Party package travel: alcohol use and related problems in a holiday resort: a mixed methods study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>People travelling abroad tend to increase their use of alcohol and other drugs. In the present study we describe organized party activities in connection with young tourists' drinking, and the differences between young people travelling with and without organized party activities.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted ethnographic observations and a cross-sectional survey in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The behaviour of the guides from two travel agencies strongly promoted heavy drinking, but discouraged illicit drug use. Even after controlling for several potential confounders, young people who travelled with such "party package travel agencies" were more likely to drink 12 or more units when going out. In univariate analyses, they were also more likely to get into fights, but were not more likely to seek medical assistance or medical assistance for an accident or an alcohol-related problem. After controlling for confounders, the association between type of travel agency and getting into fights was no longer significant. Short-term consequences of drinking in the holiday resort did not differ between party package travellers and ordinary package travellers.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There may be a small impact of party package travels on young people's drinking. Strategies could be developed used to minimise the harm associated with both party package travel and other kinds of travel where heavy substance use is likely to occur.</p

Early Surfactant Guided by Lamellar Body Counts on Gastric Aspirate in Very Preterm Infants

Background: We have developed a rapid method, based on lamellar body counts (LBC) on gastric aspirate, for identifying newborns who will develop respiratory distress syndrome with a need for surfactant supplementation. Objective: We set out to test whether it was possible to improve the outcome when used in a clinical trial. Methods: We randomly assigned 380 infants born at 24-29 weeks' gestation and supported with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) to receive surfactant guided either by LBC (intervention group) or increasing need for oxygen (control group). The primary outcome was mechanical ventilation or death within 5 days. Secondary outcomes included need for oxygen expressed by arterial to alveolar oxygen tension ratio (a/APO(2)) at the age of 6 h and need for oxygen at day 28. Results: The primary outcomes were equal (25%) in the two groups. The intervention group had higher a/APO(2) than the control group at 6 h, median 0.64 versus 0.52 (p < 0.01), and the subgroup with gestational age 26-29 weeks needed fewer days of oxygen supplementation than the controls, median 2 vs. 9 days (p = 0.01), and fewer infants needed oxygen at day 28 (p = 0.04). Furthermore, there was a tendency in the intervention group towards a shorter duration of nCPAP. Too little or viscose aspirate in 23% of the cases was a limitation of the method. Conclusion: Using LBC test as indicator of lung maturity and early surfactant therapy in very preterm newborns, it is possible to reduce the need for oxygen supplementation. Copyright (C) 2013 S. Karger AG, Base