Analysis of UK eye casualty presentations.

Clinical Relevance: Optometrists upskilling and participating in enhanced optometric schemes has the potential to improve service accessibility and alleviate pressure on hospital eye services.

Background: There is a growing demand for eye care in the UK with rising hospital attendances thought to be due in part to an ageing population and a shift in behaviour to favour emergency secondary care.

Methods: Records of first-time presentations to the eye casualty department at the County Hospital (Wye Valley NHS Trust), Hereford, UK, over a month were analysed retrospectively and sequentially.

Women's perceptions of discussions about gestational weight gain with health care providers during pregnancy and postpartum: a qualitative study.

Background: Maternal body weight is an indicator of the health of a mother and her developing fetus. Risks of poor maternal and fetal health issues increase when women gain too little or too much weight during pregnancy. A study of 600 women from Alberta, Canada, reported approximately 30, 46, 80, and 80% of underweight, healthy weight, overweight, and obese women, respectively, gained in excess of Health Canada gestational weight gain guidelines.

Central and peripheral visual performance in myopes: contact lenses versus spectacles.

Purpose: Myopia is known to degrade visual performance with both optical and retinal changes implicated. Whether contact lenses or spectacles provide better visual performance for myopes is still under debate. The purpose of this study was to examine central and peripheral visual function in myopic subjects corrected with contact lenses versus spectacles.