An audit of health education services within UK hospitals

UK public health policy requires hospitals to deliver health promotion services to patients for healthy lifestyles (i.e. health education), but there are currently few data on the health education delivered within hospitals. This audit aimed to collect data on the routine health education activities delivered to hospitalized patients to assess whether the following standards were met: 100% of hospitalized patients screened for smoking, alcohol use and obesity, 70% of smokers offered health education for smoking cessation and 50% of patients identified as misusing alcohol, obese, consuming an unhealthy diet and/or physically inactive delivered the appropriate health education.

An audit of data contained in hospitalized patients' written medical case notes for evidence that the above standards were met. Nine hospitals in Greater Manchester in England participated.

Four hospitals screened all patients for smoking. None of the hospitals met the standards for screening alcohol or obesity. For health education delivery, all hospitals met the standard for diet, four for alcohol misuse and four for physical activity. None of the hospitals met the standards for smoking or obesity.

Improvements in practice for screening of alcohol and obesity are required. While some hospitals appeared to meet standards for health education delivery for alcohol, diet and physical activity, given the poor screening procedures for these risk factors, we can not conclude that health education delivery was adequate.