Individual music therapy for managing neuropsychiatric symptoms for people with dementia and their carers: a cluster randomised controlled feasibility study.

Background: Previous research highlights the importance of staff involvement in psychosocial interventions targeting neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia. Music therapy has shown potential effects, but it is not clear how this intervention can be programmed to involve care staff within the delivery of patients' care. This study reports initial feasibility and outcomes from a five month music therapy programme including weekly individual active music therapy for people with dementia and weekly post-therapy video presentations for their carers in care homes.

Is travel-time to a specialist centre a risk factor for non-referral, non-attendance and loss to follow-up among patients with hepatitis C (HCV) infection?

Little is known about why many people diagnosed with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection fail to reach and stay within specialist care services. We used a Geographic Information System and logit regression to investigate whether travel-time to a specialist centre was associated with an increased likelihood of non-referral, non-attendance and loss to follow-up among persons diagnosed with HCV between 1991 and 2003 in Tayside, Scotland (UK). Information was available on referral to, and utilisation of, the single HCV specialist centre in Tayside between 1991 and 2006.

How serious is the modifiable areal unit problem for analysis of English census data?

Population data are often collected or presented for geographical areas which may have little or no connection to the processes generating the data. Such areal units are termed 'modifiable'. However analysis undertaken on such data is not independent of how these areal units are configured.

Does geographic access to primary healthcare influence the detection of hepatitis C?

Recent work in France has suggested that poor geographic access to primary healthcare may have a negative influence upon detection rates of the hepatitis C virus. Topography and poor infrastructure can exacerbate geographic remoteness, while the stigma surrounding hepatitis C and intravenous drug use may also discourage healthcare-seeking behaviour in rural communities with limited choice of general practitioner. No similar study has been conducted in the UK, where detection rates of hepatitis C are also low.