Social Media and Website Use: The Experiences of Parents and Carers Accessing Care at the Oxford Craniofacial Unit.

Introduction: Historically, medical professionals have been the providers of specialist information about rare medical conditions. Now, increasingly, patients and the public are using the internet to access and generate information about medical diagnoses. The global nature of the internet allows patients to connect across geographical borders, and to obtain and share information that would have been previously inaccessible to them.

Adolescents' experiences of receiving and living with sequential cochlear implants: an interpretative phenomenological analysis.

There is currently a unique opportunity to examine the experiences of young people who receive a second sequential cochlear implant (SCI), after only having had 1 cochlear implant (CI) for most of their lives. Eleven young people who had opted to receive an SCI were interviewed. Interpretative phenomenological analysis resulted in the identification of 6 master themes.

Childhood asthma: healthcare resource utilisation in those with and without a diagnosis of the condition.

Aim: To examine healthcare utilisation and the direct financial costs in providing medical care to a population of children aged 5-15 years with respiratory complaints. Secondarily, to assess whether these costs depended upon having specific asthma diagnosis or not.

Method: A postal respiratory questionnaire was sent to the parents or guardians of all children registered with two general practices.

Identification of adults with symptoms suggestive of obstructive airways disease: validation of a postal respiratory questionnaire.

Background: Two simples scoring systems for a self-completed postal respiratory questionnaire were developed to identify adults who may have obstructive airways disease. The objective of this study was to validate these scoring systems.

Method: A two-stage design was used.

The Impact of Respiratory Symptoms on Healthcare Utilisation: The Primary and Secondary Care Interface.

Background: There is evidence that the prevalence of asthma is increasing but little is known about the contribution made by respiratory illness to the combined workload of primary and secondary healthcare.

Aim: To examine the relationship between self-reported respiratory symptoms in adults and health care utilisation.

Methods: Two general practice populations received a postal questionnaire regarding respiratory symptoms in 1993.

Primary care workload and prescribing costs in children The impact of respiratory symptoms.

Aim: To examine the relationship between responses to a respiratory questionnaire and primary healthcare utilisation in children.

Method: A stratified random sample of 713 children was selected from respondents to a postal respiratory questionnaire carried out in two general practice populations in 1993. Children were stratified into four groups according to the number of positive responses to five key questions.