Health technology assessment : HTA
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Health Technol Assess · Oct 2010
ReviewRelapse prevention in UK Stop Smoking Services: current practice, systematic reviews of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness analysis.
Reducing smoking is a chief priority for governments and health systems like the UK National Health Service (NHS). The UK has implemented a comprehensive tobacco control strategy involving a combination of population tobacco control interventions combined with treatment for dependent smokers through a national network of NHS Stop Smoking Services (NHS SSS). ⋯ Based on the totality of evidence, RPIs are expected to be effective and cost-effective if incorporated into routine treatment within the NHS SSS. While staff within the NHS SSS were largely favourably inclined towards providing RPIs, guidance would be needed to encourage the adoption of the most effective RPIs, as would incentives that focused on the importance of sustaining quit attempts beyond the currently monitored 4-week targets.
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Health Technol Assess · Oct 2010
Evaluation of triage methods used to select patients with suspected pandemic influenza for hospital admission: cohort study.
Triage methods are necessary in emergency departments to provide clinicians with a reliable method for determining each patient's risk of adverse outcome. Prior to the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic the CURB-65 (a risk prediction score for pneumonia, based on confusion, urea level, respiratory rate, blood pressure and age over 65 years) pneumonia score and the Pandemic Modified Early Warning Score (PMEWS) were used to assess adults. In response to the emergence of the pandemic, national guidance produced a new swine flu hospital pathway for use adults and children. However, none of these methods had been widely validated or tested in the setting of pandemic influenza. ⋯ Potential concerns were raised about the use of existing triage methods for patients with suspected pandemic influenza, as these methods may fail to discriminate between patients who will have an adverse outcome and those with a benign course. Clinicians in the study did not generally appear to admit or discharge on the basis of these methods, despite their recommended use. Further research is required to evaluate existing triage methods and develop new triage tools for suspected pandemic influenza.
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Health Technol Assess · Oct 2010
Evaluation of droplet dispersion during non-invasive ventilation, oxygen therapy, nebuliser treatment and chest physiotherapy in clinical practice: implications for management of pandemic influenza and other airborne infections.
Influenza viruses are thought to be spread by droplets, but the role of aerosol dissemination is unclear and has not been assessed by previous studies. Oxygen therapy, nebulised medication and ventilatory support are treatments used in clinical practice to treat influenzal infection are thought to generate droplets or aerosols. ⋯ NIV and chest physiotherapy are droplet (not aerosol)-generating procedures, producing droplets of > 10 µm in size. Due to their large mass, most fall out on to local surfaces within 1 m. The only device producing an aerosol was the nebuliser and the output profile is consistent with nebuliser characteristics rather than dissemination of large droplets from patients. These findings suggest that health-care workers providing NIV and chest physiotherapy, working within 1 m of an infected patient should have a higher level of respiratory protection, but that infection control measures designed to limit aerosol spread may have less relevance for these procedures. These results may have infection control implications for other airborne infections, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome and tuberculosis, as well as for pandemic influenza infection.
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Health Technol Assess · Oct 2010
Virus shedding and environmental deposition of novel A (H1N1) pandemic influenza virus: interim findings.
The relative importance of different routes of influenza transmission, including the role of bioaerosols, and ability of masks and/or hand hygiene to prevent transmission, remains poorly understood. Current evidence suggests that infectious virus is not typically released from adults after 5 days of illness, however, little is known about the extent to which virus is deposited by infected individuals into the environment and whether deposited virus has the ability to infect new hosts. Further information about the deposition of viable influenza virus in the immediate vicinity of patients with pandemic influenza is fundamental to our understanding of the routes and mechanisms of transmission. ⋯ The finding that over 30% of infected individuals have infectious virus in their noses for 5 days or more has infection control implications. The data suggest that contact transmission of pandemic influenza via fomites may be less important than previously thought, but transmission via bioaerosols at short range may be possible, meaning that high-level personal protective equipment may be needed by health-care workers when attending patients with pandemic influenza. Further work is being undertaken to consolidate these findings, as they have important potential implications for the protection of health-care workers and the formulation of advice to households, nationally and internationally.
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Health Technol Assess · Sep 2010
Randomized Controlled TrialA pragmatic randomised controlled trial to compare antidepressants with a community-based psychosocial intervention for the treatment of women with postnatal depression: the RESPOND trial.
To evaluate clinical effectiveness at 4 weeks of antidepressant therapy for mothers with postnatal depression (PND) compared with general supportive care; to compare outcome at 18 weeks of those randomised to antidepressant therapy with those randomised to listening visits as the first intervention (both groups were to be allowed to receive the alternative intervention after 4 weeks if the woman or her doctor so decided); and to assess acceptability of antidepressants and listening visits to users and health professionals. ⋯ At 4 weeks, antidepressants were significantly superior to general supportive care. Trial design meant that by 18 weeks many of the women initially randomised to listening visits were also receiving antidepressants, and more vice versa. The lack of evidence for differences at 18 weeks is likely to reflect a combination of reduced power and the considerable degree of switching across the two interventions. Qualitative study revealed that women found both antidepressants and listening visits effective depending on their circumstances and preferences. The trial indicates that early treatment with antidepressants leads to clinical benefit for women with PND.