The Medical journal of Australia
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Multicenter Study
A classification of hospital-acquired diagnoses for use with routine hospital data.
To develop a tool to allow Australian hospitals to monitor the range of hospital-acquired diagnoses coded in routine data in support of quality improvement efforts. ⋯ Monitoring quality improvement requires timely hospital-onset data, regardless of causation or "preventability" of each complication. The CHADx uses routinely abstracted hospital diagnosis and condition-onset information about in-hospital complications. Use of this classification will allow hospitals to track monthly performance for any of the CHADx indicators, or to evaluate specific quality improvement projects.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Tobacco use and measuring nicotine dependence among urban Indigenous pregnant women.
To examine patterns of nicotine dependence, the value of the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) and its correlation with self-reported tobacco use and urinary cotinine concentrations among pregnant Indigenous women in Townsville. ⋯ The use of the FTND in Indigenous pregnant women may assess physical nicotine dependence, thus providing information that will help in preparing quit-smoking plans, including tailoring of pharmacological support to individual need. Quit-smoking programs that better address the behavioural and psychological aspects of smoking within the Indigenous community in Australia are needed.
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To measure the level of functional health literacy (FHL) in an Australian population, and to explore the level of risk associated with level of FHL. ⋯ Many Australians are likely to have limited health literacy, and this is a risk to effective health care delivery and health improvement across the community.