Zakariah Gassasse

Image

Studies in the UK have shown that asthma outcomes vary by socioeconomic status (SES). However, the relevance of socioeconomic status to asthma care and outcomes across the care pathway has not been studied. My research assesses asthma outcomes and their relationship with socioeconomic deprivation as a proxy to socioeconomic status along the UK primary care pathway in 3 East London Clinical Commissioning Groups, using routinely collected, individual patient primary care data.

A retrospective open cohort of patients with active asthma in the period 2010-2019 was established using linked primary care records of the population of three East London Clinical Commissioning Groups. I have assessed ‘care outcomes’ (annual asthma review, asthma management plan, inhaler technique, excessive prescriptions of reliever and preventer inhalers) and ‘asthma disease outcomes’ (asthma severity, asthma control (RCP3Q), exacerbations, and A&E visits).

Associations between tertiles of SES in the study population and these outcomes were assessed separately among adults (≥18 years old) and children using multivariable multinomial logistic regression (categorical outcome) or mixed-effects logistic regression (binary outcome) models; trend tests across SES were reported.

The preliminary findings have been presented at the annual Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research Annual Scientific Meeting, and I am now writing a manuscript for publication.

About me

I’m a British Moroccan quantitative methodologist with a background in Global Health (BSc) and Health Economics (MSc). My interests ranges from understanding the relationship between socioeconomic inequalities and health outcomes across the clinical pathway to trail-based economic evaluation of non-communicable interventions, especially novel technologies in asthma, traversing statistical, econometric and epidemiological analyses.

Publications

• Gassasse, Z., Smith, D., Finer, S., Gallo, V., 2017. Association between urbanisation and type 2 diabetes: an ecological study. BMJ Global Health 2, e000473. 
• Russo, G., Silva, T.J., Gassasse, Z., Filippon, J., Rotulo, A., Kondilis, E., 2021. The impact of economic recessions on health workers: a systematic review and best-fit framework synthesis of the evidence from the last 50 years. Health Policy and Planning 36, 542–551. 

Research Activity

• Poster Presentation, “Association between Urbanisation and Type 2 Diabetes: An Ecological Study”, William Harvey Day, 2017.
• Poster Presentation, “Outcomes across the asthma care pathway in primary care by socioeconomic status: a population-based study in East London”, Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research Annual Scientific Meeting, 2023