Information from the National Heavy Menstrual Bleeding (HMB) Audit is made available in CVS format. The figures relate to information that was first published (July 2012) in the Audit’s Second Annual Report.
NHS trusts are identified by name. The figures do not related to any individual patient, nor do they contain any patient identifiable data.
What does the data cover?
The published information describes the data submitted to the National HMB Audit. This includes patient characteristics and measures of care received in the primary care setting (number of GP visits prior to referral, duration of symptoms, and whether or not treatment was received). The data also describe patients’ quality of life using the standard EQ-5D tool and the adapted UFS-QoL tool. The EQ-5D is a generic quality of life instrument and measures general health-related quality of life, whilst the adapted UFS-QoL is condition specific quality of life instrument. Detailed summaries of each of these measures can be found in the First (published May 2011) and Second HMB Annual Reports (published July 2012).
Are all Trusts included?
All NHS acute trusts in England are included.
What period does the data cover?
Data from women were collected by questionnaire at their first outpatient appointment for symptoms of HMB in secondary care between 1 January 2011 and 29 February 2012.
Using and interpreting the data
•Data provided in figures relate to averages for each trust
•The adapted UFS-QoL tool is a disease specific tool and includes questions on severity, concern, activity, energy, control, self-consciousness and sexual functioning. The severity scores are provided as a score in their own right (scale 0-100, higher severity scores indicate greater symptom severity). The overall adapted UFS-QoL score (also defined as the Health Related Quality of Life [HRQoL] score) range from 0-100, however high HRQoL scores indicate lower symptom severity.
•The EQ-5D score is a generic non-disease specific measure of health status. It used widely, including in the Patient Reported Outcomes Measures initiative.
•Some figures have been adjusted to take into account differences in the patients seen at the various NHS trusts. The factors taken into adjusted are described in the Excel “explanatory notes” sheet.
•Where variation can be seen between NHS trusts, this variation should not be interpreted as indicating better or worse performance. Mostly, any variation seen lies within the expected ranges due to random fluctuations.