The number of cases of endophthalmitis following cataract surgery caused considerable concern in a West of Scotland hospital throughout 1998 and early 1999. A multi-disciplinary team including infection control nurses, doctors, public health officials,<$>epidemiologists and statisticians was set up...</$>

Background: Recent studies have suggested that walking interventions may be effective (at least in the short term) at increasing physical activity amongst those people who are the most inactive. This is a leading objective of contemporary public health policy in the UK and worldwide. However,...

In the recent past, considerable effort in health economics has been made on applying stated preference methods such as contingent valuation and choice experiments. Despite this increased use, there is still considerable scepticism concerning the value of these approaches. The application of...

This chapter synthesises and evaluates the available direct evidence relating to the impact of needle and syringe programmes (NSPs), opioid substitution treatment (OST), drug consumption rooms (DCRs), and peer naloxone distribution (PND) on HIV/hepatitis C (HCV) incidence/prevalence, injecting...

Objective: the present paper describes a model for public health nutrition practice designed to facilitate practice improvement and provide a step-wise approach to assist with workforce development. Design: the bi-cycle model for public health nutrition practice has been developed based on...

From March to July 1996 a measles outbreak occurred in northern Luxembourg with 110 reported cases centered around two primary schools (85 cases) and the surrounding community (25 cases). Eighty four suspected cases were confirmed serologically. Vaccine coverage was estimated from...

Background: Interventions to change health-related behaviours have potential to increase health inequalities. Methods: This review investigated the effectiveness of interventions targeting low-income groups to reduce smoking or increase physical activity and/or healthy eating. Of 9766 papers...

Purpose One of the most important uses of benefit-risk assessment pertains to approval of new medicines by regulatory authorities and the subsequent review of these products during their life-cycle when new safety and/or efficacy data becomes available. At present, there exist no validated,...

This paper investigates the determinants of the prices of branded prescription medicines across different regulatory settings and health care systems, taking into account their launch date, patent status, market dynamics and the regulatory context in which they diffuse. By using volume-weighted...

Pharmacoeconomic analyses have become useful and essential tools for health care decision makers who increasingly require such analyses prior to placing a drug on a national, regional or hospital formulary. Previous health economic models of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have...