2,495 research outputs found
Illness perceptions of gout patients and the use of allopurinol in primary care: baseline findings from a prospective cohort study
Background
Patientsâ perceptions of their illness are dynamic and can directly influence aspects of management. Our aim was to examine the illness perceptions of gout patients in UK primary care and associations with allopurinol use.
Methods
A health questionnaire was sent to 1805 people with gout aged â„18 years identified by a gout diagnosis or prescriptions for allopurinol or colchicine in their primary care medical records in the preceding 2 years. The questionnaire included selected items from the revised illness perception questionnaire (IPQ-R). Associations between illness perceptions and use of allopurinol were calculated using multinomial logistic regression adjusted for age, gender, deprivation status, body mass index, alcohol consumption, comorbidities and gout characteristics.
Results
One thousand one hundred eighty-four participants responded to the baseline questionnaire (65.6 %). Approximately half of responders perceived that they were able to control (51.2 %) or affect their gout through their own actions (44.8 %). Three quarters perceived treatments to be effective (76.4 %) and agreed that gout is a serious condition (76.4 %). Patients who agreed that they could control their gout (Relative Risk Ratio, 95 % confidence interval 1.66 (1.12 to 2.45)) and that treatments were effective (2.24 (1.32 to 3.81)) were more likely to currently be using allopurinol than not using allopurinol. However, this significance was attenuated after adjustment for self-reported gout characteristics (1.39 (0.89 to 2.17) & 1.78 (0.96 to 3.29) respectively).
Conclusions
Patients who perceive that they can control their gout and that treatments are effective are more likely to be using allopurinol, this suggests that better information is needed for the patient from GPs and rheumatologist to reassure and support their use of UL
Searching (the) FIRST radio arcs near ACO clusters
Gravitational lensing (GL) of distant radio sources by galaxy clusters should
produce radio arc(let)s. We extracted radio sources from the FIRST survey near
Abell cluster cores and found their radio position angles to be uniformly
distributed with respect to the cluster centres. This result holds even when we
restrict the sample to the richest or most centrally condensed clusters, and to
sources with high S/N and large axial ratio. Our failure to detect GL with
statistical methods may be due to poor cluster centre positions. We did not
find convincing candidates for arcs either. Our result agrees with theoretical
estimates predicting that surveys much deeper than FIRST are required to detect
the effect. This is in apparent conflict with the detection of such an effect
claimed by Bagchi & Kapahi (1995).Comment: 6 pages; 8 figures and 1 style file are included; to appear in Proc.
"Observational Cosmology with the New Radio Surveys", eds. M. Bremer, N.
Jackson & I. Perez-Fournon, Kluwer Acad. Pres
Abundant Refractory Sulfur in Protoplanetary Disks
Sulfur is one of the most abundant elements in the Universe, with important
roles in astro-, geo-, and biochemistry. Its main reservoirs in planet-forming
disks have previously eluded detection: gaseous molecules only account for
\% of total elemental sulfur, with the rest likely in either ices or
refractory minerals. Mechanisms such as giant planets can filter out dust from
gas accreting onto disk-hosting stars. For stars above 1.4 solar masses, this
leaves a chemical signature on the stellar photosphere that can be used to
determine the fraction of each element that is locked in dust. Here, we present
an application of this method to sulfur, zinc, and sodium. We analyse the
accretion-contaminated photospheres of a sample of young stars and find
\% of elemental sulfur is in refractory form in their disks. The
main carrier is much more refractory than water ice, consistent with sulfide
minerals such as FeS
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