Background: Between 1997 and 2010, the English government pursued an ambitious programme to reduce health inequalities, the explicit and sustained commitment of which was historically and internationally unique. Previous evaluations have produced mixed results. None of these evaluations have, however, compared the trends in health inequalities within England with those in other European countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough higher education has been associated with lower mortality rates in many studies, the effect of potential improvements in educational distribution on future mortality levels is unknown. We therefore estimated the impact of projected increases in higher education on mortality in European populations. We used mortality and population data according to educational level from 21 European populations and developed counterfactual scenarios.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSocioeconomic inequalities in health and mortality remain a widely recognized problem. Countries with smaller inequalities in smoking have smaller inequalities in mortality, and smoking plays an important part in the explanation of inequalities in some countries. We identify the potential for reducing inequalities in all-cause and smoking-related mortality in 19 European populations, by applying different scenarios of smoking exposure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Smokers' knowledge of the risks of second-hand smoke (SHS) and the role this plays in implementing behaviours to reduce the SHS exposure of others have not been thoroughly explored. Mass media health promotion is used to promote behaviour change partly by providing information on the consequences of behaviour. In England, between 2003 and 2006, frequent mass media campaigns highlighted the toxicity of SHS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Over the past decade, accelerometers have increased in popularity as an objective measure of physical activity in free-living individuals. Evidence suggests that objective measures, rather than subjective tools such as questionnaires, are more likely to detect associations between physical activity and health in children. To date, a number of studies of children and adolescents across diverse cultures around the globe have collected accelerometer measures of physical activity accompanied by a broad range of predictor variables and associated health outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: An observational study examining 1-year follow-up of clients of two National Health Service smoking cessation services in Glasgow was used to inform a cost-effectiveness analysis. One service involved 7 weeks of group-based support (n = 411) and the other consisted of up to 12 weeks of one-to-one counseling with pharmacists (n = 1,374). Pharmacological aids to quitting (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Smokers from lower socio-economic groups are less likely to be successful in a quit attempt than more affluent smokers, even when they access smoking cessation services.
Methods: Data were collected from smoking cessation service users from three contrasting areas of Great Britain-Glasgow, North Cumbria and Nottingham. Routine monitoring data were supplemented with CO-validated smoking status at 52-week follow-up and survey data on socio-economic circumstances and smoking-related behaviour.
Aims: To explore trends in and predictors of second-hand smoke (SHS) exposure in children. To identify whether inequalities in SHS exposure are changing over time.
Design: Repeated cross-sectional study with data from eight annual surveys conducted over an 11-year period from 1996 to 2006.
Aim: To compare the characteristics and outcomes of users accessing pharmacy and group-based smoking treatment.
Design: Observational study of administrative information linked with survey data.
Setting: Glasgow, Scotland.
Int J Health Serv
December 2008
Health policy in the United Kingdom is devolved to the four home countries. Nevertheless, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales share a common commitment to reducing health inequalities and have set explicit targets in areas such as life expectancy, cancer mortality, long-standing illness, and smoking prevalence. However, many of the targets leave much to be desired in terms of their limited conceptual scope and their selection of methods and approaches.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this study was to determine the degree to which welfare state regime characteristics explained the proportional variation of self-perceived health between European countries, when individual and regional variation was accounted for, by undertaking a multilevel analysis of the European Social Survey (2002 and 2004). A total of 65,065 individuals, from 218 regions and 21 countries, aged 25 years and above were included in the analysis. The health outcomes related to people's own mental and physical health, in general.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: NHS stop smoking services are expected to play a key part in achieving the infant mortality and life expectancy health inequality targets in England by reducing smoking prevalence in deprived areas. This paper assesses the extent to which services have made a contribution to reducing inequalities in smoking between 2003-4 and 2005-6.
Methods: Synthetic estimates of baseline smoking prevalence data were compared with national monitoring data about the numbers of smokers in receipt of services and the proportion who self report quitting at four weeks.
Aviat Space Environ Med
July 2006
Introduction: The aim of this study was to ascertain the incidence of acute mountain sickness (AMS) at different altitudes in the Solu-Khumbu. This was a pilot to examine the feasibility of investigating demographic, behavioral, and physiological factors related to the etiology of AMS and to assess the region's suitability for a future study.
Methods: A convenience sample of 150 recreational trekkers staying in teahouses was interviewed at altitudes above 2500 m.
Background: Studies show that the well-prepared traveller is less likely to suffer travel related illness. This study is designed to examine trekkers' knowledge of altitude sickness in an attempt to see whether knowledge can protect against acute mountain sickness (AMS) and high altitude pulmonary or cerebral oedema (HAPE/HACE).
Methods: A convenience sample of 130 trekkers were interviewed in the Solu Khumbu region of Nepal.
This paper presents early findings from the evaluation of Starting Well, an intensive home visiting program aimed at improving the health of pre-school children in disadvantaged areas of Glasgow, Scotland. Using a quasi-experimental design, detailed survey, observation and interview data were collected on a cohort of 213 intervention and 146 comparison families over the first six months of the child's life. After controlling for relevant background characteristics, multivariate regression analysis revealed higher child dental registration rates and lower rates of maternal depressive symptoms in the intervention cohort.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: To examine the impact of socio-demographic factors, smoking-related behaviour and service characteristics on CO-validated quit rates at 4-week follow-up in English smoking treatment services, and to compare the results with those for self-reported quitters.
Design: Observational study of administrative information linked with survey data for 6959 recipients of smoking treatment services who set a quit date between October 2001 and March 2003.
Setting: Two contrasting areas of England, Nottingham and North Cumbria, consisting of nine primary care trust (PCT) localities.
The National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal (NSNR) is a central component of British policy to reduce health disparities. This program seeks to improve local socioeconomic and physical environments through the intensive regeneration of disadvantaged communities. We describe the challenges facing evaluators tasked with assessing the impacts of 1 component of the NSNR--the New Deal for Communities initiative--and explore techniques that may be adopted in the evaluation process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: To assess the impact of English treatment services on CO-validated quit rates at 52-week follow-up, to explore the relationship between service-related characteristics and socio-demographic and behavioural factors with cessation outcomes, and to compare the characteristics of service users lost to follow-up with CO-validated quitters.
Design: Observational study of administrative information linked with survey data for 2069 recipients of smoking treatment services who set a quit date between May and November 2002.
Setting: Two contrasting areas of England, Nottingham and North Cumbria, consisting of nine primary care trust (PCT) localities.
Aims: To determine the effectiveness of smoking cessation services in enabling smokers living in disadvantaged areas to access treatment services, and to assess the extent of variations between areas.
Design: Observational study of administrative information linked with survey data.
Setting: A representative sample of 19 of the 95 English health areas in 2001.
The 72 known members of the flavivirus genus include lethal human pathogens such as Yellow Fever, West Nile, and Dengue viruses. There is at present no known chemotherapy for any flavivirus and no effective vaccines for most. A common genomic organization and molecular mechanisms of replication in hosts are shared by flaviviruses with a viral serine protease playing a pivotal role in processing the viral polyprotein into component polypeptides, an obligatory step in viral replication.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFContemporary efforts to promote population health improvement and to reduce inequalities in the UK are characterised by their complexity as they engage with a multiplicity of agencies and sectors. Additionally, the emphasis on promoting evidence-based practice has challenged evaluators tasked with collecting and interpreting evidence of impact in complex local health economies. National policy makers, local implementers and other stakeholders will have varying perspectives on impact and the Labour Government's centralising tendencies have acted to 'crowd out' local voices from the policy process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe vaccinia virus complement control protein (VCP) is involved in modulating the host inflammatory response by blocking both pathways of complement activity through its ability to bind C3b and C4b. Other activities arise from VCP's ability to strongly bind heparin. To map regions within VCP involved in binding complement and heparin experimentally, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and recombinantly expressed VCP (rVCP) constructs were employed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealth Soc Care Community
September 2000
Issues of quality and accountability in social care for older people are of increasing importance. A key factor in determining quality is the extent to which older people themselves are satisfied with both the assessment of their needs and the services provided. The 1997 White Paper, Modernising Social Services, stated that local authorities will need to establish authority-wide objectives and performance measures to improve the quality and efficiency of services.
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