Public health
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Increasing the rate of smoking cessation remains a major public health goal. To help achieve this in the UK, National Health Service (NHS) smoking cessation services have been established to provide treatment for smokers wanting help with stopping. Referrals from general practitioners (GPs) are crucial to the success of these clinics. This study aimed to assess English GPs' self-reported interactions with, and attitudes towards, their local smoking cessation services. ⋯ GPs support the existence and continuation of specialist smoking cessation services, and most reported that they refer patients to them. Virtually every GP reported that they record smoking status when new patients join their practice, and they advise smokers to stop 'at least every now and then'.
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The Yorkshire and Humberside region of England ranks second only to London for reception of those seeking asylum in the UK. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence amongst asylum seekers is likely to mirror that in the country of origin. In 2001, the city of Leeds received 1100 asylum seekers, including dependents. Many of these were from areas with high seroprevalence of HIV, and HIV-infected asylum seekers require medical and social support. Are the current services for HIV-infected persons in Leeds appropriate and adequate for this new patient group? Provision of sexual health services for this client group needs to be evaluated. ⋯ Asylum seekers and UK residents were equally satisfied with HIV/AIDS services at Leeds Centre for Sexual Health. Other agencies such as the Health Access Team and Terrence Higgins Trust had different strengths that provided valuable support for this client group. Unmet needs of asylum seekers were identified, such as specialist services for torture victims and educational opportunities. In areas of asylum seeker dispersal with increased case loads, this methodology may inform development of client-centred care networks.
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Policy analysis is not an easy task. Its scope is broad and can include both the analysis of policy process and the analysis of policy content. This paper is concerned with the analysis of policy content and offers some practical guidance regarding how to analyse health policy and link it to health outcomes. An eight-step framework for policy analysis is proposed that public health policy makers and public health practitioners may find especially useful due to its simplicity.
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In Vietnam, needs to update medical and public health research capacity, but advanced training in research methodology in universities is still very limited. The first university-certified research training course aimed at physicians was conducted in Ho Chi Minh City in 2000. This paper describes the processes, outcomes and lessons learned from the project, to enable the training course to be repeated to increase research capacity among health professionals in Vietnam and other developing countries. ⋯ This type of rigorous in-service research training at universities and teaching hospitals in developing countries appears to be an effective, sustainable approach. It also holds promise for producing research data that are responsive to a country's own needs and which are likely to be applied in health policy and practice. Further evaluation of the impact and cost of such models is indicated.
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This study estimated the effect of maternal sociodemographic, obstetric and lifestyle factors on the risk of spontaneous preterm birth in a Russian town. ⋯ In addition to medical risk factors, social factors are important determinants of preterm birth in transitional Russia. Large disparities in preterm birth rates may reflect the level of inequalities in transitional Russia. Social variations in pregnancy outcomes should be monitored.