Comparison of training responses and performance adaptations in endurance-trained men and women performing high-intensity interval training.

The efficacy of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) to elicit physiological and performance adaptations in endurance athletes has been established in men and to a lesser extent in women. This study compared lactate threshold (LT) and performance adaptations to HIIT between men and women. Nine male and eight female cyclists and triathletes completed trials to determine their LT and 40 km cycling performance before, and after 10 HIIT sessions.

The Efficacy of the Lactate Threshold: A Sex-Based Comparison.

Hoffmann, SM, Skinner, TL, van Rosendal, SP, Osborne, MA, Emmerton, LM, and Jenkins, DG. The efficacy of the lactate threshold: A sex-based comparison. J Strength Cond Res 34(11): 3190-3198, 2020-The second lactate threshold (LT2) has previously been associated with endurance performance; however, comparisons between sexes are lacking regarding its efficacy.

Oral Contraceptive Use Influences On-Kinetic Adaptations to Sprint Interval Training in Recreationally-Active Women.

Introduction: Oral contraceptive (OC) use influences peak exercise responses to training, however, the influence of OC on central and peripheral adaptations to exercise training are unknown. This study investigated the influence of OC use on changes in time-to-fatigue, pulmonary oxygen uptake, cardiac output, and heart rate on-kinetics, as well as tissue saturation index to 4 weeks of sprint interval training in recreationally active women.

Methods: Women taking an oral contraceptive (OC; = 25) or experiencing natural menstrual cycles (MC; = 22) completed an incremental exercise test to volitional exhaustion followed by a square-wave step-transition protocol to moderate (90% of power output at ventilatory threshold) and high intensity (Δ50% of power output at ventilatory threshold) exercise on two separate occasions.

Medicines reclassification from a pharmaceutical industry perspective: An international qualitative study.

Background: Widening access to medicines through reclassification ('switching') of medicines from prescription to non-prescription is an international trend generally welcomed by community pharmacists. Research has focused on scheduling and committee deliberations affecting reclassification, rather than industry aspects, despite industry's role in driving reclassifications. The research aimed to identify how pharmaceutical industry and product-related factors influence reclassification, and to explore stakeholder acceptability of government or third-party driven reclassifications.

Simulated medication errors: A means of evaluating healthcare professionals' knowledge and understanding of medication safety.

Objective: To determine multi-disciplinary perceptions of the clinical significance of medication errors (MEs), the responsible health professional(s), the contributing factors and potential preventive strategies.

Methods: The five simulated ME cases represented errors from five wards at a children's hospital in Australia. Pre-determined answers for each case were developed through consensus among the researchers.

Three-step method for menstrual and oral contraceptive cycle verification.

Objectives: Fluctuating endogenous and exogenous ovarian hormones may influence exercise parameters; yet control and verification of ovarian hormone status is rarely reported and limits current exercise science and sports medicine research. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an individualised three-step method in identifying the mid-luteal or high hormone phase in endogenous and exogenous hormone cycles in recreationally-active women and determine hormone and demographic characteristics associated with unsuccessful classification.

Design: Cross-sectional study design.

Use of Oral Contraceptives to Manipulate Menstruation in Young, Physically Active Women.

Purpose: Menstruation and menstrual symptoms are commonly cited barriers to physical activity in women. The delay or avoidance of menstruation through extended oral-contraceptive (OC) regimens may mitigate these barriers, yet information on menstrual-manipulation practices in young physically active women is sparse. The objective of this study was to investigate prevalence of, and reasons for, menstrual manipulation with OCs in recreationally and competitively active women.

Oral Contraceptive Use Dampens Physiological Adaptations to Sprint Interval Training.

Purpose: Oral contraceptive (OC) use reduces peak aerobic capacity (V˙O2peak); however, whether it also influences adaptations to training has yet to be determined. This study aimed to examine the influence of OC use on peak performance (peak power output [PPO]) and physiological adaptations (V˙O2peak and peak cardiac output [Q˙peak]) after sprint interval training (SIT) in recreationally active women.

Methods: Women taking an OC (n = 25) or experiencing natural regular menstrual cycles (MC; n = 16) completed an incremental exercise test to assess V˙O2peak, PPO, and Q˙peak before, immediately after, and 4 wk after 12 sessions of SIT.

Consumer Use of "Dr Google": A Survey on Health Information-Seeking Behaviors and Navigational Needs.

Background: The Internet provides a platform to access health information and support self-management by consumers with chronic health conditions. Despite recognized barriers to accessing Web-based health information, there is a lack of research quantitatively exploring whether consumers report difficulty finding desired health information on the Internet and whether these consumers would like assistance (ie, navigational needs). Understanding navigational needs can provide a basis for interventions guiding consumers to quality Web-based health resources.

A model for assessment and referral of clients with bowel symptoms in community pharmacies.

Background: To expedite diagnosis of serious bowel disease, efforts are required to signpost patients with high-risk symptoms to appropriate care. Community pharmacies are a recognized source of health advice regarding bowel symptoms. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a validated self-administered questionnaire, Jodi Lee Test (JLT), for detection, triage, and referral of bowel symptoms suggestive of carcinoma, in pharmacies.

Contribution of mobile health applications to self-management by consumers: review of published evidence.

Objective The aim of the present study was to review the contribution of mobile health applications ('apps') to consumers' self-management of chronic health conditions, and the potential for this practice to inform health policy, procedures and guidelines. Methods A search was performed on the MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, ProQuest and Global Health (Ovid) databases using the search terms 'mobile app*', 'self-care', 'self-monitoring', 'trial', 'intervention*' and various medical conditions. The search was supplemented with manual location of emerging literature and government reports.

Exploring example models of cross-sector, sessional employment of pharmacists to improve medication management and pharmacy support in rural hospitals.

Introduction: Many rural hospitals in Australia are not large enough to sustain employment of a full-time pharmacist, or are unable to recruit or retain a full-time pharmacist. The absence of a pharmacist may result in hospital nurses undertaking medication-related roles outside their scope of practice. A potential solution to address rural hospitals' medication management needs is contracted part-time ('sessional') employment of a local pharmacist external to the hospital ('cross-sector').

Widening consumer access to medicines: a comparison of prescription to non-prescription medicine switch in Australia and New Zealand.

Background: Despite similarities in health systems and Trans-Tasman Harmonization of medicines scheduling, New Zealand is more active than Australia in 'switching' (reclassifying) medicines from prescription to non-prescription.

Objectives: To identify and compare enablers and barriers to switch in New Zealand and Australia.

Methods: We conducted and analyzed 27 in-depth personal interviews with key participants in NZ and Australia and international participants previously located in Australia, and analyzed records of meetings considering switches (2000-2013).

Funding issues and options for pharmacists providing sessional services to rural hospitals in Australia.

Objective: Many of Australia' s rural hospitals operate without an on-site pharmacist. In some, community pharmacists have sessional contracts to provide medication management services to inpatients. This paper discusses the funding arrangements of identified sessional employment models to raise awareness of options for other rural hospitals.

Cross-sector, sessional employment of pharmacists in rural hospitals in Australia and New Zealand: a qualitative study exploring pharmacists' perceptions and experiences.

Background: Many rural hospitals in Australia and New Zealand do not have an on-site pharmacist. Sessional employment of a local pharmacist offers a potential solution to address the clinical service needs of non-pharmacist rural hospitals. This study explored sessional service models involving pharmacists and factors (enablers and challenges) impacting on these models, with a view to informing future sessional employment.

Widening consumer access to medicines through switching medicines to non-prescription: a six country comparison.

Background: Switching or reclassifying medicines with established safety profiles from prescription to non-prescription aims to increase timely consumer access to medicines, reduce under-treatment and enhance self-management. However, risks include suboptimal therapy and adverse effects. With a long-standing government policy supporting switching or reclassifying medicines from prescription to non-prescription, the United Kingdom is believed to lead the world in switch, but evidence for this is inconclusive.

A pharmacy asthma service achieves a change in patient responses from increased awareness to taking responsibility for their asthma.

Objectives: If novel health services are to be implemented and sustained in practice, the perceptions and views of patients form a critical part of their evaluation. The aims of this study were to explore patient's perceptions and experiences with a pharmacy asthma service and to investigate if there was a change over time.

Methods: Interviews and focus groups were conducted with patients participating in the asthma service at three time points.

Interventions to assist health consumers to find reliable online health information: a comprehensive review.

Background: Health information on the Internet is ubiquitous, and its use by health consumers prevalent. Finding and understanding relevant online health information, and determining content reliability, pose real challenges for many health consumers.

Purpose: To identify the types of interventions that have been implemented to assist health consumers to find reliable online health information, and where possible, describe and compare the types of outcomes studied.

Health literacy among consumers in community pharmacy: perceptions of pharmacy staff.

Background: Low health literacy has important consequences for health status, medication adherence and use of health services. There is little insight from the perspective of pharmacy staff into how they identify the information needs of consumers and particularly the signals and risk factors of limited health literacy that they encounter in their day-to-day communication with consumers.

Objective: To investigate factors impacting on consumer health literacy, from the perspective of pharmacy staff.

Prescribing and medication-initiation roles based on the perspectives of rural healthcare providers in a study community in Queensland.

Objective: There are recognised health service inequities in rural communities, including the timely provision of medications, often due to shortages of qualified prescribers. The present paper explores the insights of rural healthcare providers into the prescribing and medication-initiation roles of health professionals for their rural community.

Methods: Forty-nine healthcare providers (medical practitioners, pharmacists, nurses, occupational therapists, a dentist and an optometrist) from four neighbouring towns in a rural health service district in Queensland participated in face-to-face semistructured interviews.

Experiences of community pharmacists involved in the delivery of a specialist asthma service in Australia.

Background: The role of community pharmacists in disease state management has been mooted for some years. Despite a number of trials of disease state management services, there is scant literature into the engagement of, and with, pharmacists in such trials. This paper reports pharmacists' feedback as providers of a Pharmacy Asthma Management Service (PAMS), a trial coordinated across four academic research centres in Australia in 2009.

Issues with medication supply and management in a rural community in Queensland.

Objective: To identify the key issues reported by rural health-care providers in their provision of medication supply and related cognitive services, and in order to advise health workforce and role development and thus improve the quality use of medicines in rural communities.

Design: Exploratory semistructured interview research.

Setting: A rural community comprising four towns in a rural health service district in Queensland, Australia.

Look-alike and sound-alike medicines: risks and 'solutions'.

'Look-alike, sound-alike' medicines are associated with dispensing errors. This commentary aims to fuel discussion surrounding how drug name nomenclature and similar packaging between medicines can lead to selection errors, the need for enhanced approval systems for medicine names and packaging, and best practice 'solutions'. The literature reveals a number of environmental risks and human factors that can contribute to such errors.

Non-prescription medicines and Australian community pharmacy interventions: rates and clinical significance.

Objective: To quantify pharmacy intervention rates for non-prescription medications (pharmacist-only and pharmacy medicines), to document the clinical significance of these interventions and to determine the adverse health consequences and subsequent health care avoided as a result of the interventions.

Methods: Non-prescription medicines interventions undertaken by community pharmacy staff were recorded in two field studies: a study of all Australian pharmacies to determine incidence rates for low-incidence, highly significant interventions, and a study of a sample of pharmacies to collect data on all non-prescription interventions. Recorded interventions were assessed by a clinical panel for clinical significance, potential adverse health consequence avoided, probability and likely duration of the adverse health consequence.