BMJ : British medical journal
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Multicenter Study
Case-control study of oral contraceptives and risk of thromboembolic stroke: results from International Study on Oral Contraceptives and Health of Young Women.
To determine the influence of oral contraceptives (particularly those containing modern progestins) on the risk for ischaemic stroke in women aged 16-44 years. ⋯ Although there is a small relative risk of occlusive stroke for women of reproductive age who currently use oral contraceptives, the attributable risk is very small because the incidence in this age range is very low. There is no difference between the risk of oral contraceptives of the third and second generation; only first generation oral contraceptives seem to be associated with a higher risk. This small increase in risk may be further reduced by efforts to control cardiovascular risk factors, particularly high blood pressure.
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To measure patients' expectations of receiving prescriptions and general practitioners' perceptions of these expectations and to determine the factors most closely associated with the decision to prescribe. ⋯ In an area of low prescribing and high expectations the decision to prescribe was closely related to actual and perceived expectations, but the latter was the more significant influence.