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Biomedical subjects

I D Steven

Publications and source records attributed to I D Steven.

49 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

"Sick of Smoking": evaluation of a targeted minimal smoking cessation intervention in general practice.

Several smoking intervention studies have been conducted overseas which use a minimal amount of general practitioners' time and are conducted within the constraints of a normal consultation. However, there are no published reports of minimal interventions in Australian general practice. This study reports on 1238 South Australian smokers who were assigned to a non-intervention control group or a group which received firm general practitioner advice to quit smoking plus literature. At one-year follow-up, 7.5% of smokers in the minimal advice group who had quit for six or more months remained non-smokers compared with 3.2% in the control group. If similar analytical procedures had been used in this study as were used in the benchmark study in England in 1979, the quit rate for this study would have been 11.3% in the intervention group, and 4.8% in the control group--a net gain of 6.5%. These results are discussed with regard to widespread implementation in Australian general practice.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Measurement of the process of care. Experiences from The Netherlands and Canada.

These two projects provide a framework for the development of process audit in Australia. The use of explicit criteria of practice performance for different purposes enabled judgments to be made about that performance. In the case of the Netherlands, the process was also shown to lead to improvement in conformity with the criteria. It is planned to use the protocols from both projects as a starting point for the development of a process audit for use by Australian general practitioners.

Canada↗
PubMed1989

Are general practitioners in favour of quality assurance?

A survey of established general practitioners in New South Wales and South Australia and of Family Medicine Programme trainees in South Australia was undertaken to investigate their attitudes towards a general practice based Quality Assurance Programme. Broad support for such a programme was found and was strongest among younger practitioners; those who had, or were undertaking, FMP training, those belonging to the RACGP; and those who hold the DipObstRACOG.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Dissatisfaction in general practice: what do patients really want?

In 31 general practices in Adelaide, approximately 100 consecutive adult patients aged 15-64 years completed a 21-item questionnaire that related to their dissatisfaction with aspects of the care that was provided in the practice. Fourteen of the practices were "solo" practices, five practices were two-person partnerships and 12 practices involved three or more partners. The 21 items divided naturally into five groups: "architecture", "receptionists", "accessibility", "quality" and "communication". Factor analysis of the responses provided support for the idea that "receptionists", "accessibility" and "communication" were independent issues for the respondents and that "quality" was less discrete and was embedded in a factor which we have labelled "mechanics". For nearly all items, the mean dissatisfaction values for the practices were greatest in the larger practices and least in the two-person practices, with solo practices occupying an intermediate position. The main dissatisfaction related to accessibility and communication. These issues are explored in the light of current trends in the organization of primary medical care.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Dihydroergotamine in acute herpes simplex infections.

The effect of the subcutaneous administration of 0.5 mL of dihydroergotamine mesylate (1 mg/mL) compared with that of 0.5 mL placebo on the course of an individual episode of herpes simplex infection in patients, who reported at least two other outbreaks in the previous 12 months, was examined by means of a double-blind randomized trial. Thirty-seven patients were entered into the trial. The dihydroergotamine-treated group experienced a shorter duration of the over-all attack until healed skin reappeared, with a shorter duration of both pain and oedema, than did the placebo-treated group. The relatively small number of patients, and the fact that testing in an animal model showed no effect of dihydroergotamine on herpes simplex, suggests that these results need to be treated with caution.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1986

A self-contained method of evaluating patient dissatisfaction in general practice.

A method is described which enables patient dissatisfaction to be measured in a consecutive sample of adults attending for consultation in general practice. The method has been found to be practicable and acceptable, both to patients and doctors and to yield results which are both consistent and useful to the doctor in structuring his practice.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

A self-contained method of evaluating the provision of preventive care in general practice.

In an earlier paper a method was described by which general practitioners are able to obtain dissatisfaction data from their patients by means of questionnaires. A similar approach has been used to study preventive care activities of general practitioners. We have found it to be practicable and acceptable to patients and surgery personnel. It also yields results which are consistent and which have apparently stimulated some practitioners to alter their practice behaviour by increasing their preventive care activities.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Protocols and dollars.

A protocol is part of the process which translates a research question into a feasible project. It must be specific and include all relevant circumstances under which the research will be conducted (for example, the patient's age, sex, time of presentation, pre existing conditions) with an appropriate decision about each. As the examples show, preparation of a protocol (Table 2) can be a painstaking process and, even after acceptance by a funding organisation, it might require modification.

Australia↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Second Australian National Blood Pressure Study (ANBP2). Australian Comparative Outcome Trial of ACE inhibitor- and diuretic-based treatment of hypertension in the elderly. Management Committee on behalf of the High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia.

The Second Australian National Blood Pressure Study (ANBP2) is a comparative outcome trial being conducted in general practices throughout Australia of ACE inhibitor- and diuretic-based treatment in 6000 hypertensive patients aged 65-84 years. The study is using a prospective randomised open-label design with blinding of endpoint assessments. The primary objective is to determine whether there is any difference in total cardiovascular events (fatal and non-fatal) over a five year treatment period between the two treatment regimens. Eligible hypertensive patients (average sitting blood pressure at the 2nd and 3rd screening visits > 160 mm Hg systolic and/or > 90 mm Hg diastolic) may be either untreated or previously treated and should have no history of recent cardiovascular morbidity or serious intercurrent illness. Patients are randomised to one of the treatment arms with randomisation stratified for practice and for age. Following randomisation each patient's blood pressure is managed by his/her general practitioner according to guidelines relevant to each treatment arm. Over 700 patients have now been randomised with recruitment intended to be complete by the end of 1997.

Aged↗