Does the HPV vaccination programme have implications for cervical screening programmes in the UK?

In the UK, a national HPV immunisation programme was implemented in 2008 for girls aged 12–13 years. In addition a catch-up programme was implemented for older girls up to 18 years of age from 2009 to 2011, with an uptake rate of 49.4%. Information about future uptake of cervical screening according to vaccination statistics is important in order to understand the impact of the vaccination programme and implications for a national cervical screening programme. We analysed data on a cohort of women who had been offered the HPV vaccine in the catch-up programme and were invited for cervical screening between 2010 and 2012 in Wales (n = 30,882), in a record-linked database study, to describe the cervical screening uptake and clinical outcome according to HPV vaccination status.     

Teaching science vs. the apprentice model – do we really have the choice?

Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - The debate about the appropriate methodology of medical education has been (and still is) dominated by the opposing poles of teaching science versus teaching...     

What characteristics have the elderly who contact friends at hospitals?]

PURPOSES: The purposes of this study are to examine two points; 1) What effects do regular visits to hospitals have on the existence of friend?. and 2) Do the elderly use hospitals as substitutes for other meeting places or independent of other places?. METHODS: Data concerning 2,447 older adults were obtained from a national survey for the elderly aged 60 and over, conducted in 1996. 1) To examine effects of regular visits to hospitals on friends, friendships as a dependent variable, regular visits to hospitals as a confounding variable, and some two way-interaction terms as independent variables were entered in logistic regression analysis. 2) To analyze relationships between hospitals and other meeting places, correspondence analyses and logistic regression were used. 3) Existence of friends whom the elderly contact at hospitals as a dependent variable, existence of friends whom they meet at other places as a confounding variable, and some two way-interaction terms as independent variables were entered in logistic regression analysis. 3) Relationships between clinics and other meeting places were also analyzed using correspondence analyses and logistic regression. RESULTS: 1. Although regular visits to hospitals did not have a significant direct impact on existence of friends, the respondents with low activities of daily living who regularly visits hospitals were more likely to have friends than ones did not visits hospitals. 2. The respondents who meet friends at hospitals were also more likely to have contacts with friends at community centers for the elderly or community organization. 3. The respondents who meet friends at clinics had similar characteristics to those who meet friends at hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: Regular visits to hospitals may contribute to maintain contacts with friends, especially in the elderly with low ADL. The elderly may use hospitals as meeting places with friends independent of other places. Hospitals may have similar functions to what clinics as meeting places with friends.