The design and evaluation of a bone health teaching module for secondary school students in NSW, Australia.

Issue Addressed: The growing prevalence of osteoporosis requires preventative management starting from an early age as peak bone mass is typically reached by age 30. However, current Australian adolescents are not adequately addressing key osteoprotective factors. Alarmingly, around 17% have insufficient vitamin D levels, 55% consume insufficient dietary calcium, and 79% are insufficiently active.

Osteoporosis screening in Australian community pharmacies: A mixed methods study.

Issues Addressed: Osteoporosis and poor bone health impact a large proportion of the Australian population, but is drastically underdiagnosed and undertreated. Community pharmacies are a strategic location for osteoporosis screening services due to their accessibility and the demographic profile of customers. The aim of this study was to develop, implement and evaluate a community pharmacy health promotion service centred on encouraging consumers to complete an anonymous osteoporosis screening survey called Know Your Bones.

The role of community pharmacists in delivering interventions for osteoporosis: A systematic review.

Background: Osteoporosis is a major public health concern, given that disease prevalence is expected to substantially increase due to the aging population. Community pharmacists can play a key role in the identification and management of chronic diseases.

Objectives: The purpose of this systematic review was to present an overview of the literature on the role of community pharmacists in providing osteoporosis interventions to patients.

The impacts of medication shortages on patient outcomes: A scoping review.

Background: In recent years, medication shortages have become a growing worldwide issue. This scoping review aimed to systematically synthesise the literature to report on the economic, clinical, and humanistic impacts of medication shortages on patient outcomes.

Methods: Medline, Embase, Global Health, PsycINFO and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts were searched using the two key concepts of medicine shortage and patient outcomes.

Does Educator Training or Experience Affect the Quality of Multiple-Choice Questions?

Rationale And Objectives: Physicians receive little training on proper multiple-choice question (MCQ) writing methods. Well-constructed MCQs follow rules, which ensure that a question tests what it is intended to test. Questions that break these are described as "flawed.

A positive relationship between harm avoidance and brain nicotinic acetylcholine receptor availability.

Prior research indicates that disturbance of cholinergic neurotransmission reduces anxiety, leading to the hypothesis that people with heightened cholinergic function have a greater tendency toward anxiety-like and/or harm-avoidant behavior. We sought to determine if people with elevated levels of harm avoidance (HA), a dimension of temperament from the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), have high α4β2* nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) availability. Healthy adults (n=105; 47 non-smokers and 58 smokers) underwent bolus-plus-continuous infusion positron emission tomography (PET) scanning using the radiotracer 2-[18F]fluoro-3-(2(S)azetidinylmethoxy) pyridine (abbreviated as 2-FA).

Treatment for tobacco dependence: effect on brain nicotinic acetylcholine receptor density.

Cigarette smoking leads to upregulation of brain nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), including the common α4β2* nAChR subtype. Although a substantial percentage of smokers receive treatment for tobacco dependence with counseling and/or medication, the effect of a standard course of these treatments on nAChR upregulation has not yet been reported. In the present study, 48 otherwise healthy smokers underwent positron emission tomography (PET) scanning with the radiotracer 2-FA (for labeling α4β2* nAChRs) before and after treatment with either cognitive-behavioral therapy, bupropion HCl, or pill placebo.

Up-regulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in menthol cigarette smokers.

One-third of smokers primarily use menthol cigarettes and usage of these cigarettes leads to elevated serum nicotine levels and more difficulty quitting in standard treatment programmes. Previous brain imaging studies demonstrate that smoking (without regard to cigarette type) leads to up-regulation of β(2)*-containing nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). We sought to determine if menthol cigarette usage results in greater nAChR up-regulation than non-menthol cigarette usage.