The complexity of food for people with multiple long-term health conditions.

INTRODUCTION The prevalence of long-term health conditions (LTCs) continues to increase and it is normal for people to have several. Lifestyle is a core feature of the self-management support given to people with LTCs, yet it seems to fail to meet their needs. From a larger study exploring the experiences of this group, this paper reports on the role of food and mealtimes, and the effect of the nutritional advice on the lives of people with several LTCs.

Self-management support? Listening to people with complex co-morbidities.

Objectives: The study aimed to explore how people with complex, established co-morbidities experience long-term condition care in New Zealand. Despite the original conception as appropriate for people with early stage disease, in New Zealand the self-management approach dominates the care provided to people at all stages of diagnosis with long-term conditions, something reinforced through particular funding mechanisms.

Methods: A multiple case study followed the lives of 16 people with several long-term conditions.

Measuring care alignment in general practice consultations for people with long-term conditions: an exploratory study.

INTRODUCTION Chronic care Model (CCM) aims to make the care of people with long term conditions (LTC) planned, proactive and patient-centred. The patient assessment of chronic care (PACIC) and our recently developed modified PACIC (MPACIC) allow patient and provider views to be compared. AIM To explore the use of measures of care provision and receipt in primary care long-term conditions management and to assess congruity between patient and provider views of support.

Occupational asthma and the paper recycling industry.

Background: Occupational disease linked to the paper recycling industry has not been well documented. No previously confirmed formal diagnosis of occupational asthma (OA) caused by hydroxylamine has been made.

Methods: We have assessed and performed occupational assessment of eight workers involved in this industry.

Prevalence of airflow obstruction in patients attending a rapid access chest pain clinic.

Background: Many UK hospitals have set-up specialised chest pain clinics to deal promptly and efficiently with cases of possible cardiac chest pain. It is possible that a proportion of patients attending these clinics will have a respiratory cause for their chest pain, or respiratory disease in addition to their cardiac pain. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of airflow obstruction, ischaemic heart disease and dual pathology in such patients.

Prevalence of respiratory symptoms, features of asthma, and characteristics associated with respiratory disease, in 6-11 year olds in Manchester.

Aims: This paper describes the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, features of asthma, and characteristics associated with respiratory disease in 6-11 year old children in an historical cohort study.

Methods: The study included 5086 children, all born in the same maternity unit in the north west of England over a four-year period. The prevalence of respiratory symptoms, features of asthma, and characteristics associated with respiratory disease were determined by the use of parent-completed questionnaires.

Natural history and risk factors of early respiratory responses to exposure to cotton dust in newly exposed workers.

Objective: A prospective study of newly exposed cotton workers was performed to investigate the natural history of respiratory symptoms and lung function changes.

Methods: A total of 157 workers naive to cotton dust exposure were investigated by questionnaire, spirometry, and skin tests. They were examined before employment (baseline) and at the end of the first week, and the first, third, sixth, and 12th month after starting work.

Is the prevalence of wheeze in children altered by neonatal BCG vaccination?

Background: The prevalence of asthma and atopic disease has increased in recent decades, but precise reasons for this increase are unknown. BCG vaccination is thought to be among a group of vaccines capable of manipulating the immune system toward T(H)1 dominance and therefore reducing the likelihood of atopic disease.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the influence of neonatal BCG vaccination on the prevalence of wheeze in a large community population of children.

IPEADAM study: indoor endotoxin exposure, family status, and some housing characteristics in English children.

Background: Many environmental factors have been investigated to determine their involvement in the asthma epidemic.

Objective: We sought to investigate the indoor environment of English children.

Method: The Indoor Pollutants, Endotoxin, Allergens, Damp and Asthma in Manchester (IPEADAM) study recruited 200 asthmatic and age-, sex-, and sibship size-matched nonasthmatic children after a questionnaire-based community screening epidemiology survey.