4 research outputs found
Effectiveness of a telephone delivered and a face-to-face delivered counseling intervention for smoking cessation in patients with coronary heart disease: a 6-month follow-up
Smoking cessation interventions for cardiac patients need improvement given their weak effects on long-term abstinence rates and low compliance by nurses to implementation. This study tested the effectiveness of two smoking cessation interventions against usual care in cardiac patients, and conditional effects for patients' motivation to quit and socio-economic status (SES). An experimental study was conducted from 2009 to 2012 for which Dutch cardiac patient smokers were assigned to: usual care (UC; n = 245), telephone counseling (TC; n = 223) or face-to-face counseling (FC; n = 157). The three groups were comparable at baseline and had smoked on average 21 cigarettes a day before hospitalization. After six months, interviews occurred to assess self-reported smoking status. Patients in the TC and FC group had significantly higher smoking abstinence rates than patients in the UC group (p a parts per thousand currency sign 0.05 at all times). Regression analysis further revealed significant conditional effects of the interventions on smoking abstinence in patients with lower SES, with a larger effect for TC than FC when compared to UC. These findings suggest that intensive counseling is effective in increasing short-term abstinence rates, particularly in patients with lower SES. Future studies need to investigate how patients with higher SES can profit equally from these type of interventions
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Weather fluctuations: Predictive factors in the prevalence of acute coronary syndrome
Background: Meteorological parameters and seasonal changes can play an important role in the occurrence of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). However, there is almost no evidence on a national level to suggest the associations between these variables and ACS in Iran. We aim to identify the meteorological parameters and seasonal changes in relationship to ACS. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted between 03/19/2015 to 03/18/2016 and used documents and records of patients with ACS in Mazandaran ProvinceHeart Center, Iran. The following definitive diagnostic criteria for ACS were used: (1) existence of cardiac enzymes (CK or CK-MB) above the normal range; (2) Greater than 1 mm ST-segment elevation or depression; (3) abnormal Q waves; and (4) manifestation of troponin enzyme in the blood. Data were collected daily, such as temperature (Celsius) changes, wind speed and its direction, rainfall, daily evaporation rate; number of sunny days, and relative humidity were provided by the Meteorological Organization of Iran. Results: A sample of 2,054 patients with ACS were recruited. The results indicated the highest ACS events from March to May. Generally, wind speed (18 PM) [IRR = 1.051 (95% CI: 1.019 to1.083), P=0.001], daily evaporation [IRR = 1.039 (95% CI: 1.003 to 1.077), P=0.032], daily maximum (P<0.001) and minimum (P=0.003) relative humidity was positively correlated withACS events. Also, negatively correlated variables were daily relative humidity (18 PM) [IRR =0.985 (95% CI: 0.978 to 0.992), P<0.001], and daily minimum temperature [IRR = 0.942 (95%CI: 0.927 to 0.958), P<0.001]. Conclusion: Climate changes were found to be significantly associated with ACS; especially from cold weather to hot weather in March, April and May. Further research is needed to fully understand the specific conditions and cold exposures
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Prevalence of acute myocardial infarction and changing meteorological conditions in iran: Fuzzy clustering approach
Background: The prevalence of Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) varies from region to region caused by seasonal climate changes and temperature variation. This study aimed to assess the relationship between changing meteorological conditions and incidence of AMI in Iran. Methods: This retrospective prevalence study was based on medical records of the heart center of Mazandaran Province on all patients diagnosed with AMI in Mazandaran, northern Iran between 2013 and 2015. Patients� sex and the day, month, year and time of hospital admission were extracted from patients� records. Moreover, the meteorological reports were gathered. Results: A statistically significant difference was found between the distributions of AMI cases across 12 months of the year (P < 0.01). Fuzzy clustering analysis using 16 different climatic variables showed that March, April, and May were in the same cluster together. The other 9 months were in different clusters. Conclusion: Significant increase in AMI was seen in March, April and May (cold to hot weather). © 2020, Iranian Journal of Public Health. All rights reserved