the data analysis and interpretation, and drafted text.
Frauke Becker (Research Associate, Health Economics) contributed to the methods development, collected economic data, conducted the economic analysis, contributed to the data interpretation and drafted text.
Andrew Bryant (Research Associate, Statistics) conducted the statistical analysis for the main trial and contributed to the data interpretation.
Sarah Lawson (Research Associate, Qualitative Research) conducted qualitative interviews, contributed to the data analysis and interpretation, and drafted text.
Elaine McColl (Professor, Health Services Research) contributed to the study design and methods development, oversaw research governance and contributed to the data interpretation.
Luke Vale (Health Foundation Chair, Health Economics) contributed to the methods development, led the economic evaluation, contributed to the data analysis and interpretation, and drafted text.
Eugene Milne (Director, Public Health) contributed to the study design, provided liaison with public health stakeholders and contributed to the data interpretation.
Terry Aspray (Consultant, Geriatric Medicine) contributed to the study design and data interpretation.
Martin White (Professor, Public Health) was chief investigator with overall responsibility for the study, conceived the idea for the study, contributed to the study design and methods development, oversaw the fieldwork, contributed to the data interpretation and drafted text.
All authors commented on drafts of the report and approved the final version.
Emma Noble (deceased) (Research Associate, Public Health) contributed to the development of methods and carried out fieldwork at baseline and at 12-month follow-up.
Publications
Journal articles
Haighton C, Moffatt S, Howel D, McColl E, Milne E, Deverill M, et al. The Do-Well study: protocol for a randomised controlled trial, economic and qualitative process evaluations of domiciliary welfare rights advice for socio-economically disadvantaged older people recruited via primary health care. BMC Public Health 2012;28;12:382. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-382
Moffatt S, Haighton C, Steer M, Lawson S, White M. What impact does welfare rights advice have on health and wellbeing? Qualitative study from the UK. Gerontologist 2015;55:90.
Howel D, Moffatt S, Haighton C, Bryant A, Becker F, Steer M, et al. Does domiciliary welfare rights advice improve health-related quality of life in independent-living, socio-economically disadvantaged people aged ≥ 60 years? Randomised controlled trial, economic and process evaluations in the North East of England. PLoS One 2019;14:e0209560.
Conference presentations
White M, Howel D, Moffatt S, Vale L, McColl E, Haighton C, et al. Does Domiciliary Welfare Rights Advice Improve Health Related Quality of Life in Independent-living, Socio-economically Disadvantaged People aged ≥ 60 years, Recruited via Primary Care? Randomised Controlled Trial with Embedded Economic, Qualitative and Process Evaluations. Presented at The Society for Social Medicine, 60th Annual Scientific Meeting, University of York, York, UK, 14–16 September 2016.
Steer M, Moffatt S, Haighton C, Lawson S, Bryant A, Howel D, et al. A Mixed Methods Approach to Dealing with Discrepant Quantitative and Qualitative Findings: The Case of a Randomised Controlled Trial of a Complex Social Intervention. Presented at the Mixed Methods International Research Association Conference, Durham, UK, 3–5 August 2016.
Moffatt S, Haighton C, Howel D, Steer M, Bryant A, Becker F, et al. Evaluating the Impact of a Welfare Rights Advice Intervention on Older People’s Quality of Life. The Outcomes and Challenges of Undertaking a Randomised Controlled Trial of a Complex Intervention. Presented at the British Society of Gerontology, Stirling, UK, 6–8 July 2016.
Moffatt S, Haighton C, Steer M, Lawson S, Howel D, White M. ‘I Would be Terrified in Case I was Claiming Something I Shouldn’t Get’. Impact of and Barriers to Claiming Welfare Entitlements in Later Life in the UK. Presented at the 23rd Nordic Congress of Gerontology, Tampere, Finland, 19–22 June 2016.
Moffatt S, Haighton C, Steer M, Lawson S, White M. What Impact does Welfare Rights Advice have on Health and Wellbeing? Qualitative Study from the UK. Presented at The Gerontological Society of America Annual Scientific Meeting, Orlando, FL, USA, 18–22 November 2015.
White M, Moffatt S, Lock C, McColl E, Howel D, Deverill M, et al. Is a Randomised Controlled Trial to Evaluate the Health Impacts of Welfare Rights Advice for Older People Safe, Fair and Scientifically Rigorous? Design for a Definitive RCT in North East England, 2011–15. Presented at Population Health – Methods and Challenges Conference, The ICC Birmingham, UK, 24–26 April 2012.
Data-sharing statement
All data requested shoud be submitted to the corresponding author for consideration. Access to available anomymised data may be granted following review.
Disclaimers
This report presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The views and opinions expressed by authors in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NHS, the NIHR, NETSCC, the PHR programme or the Department of Health and Social Care. If there are verbatim quotations included in this publication the views and opinions expressed by the interviewees are those of the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect those of the authors, those of the NHS, the NIHR, NETSCC, the PHR programme or the Department of Health and Social Care.