Towards an age friendly Bristol? Understanding the context and development of the Bristol Ageing Better programme

The Bristol Ageing Better (BAB) programme began in 2015 during a time of significant demographic, social, economic, political and policy change. This report looks, not at the projects commissioned by BAB, but at the underlying context. Using research and policy reports, archive material, and interviews with people who played key roles in the BAB programme, it paints a picture of the factors at national and local level that influenced the outcomes. BAB began midway through a decade of austerity that cut funding to both statutory and voluntary services. This inevitably cast a shadow over the programme, but also opened up opportunities as organisations learnt to work in new and more collaborative ways

Selected sociodemographic factors and related differences in patterns of alcohol use among university students in Slovakia

Background: Alcohol use and misuse and their relation to sociodemograhic factors are well studied among university students in Western European countries and the USA, but less is known about students in Eastern Europe. The historical past as communistic countries might have affected the social life among these populations, which is again one of the main factors determining the alcohol consumption among university students. The aim of our study was to assess the association of selected sociodemographic factors with different patterns of alcohol use among university students in Slovakia. Methods: A sample of 813 young adults (mean age 21.1 years, 63.8% females; response rate of 71%) from four universities in Kosice answered questions about their sociodemographic background and about alcohol use. To obtain a detailed picture of different aspects, alcohol use was measured by four variables: frequency of alcohol use, heavy episodic drinking, frequency of drunkenness and problem drinking. Four separate logistic regression models were used to assess the association between sociodemographic and alcohol-related variables. To assess the potentially different effects in both genders, all two-way interactions with gender were tested. Results: While 41% of the students drank alcohol once a week or more often, 77% reported heavy episodic drinking and 49% had been drunk more than once in the last month. Problem drinking existed in 23.3% of the sample. Gender was consistently associated with all four alcohol-related variables, with males being at higher risk. A higher study year was associated only with lower levels of heavy episodic drinking, but displayed no association with the other studied variables. Living with parents during the semester was consistently associated with less frequent heavy episodic drinking, drunkenness episodes, and problem drinking while having an intimate relationship was associated with less problem drinking only. Conclusions: Our findings for the university students from Slovakia are in line with previous studies in Western Europe. Additionally, it appears that frequent alcohol use, excessive alcohol use (heavy episodic drinking and drunkenness) and problem drinking among university students represent a continuum and are influenced by the same sociodemographic factors

Distraction Osteogenesis Enhances Remodeling of Remote Bones of the Skeleton: A Pilot Study

Bone injuries have a systemic influence on the remodeling of bone. This effect has not been examined concerning its extent and duration. We measured the systemic effect of distraction osteogenesis on the remodeling of bones of the axial skeleton by means of the mineral apposition rate and bone formation rate in an animal experiment. Distraction osteogenesis was performed on the tibiae of 24 mature Yucatan minipigs. After a 4-day latency period, the tibiae were distracted 2 mm/day for 10 days. The ensuing consolidation phase lasted 10 days. Three fluorescent labeling substances were applied intravenously: calcein green at the second postoperative day, tetracycline 1 day after the end of the distraction phase, and xylene orange 2 days before sacrifice. We prepared ground sections from the ninth right ribs. The mineral apposition rate and bone formation rate were measured histomorphometrically on labeled osteons. The median mineral apposition rate during distraction was 2.39 μm/day (2.12–2.62 μm/day), which was higher than the rate during consolidation (median, 1.62 μm/day; 1.54–1.84 μm/day). The median bone formation rate confirmed this result and was 840.51 μm2/day (744.20–1148.26 μm2/day) during distraction and 384.25 μm2/day (330.84–467.71 μm2/day) during consolidation. Thus, a short period of distraction osteogenesis appears to have an anabolic effect on the mineral apposition rate of remote cortical bone