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How can we improve migrant health checks in UK primary care: ‘Health Catch-UP!’ a protocol for a participatory intervention development study

Carter, J; Knights, F; Mackey, K; Deal, A; Hassan, E; Trueba, J; Jayawardhena, N; Alfred, J; Al-Sharabi, I; Ciftci, Y; et al. Carter, J; Knights, F; Mackey, K; Deal, A; Hassan, E; Trueba, J; Jayawardhena, N; Alfred, J; Al-Sharabi, I; Ciftci, Y; Aspray, N; Harris, P; Jayakumar, S; Seedat, F; Sanchez-Clemente, N; Hall, R; Majeed, A; Harris, T; Requena Méndez, A; Zenner, D; Tonkin-Crine, S; Hargreaves, S (2025) How can we improve migrant health checks in UK primary care: ‘Health Catch-UP!’ a protocol for a participatory intervention development study. BMJ Open, 15 (11). e106484-e106484. ISSN 2044-6055 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2025-106484
SGUL Authors: Carter, Jessica Alexandra Harris, Teresa Jane Hargreaves, Sally

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Abstract

Introduction Global migration has steadily risen, with 16% of the UK population born abroad. Migrants (defined here as foreign-born individuals) face unique health risks, including potential higher rates and delays in diagnosis of infectious and non-communicable diseases, compounded by significant barriers to healthcare. UK Public Health guidelines recommend screening at-risk migrants, but primary care often faces significant challenges in achieving this, exacerbating health disparities. The Health Catch-UP! tool was developed as a novel digital, multidisease screening and catch-up vaccination solution to support primary care to identify at-risk adult migrants and offer individualised care. The tool has been shown to be acceptable and feasible and to increase migrant health screening in previous studies, but to facilitate use in routine care requires the development of an implementation package. This protocol describes the development and optimisation of an implementation package for Health Catch-UP! following the person-based approach (PBA), a participatory intervention development methodology, and evaluates our use of this methodological approach for migrant participants. Methods and analysis Through engagement with both migrants and primary healthcare professionals (approximately 80–100 participants) via participatory workshops, focus groups and think-aloud interviews, the study aims to cocreate a comprehensive Health Catch-UP! implementation package. This package will encompass healthcare professional support materials, patient resources and potential Health Catch-UP! care pathways (delivery models), developed through iterative refinement based on user feedback and behavioural theory. The study will involve three linked phases (1) planning: formation of an academic–community coalition and cocreation of guiding principles, logic model and intervention planning table, (2) intervention development: focus groups and participatory workshops to coproduce prototype implementation materials and (3) intervention optimisation: think-aloud interviews to iteratively refine the final implementation package. An embedded mixed-methods evaluation of how we used the PBA will allow shared learning from the use of this methodology within the migrant health context. Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval granted by the St George’s University Research Ethics Committee (REC reference: 2024.0191). A community celebration event will be held to recognise contributions and to demonstrate impact.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ Group. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Keywords: Cardiovascular Disease, Health, INFECTIOUS DISEASES, Preventive Health Services, Primary Health Care, Refugees, Humans, Primary Health Care, United Kingdom, Transients and Migrants, Mass Screening, Focus Groups, Research Design, Community-Based Participatory Research
SGUL Research Institute / Research Centre: Academic Structure > Infection and Immunity Research Institute (INII)
Academic Structure > Population Health Research Institute (INPH)
Journal or Publication Title: BMJ Open
ISSN: 2044-6055
Language: en
Related URLs:
Publisher License: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
Projects:
Project IDFunderFunder ID
MR/N013638/1Medical Research Councilhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000265
NIHR 303525National Institute for Health Researchhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000272
NIHR302827National Institute for Health Researchhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000272
NIHR305024National Institute for Health Researchhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000272
PhD Programme for Primary Care Physicians SPCRWellcome Trusthttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100004440
12729-68City St. George’s University of London GrantUNSPECIFIED
Dates:
Date Event
2025-11-29 Published
2025-10-16 Accepted
URI: https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/118102
Publisher's version: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2025-106484

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