National smoke-free legislation is being adopted by an increasing number of countries. In terms of scale and the potential impact on many diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancers and respiratory disease, this is undoubtedly an important public health intervention. It is appropriate, at this point in time, to review what is …

Objective: To examine the effect of changes in job control on health behaviors, psychological distress and health status. Methods: Using a path analysis model, we examined the effects of change in job control over a 4-year period on levels of physical activity, smoking, and psychological distress; and on self-rated health …

Background For winter 2003/2004 in Scotland, it was recommended that all those aged 65 and over be eligible to receive 23-valent polysaccharide pneumococcal vaccine (23vPPV), which has been shown to be effective in reducing the risk of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). We assessed the success of the vaccination programme by …

Abstract Objective: To examine the pathways through which job control affects health status; to examine if the effects of job control on health status are attenuated by including other measures associated with lower socioeconomic status, and to examine if the relationship between job control and health status is consistent across …

Objectives In Scotland, legislation was implemented in March 2006 prohibiting smoking in all wholly or partially enclosed public spaces. We investigated the impact on attempts to quit smoking and smoking prevalence. Methods We performed time series models using Box-Jenkins autoregressive integrated moving averages (ARIMA) on monthly data on the gross …

A review of the surgical costs and results in a group of patients randomly allocated to surgery as part of a large prospective randomized trial of patients with chronic back pain. OBJECTIVE: To report the observational data from the surgical arm of a randomized trial comparing surgery with intensive rehabilitation …

Previous studies have suggested a reduction in the total number of hospital admissions for acute coronary syndrome after the enactment of legislation banning smoking in public places. However, it is unknown whether the reduction in admissions involved nonsmokers, smokers, or both. Mar 21, 2014

Background Increasing regulation of medical research, in particular the requirement for explicit consent, may reduce the quantity and quality of clinical epidemiological research. Aim To assess the potential biases arising from the need for explicit consent in our hospital-based stroke research register. Design Comparison of patients enrolled into our stroke …

Many studies rely on self-reported smoking status. We hypothesized that patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), a smoking-related condition, would be more prone to misclassify themselves as ex-smokers, because of pressure to quit. We compared patients admitted with ACS with a general population survey conducted in the same country at …

The psychosocial working environment is an important determinant of health status and health inequalities in Canada. Particular dimensions of the psychosocial work environment such as low job control, job strain and imbalances between perceived efforts and rewards have been related to cardiovascular disease (the leading cause of mortality in Canada) …