Shaping the future for primary care education and training project. Finding the evidence for education & training to deliver integrated health and social care: the primary care workforce perspective

This report is one of a series of outputs from the Shaping the Future in Primary Care Education and Training project (www.pcet.org.uk) funded by the North West Development Agency (NWDA). It is the result of a collaborative initiative between the NWDA, the North West Universities Association and seven Higher Education Institutions in the North West of England. The report presents an evidence base drawn from the analysis of the experiences and aspirations of integrated health and social care, as reported by members of the current primary health and social care workforce working in or with Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in the North West region

Are Intervention-Design Characteristics More Predictive than Baseline Participant Characteristics on Participant Attendance to a Paediatric, Community Weight Management Programme?

BACKGROUND: Approximately 50% of participants complete a paediatric weight management programme, yet the predictors of attendance and dropout are inconsistent. This study investigates subject and intervention-design characteristics associated with attendance at a group based, family weight management programme. SETTING AND SUBJECTS: Secondary data analysis of 2948 subjects (Age 10.4±2.8 years, BMI 26.0±5.7kg/m2, Standardised BMI (BMI SDS) 2.48±0.87, White 70.3%) from 244 MoreLife (UK) programmes. Subjects attend weekly for 10-12 weeks, sessions last 2-3 hours. Sessions include lifestyle guidance and physical activity. METHOD: Subject characteristics (demographics, psychological (body satisfaction & self-esteem) and sedentary behaviour) were gathered at first contact and BMI SDS was noted weekly. Intervention-design characteristics were recorded (year, length (weeks), group size, age segregation and day of session). Attendance was calculated as total number of sessions attended (%). Multivariate linear regression examined predictors of attendance and multiple imputation countered missing data. RESULTS: Average attendance was 59.4%±29.3%. Baseline subject characteristics were ‘poor’ predictors of attendance. Intervention year, group size and day of session significantly predicted attendance (Tables 1 & 2). Yet, the most predictive marker of attendance was a change in BMI SDS during the programme (B = -0.38, 95% CI = -0.43 - -0.33). CONCLUSION: A reduction in BMI was seen to predict greater attendance. However, baseline subject characteristics were weakly associated with attendance, refuting past findings. Dominant intervention characteristics (large groups, weekend sessions and recent delivery) predicted lower attendance. Future programmes may be better informed

Complexity of Bradley-Manna-Sipma Lexicographic Ranking Functions

In this paper we turn the spotlight on a class of lexicographic ranking functions introduced by Bradley, Manna and Sipma in a seminal CAV 2005 paper, and establish for the first time the complexity of some problems involving the inference of such functions for linear-constraint loops (without precondition). We show that finding such a function, if one exists, can be done in polynomial time in a way which is sound and complete when the variables range over the rationals (or reals). We show that when variables range over the integers, the problem is harder -- deciding the existence of a ranking function is coNP-complete. Next, we study the problem of minimizing the number of components in the ranking function (a.k.a. the dimension). This number is interesting in contexts like computing iteration bounds and loop parallelization. Surprisingly, and unlike the situation for some other classes of lexicographic ranking functions, we find that even deciding whether a two-component ranking function exists is harder than the unrestricted problem: NP-complete over the rationals and $\Sigma^P_2$-complete over the integers.Comment: Technical report for a corresponding CAV'15 pape