Cross-sectional online survey of clinicians knowledge, attitudes and challenges to screening and counselling adolescents and young adults for substance use

Objective
To examine adolescent healthcare clinicians’ self-reported screening practices as well as their knowledge, attitudes, comfort level and challenges with screening and counselling adolescents and young adults (AYA) for cigarette, e-cigarette, alcohol, marijuana, hookah and blunt use.

Design
A 2016 cross-sectional survey.

Setting
Academic departments and community-based internal medicine, family medicine and paediatrics practices.

Participants
Adolescent healthcare clinicians (N=771) from 12 US medical schools and respondents to national surveys. Of the participants, 36% indicated male, 64% female, mean age was 44 years (SD=12.3); 12.3% of participants identified as Asian, 73.7% as white, 4.8% as black, 4.2% as Hispanic and 3.8% as other.

Primary and secondary outcome measures
Survey items queried clinicians about knowledge, attitudes, comfort level, self-efficacy and challenges with screening and counselling AYA patients about marijuana, blunts, cigarettes, e-cigarettes, hookah and alcohol.

Results
Participants were asked what percentage of their 10–17 years old patients they screened for substance use. The median number of physicians reported screening 100% of their patients for cigarette (1st, 3rd quartiles; 80, 100) and alcohol use (75, 100) and 99.5% for marijuana use (50,100); for e-cigarettes, participants reported screening half of their patients and 0.0% (0, 50), (0, 75)) reported screening for hookah and blunts, respectively. On average (median), clinicians estimated that 15.0% of all 10–17 years old patients smoked cigarettes, 10.0% used e-cigarettes, 20.0% used marijuana, 25.0% drank alcohol and 5.0% used hookah or blunts, respectively; yet they estimated lower than national rates of use of each product for their own patients. Clinicians reported greater comfort discussing cigarettes and alcohol with patients and less comfort discussing e-cigarettes, hookah, marijuana and blunts.

Conclusions
This study identified low rates of screening and counselling AYA patients for use of e-cigarettes, hookahs and blunts by adolescent healthcare clinicians and points to potential missed opportunities to improve prevention efforts.

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Novembre 2022

Usefulness and practicality of a multidisease screening programme targeting migrant patients in primary care in Spain: a qualitative study of general practitioners

Objectives
Some migrant groups are disproportionately affected by key infectious diseases in European countries. These pose a challenge for healthcare systems providing care to these groups. We aimed to explore the views of general practitioners (GPs) on the acceptability, adaptability and feasibility of a multidisease screening programme based on an innovative clinical decision-support system for migrants (the ISMiHealth tool), by examining the current gaps in healthcare provision and areas of good practice and the usefulness and limitations of training in the health needs of migrants.

Methods
We undertook a qualitative descriptive study and carried out a series of focus groups (FGs) taking a pragmatic utilitarian approach. Participants were GPs from the four primary healthcare (PHC) centres in Catalonia, Spain, that piloted an intervention of the ISMiHealth tool. GPs were recruited using purposive and convenience sampling. FG discussions were transcribed and analysed using thematic content analysis.

Results
A total of 29 GPs participated in four FGs. Key themes identified were: (1) GPs found the ISMiHealth tool to be very useful for helping to identify specific health problems in migrants, although there are several additional barriers to screening as part of PHC, (2) the importance of considering cultural perspectives when caring for migrants, and of the impact of migration on mental health, (3) the important role of PHC in healthcare provision for migrants and (4) key proposals to improve screening of migrant populations. GPs also highlighted the urgent need, to shift to a more holistic and adequately resourced approach to healthcare in PHC.

Conclusions
GPs supported a multidisease screening programme for migrant populations using the ISMiHealth tool, which aided clinical decision-making. However, intercultural participatory approaches will need to be adopted to address linguistic and cultural barriers to healthcare access that exist in migrant communities.

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Novembre 2022

Improving Screening for Aortic Aneurysm With Data Science

Aortic aneurysms grow silently, most commonly without signs or symptoms. Rupture leads to death unless the aortic aneurysm is discovered and repaired, leaving the individual and their loved ones to wonder what might have happened if the aneurysm had remained undiscovered. A desire to screen for aortic aneurysms is a natural response by physicians, patients, and families to the help avoid death from rupture because screening could potentially identify aortic aneurysms and allow repair for individuals in whom the risk of rupture exceeds their risk of operative repair. Identification of simple risk factors such as age and smoking status has helped the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) endorse screening ultrasound imaging for abdominal aortic aneurysm, focusing on male patients aged 65 to 75 years who have ever smoked, yet several studies have found this recommendation to be of moderate net benefit. The value of screening programs elsewhere in the aorta, however, are much less clear.

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Novembre 2022

Screening for Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Adults

An association of extreme obesity with hypersomnolence was recognized in antiquity and described in the early 19th century in both medical texts and, most famously, in Dickens’ Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. However, not until the first polysomnographic recordings of sleep and respiration were made in the 1960s was it recognized that apneas resulting from intermittent obstruction of the upper airway during sleep, causing hypoxemia and cortical arousal, contributed to the excessive sleepiness in these so-called “Pickwickian” patients. The term “obstructive sleep apnea syndrome” was coined the following decade, and it was soon recognized that intermittent partial airway obstruction during sleep, resulting in reduced airflow (hypopnea) without apnea, could result in an identical clinical syndrome.

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Novembre 2022

Barriers and facilitators to cervical cancer screening for women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds; a qualitative study of GPs

Objective
To explore general practitioners’ (GPs) perspectives on the barriers and facilitators to cervical cancer screening (CCS) for women from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.

Design
Qualitative descriptive study involving semi-structured interviews, with interview guide informed by the Theoretical Domains Framework.

Setting
Adelaide, South Australia.

Participants
Twelve GPs with experience in providing CCS to women from CALD backgrounds participated.

Results
Four main themes emerged: ‘importance of clinician–patient relationship’, ‘patients’ cultural understanding regarding health care and CCS’, ‘communication and language’ and ‘health system related’. Each theme had several subthemes. GPs’ professional relationship with their patients and repeated advice from other clinicians, together with the provision of opportunistic CCS, were described as facilitators, and encompassed the theme of ‘importance of clinician–patient relationship’. This theme also raised the possibility of self-collection human papilloma virus tests. Lack of awareness and knowledge, lower priority for cancer screening and patients’ individual circumstances contributed to the theme of ‘patients’ cultural understanding regarding health care and CCS’, and often acted as barriers to CCS. ‘Communication and language’ consisted of language difficulties, interpreter use and use of appropriate resources. Language difficulties were a barrier to the provision of CCS, and GPs used interpreters and written handouts to help overcome this. The theme of ‘health system related’ involved the increased time needed for CCS consults for CALD women, access to appointments, funding, health promotion and effective use of practice management software.

Conclusions
This study highlights that multiple, inter-related barriers and facilitators influence CALD women’s engagement with CCS, and that GPs needed to manage all of these factors in order to encourage CCS participation. More efforts are needed to address the barriers to ensure that GPs have access to appropriate resources, and CALD patients have access to GPs they trust.

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Novembre 2022

Womens preference to apply shared decision-making in breast cancer screening: a discrete choice experiment

Objective
To analyse women’s stated preferences for establishing the relative importance of each attribute of shared decision-making (SDM) and their willingness to pay (WTP) for more participatory care in breast cancer screening programmes (BCSP).

Design
A discrete choice experiment was designed with 12 questions (choice tasks). It included three attributes: ‘How the information is obtained’, regarding benefits and harms; whether there is a ‘Dialogue for scheduled mammography’ between the healthcare professional and the woman; and, ‘Who makes the decision’, regarding participation in BCSP. Data were obtained using a survey that included 12 choice tasks, 1 question on WTP and 7 socioeconomic-related questions. The analysis was performed using conditional mixed-effect logit regression and stratification according to WTP.

Setting
Data collection related to BCSP was conducted between June and November 2021 in Catalonia, Spain.

Participants
Sixty-five women aged between 50 and 60.

Main outcome measures
Women’s perceived utility of each attribute, trade-off on these attributes and WTP for SDM in BCSP.

Result
The only significant attribute was ‘Who makes the decision’. The decision made alone (coefficient=2.879; 95% CI=2.297 to 3.461) and the decision made together with a healthcare professional (2.375; 95% CI=1.573 to 3.177) were the options preferred by women. The former contributes 21% more utility than the latter. Moreover, 52.3% of the women stated a WTP of 10 or more for SDM. Women’s preferences regarding attributes did not influence their WTP.

Conclusions
The participant women refused a current paternalistic model and preferred either SDM or informed decision-making in BCSP.

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Novembre 2022