Does tobacco-control mass media campaign exposure prevent relapse among recent quitters?

Objective: To determine whether greater mass media campaign exposure may assist recent quitters to avoid relapse.

Method: Using date of data collection and postcode, media market estimates of televised tobacco-control advertising exposure measured by gross ratings points (GRPs) were merged with a replenished cohort study of 443 Australians who had quit in the past year. Participants' demographic and smoking characteristics prior to quitting, and advertising exposure in the period after quitting, were used to predict relapse 1 year later.

Removal of doctors from practice for professional misconduct in Australia and New Zealand.

Objective: To examine how disciplinary tribunals assess different forms of misconduct in deciding whether to remove doctors from practice for professional misconduct.

Design And Setting: Multivariable regression analysis of 485 cases in which tribunals found doctors guilty of professional misconduct. The cases came from four Australian states (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia) and New Zealand and were decided over a 10-year period (1 January 2000 - 30 September 2009).

Factors predicting coroners' decisions to hold discretionary inquests.

Background: Coroners in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and other countries in the Commonwealth hold inquests into deaths in two situations. Mandatory inquests are held when statutory rules dictate they must be; discretionary inquests are held based on the decisions of individual coroners. Little is known as to how and why coroners select particular deaths for discretionary inquests.

Children's sun exposure and sun protection: prevalence in Australia and related parental factors.

Background: Reducing childhood exposure to ultraviolet radiation is important to minimize lifetime skin cancer risk.

Objectives: We sought to describe the prevalence of children's sun-related behaviors and associated parental and other factors.

Methods: In weekly cross-sectional telephone interviews during summer, 1140 parents/guardians of children aged 0 to 11 years were recruited.

Australia's Better Access initiative: an evaluation.

Background: Australia's Better Access to Psychiatrists, Psychologists and General Practitioners through the Medicare Benefits Schedule (Better Access) initiative involves a series of Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) item numbers which offer a rebate for selected services delivered by eligible clinicians. There has been considerable debate about the appropriateness and effectiveness of Better Access, much of which has been based on limited evidence. The current paper contributes to this debate by presenting the findings of a study which profiled the clinical and treatment characteristics of Better Access patients and examined the outcomes of their care.

Remedies sought and obtained in healthcare complaints.

In the wake of adverse events, injured patients and their families have a complex range of needs and wants. The tort system, even when operating at its best, will inevitably fall far short of addressing them. In Australia and New Zealand, government-run health complaints commissions take a more flexible and expansive approach to providing remedies for patients injured by or disgruntled with care.

Effects of mass media campaign exposure intensity and durability on quit attempts in a population-based cohort study.

Objective: To assess the extent to which intensity and timing of televised anti-smoking advertising emphasizing the serious harms of smoking influences quit attempts.

Methods: Using advertising gross rating points (GRPs), we estimated exposure to tobacco control and nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) advertising in the 3, 4-6, 7-9 and 10-12 months prior to follow-up of a replenished cohort of 3037 Australian smokers during 2002-08. Using generalized estimating equations, we related the intensity and timing of advertising exposure from each source to the likelihood of making a quit attempt in the 3 months prior to follow-up.

Prevalence and characteristics of complaint-prone doctors in private practice in Victoria.

Objective: To identify characteristics of doctors who are repeated subjects of complaints by patients.

Design And Setting: Case-control study of doctors about whom patients had complained to the Victorian Health Services Commissioner between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2009.

Participants: 384 doctors in private practice; cases comprised 96 doctors who were the subject of four or more separate complaints; and the control group comprised 288 doctors who were the subject of a single complaint over the study period.

Which types of televised anti-tobacco campaigns prompt more quitline calls from disadvantaged groups?

To examine the efficacy of different types of mass media ads in driving lower socio-economic smokers (SES) to utilize quitlines. This study collected all 33 719 calls to the Victorian quitline in Australia over a 2-year period. Negative binomial regressions examined the relationship between weekly levels of exposure to different types of anti-smoking ads and quitline calls, after adjusting for covariates.

Doctors disciplined for professional misconduct in Australia and New Zealand, 2000-2009.

Objectives: To describe professional discipline cases in Australia and New Zealand in which doctors were found guilty of professional misconduct, and to develop a typology for describing the misconduct.

Design And Setting: A retrospective analysis of disciplinary cases adjudicated in five jurisdictions (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and New Zealand) in 2000-2009.

Main Outcome Measures: Characteristics of the cases (setting, misconduct type, patient outcomes, disciplinary measure imposed), characteristics of the doctors involved (sex, specialty, years since qualification) and population-level case rates (by doctor characteristics).

Relationship between quality of care and negligence litigation in nursing homes.

Background: It is unclear whether high-quality health care institutions are less likely to be sued for negligence than their low-performing counterparts.

Methods: We linked information on tort claims brought against 1465 nursing homes between 1998 and 2006 to 10 indicators of nursing home quality drawn from two U.S.

What impact have tobacco control policies, cigarette price and tobacco control programme funding had on Australian adolescents' smoking? Findings over a 15-year period.

Aims: To assess the impact of tobacco control policies relating to youth access, clean indoor air and tobacco advertising at point-of-sale and outdoors, in addition to cigarette price and per capita tobacco control spending, on adolescent smoking prevalence.

Design: Repeated cross-sectional surveys. Logistic regression analyses examined association between policies and smoking prevalence.

Clinical improvement after treatment provided through the Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care (BOiMHC) programme: do some patients show greater improvement than others?

Objective: Australia's Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care (BOiMHC) programme enables GPs to refer patients with common mental disorders to allied health professionals for time-limited treatment, through its Access to Allied Psychological Services (ATAPS) projects. This paper considers whether patients who receive care through the ATAPS projects make clinical gains, if so, whether particular patient-related and treatment-related variables are predictive of these outcomes.

Method: Divisions of General Practice (Divisions), which run the ATAPS projects, are required to enter de-identified data into a minimum dataset, including data on patients' socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, the sessions of care they receive, and their clinical outcomes.

Secondhand smoke exposure (PM2.5) in outdoor dining areas and its correlates.

Background: This study assessed the magnitude of secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure when people smoke in outdoor dining areas and explored conditions influencing exposure levels.

Methods: Data were gathered from 69 outdoor dining areas in Melbourne, Australia, during April/May 2007. Sitting at tables within 1 metre of an active smoker, the authors measured the concentration of particulate pollution (PM(2.

Mass media campaign improves cervical screening across all socio-economic groups.

Low socio-economic status (SES) has been associated with lower cervical screening rates. Mass media is one known strategy that can increase cervical screening participation. This study sought to determine whether a mass media campaign conducted in Victoria, Australia, in 2005 was effective in encouraging women across all SES groups to screen.

Taxation reduces social disparities in adult smoking prevalence.

Background: The CDC, the WHO, and the World Bank promote increases in the price of cigarettes as an effective and important tobacco-control strategy. This study was designed to assess the extent to which the association between the price of cigarettes and smoking prevalence, as measured monthly, varies by income group.

Methods: Australian population survey data collected monthly from January 1991 to December 2006 were used to estimate Poisson regression models to assess the impact of the price of cigarettes on smoking prevalence across three income groups.

Happiness and life satisfaction prospectively predict self-rated health, physical health, and the presence of limiting, long-term health conditions.

Purpose: To examine the effect of happiness and life satisfaction on health.

Design: Longitudinal data from waves 1 and 3, conducted in 2001 and 2004, respectively, of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey.

Setting: Australia.

Impact of tobacco control policies and mass media campaigns on monthly adult smoking prevalence.

Objectives: We sought to assess the impact of several tobacco control policies and televised antismoking advertising on adult smoking prevalence.

Methods: We used a population survey in which smoking prevalence was measured each month from 1995 through 2006. Time-series analysis assessed the effect on smoking prevalence of televised antismoking advertising (with gross audience rating points [GRPs] per month), cigarette costliness, monthly sales of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and bupropion, and smoke-free restaurant laws.

Use of sun-protective clothing at outdoor leisure settings from 1992 to 2002: serial cross-sectional observation survey.

Background: Previous population-based surveys to monitor sun protection behavior over time have relied on self-report, which can be subject to recall and misclassification bias and social desirability bias. The present study aimed to describe the prevalence and determinants of teenagers' and adults' observed sun protection behavior while engaged in outdoor leisure activities on summer weekends, over a decade of the SunSmart skin cancer prevention program, which involved public education and advocacy.

Method: Serial cross-sectional observational field surveys of teenagers and adults at leisure were undertaken during summer weekends between 11 a.

Weekend sun protection and sunburn in Australia trends (1987-2002) and association with SunSmart television advertising.

Background: The Australian state of Victoria has run a population-based skin cancer prevention program called SunSmart since 1988, incorporating substantial public education efforts and environmental change strategies. Trends over 15 years in behavioral risk factors for skin cancer were examined in a population exposed to the SunSmart program. Whether outcomes were associated with extent of SunSmart television advertising was then assessed.

Smoking cessation and financial stress.

Background: Research on the financial consequences of quitting smoking is scant. We examined the association of smoking cessation with the subsequent likelihood of experiencing financial stress.

Methods: Data came from Waves 1, 2 and 3 (2001-04) of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey.

Association of smoking cessation with financial stress and material well-being: results from a prospective study of a population-based national survey.

Objectives: We used 4 waves of prospective data to examine the association of smoking cessation with financial stress and material well-being.

Methods: Data (n = 5699 at baseline) came from 4 consecutive waves (2001-2005) of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. We used mixed models to examine the participant-specific association of smoking cessation with financial stress and material well-being.

Antismoking television advertising and socioeconomic variations in calls to Quitline.

Objective: To assess the socioeconomic variations in call rates to the Quitline (Victoria, Australia) and in the impact of anti-tobacco television advertising on call rates.

Design: The outcome measure was the number of calls to the Quitline in Victoria for each week for each socioeconomic group for the period January 2001 to March 2004. Socioeconomic status (SES) was derived from the caller's postcode using the Index of Socioeconomic Disadvantage provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.