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Issue

Vol 125 No 1360: 24 August 2012

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Issue Summary

SUMMARY

Foot problems in Māori with diabetes

Belinda Ihaka, Angela Bayley, Keith Rome

The aim of this study is to identify podiatric characteristics of M ori with diabetes. Participants with type 2 diabetes were selected from two M ori Health Organisations and underwent a podiatry assessment to determine their overall susceptibility to risk of diabetes-related complications (neuropathy, peripheral arterial disease, foot deformity). The majority of this group displayed clinical risk factors for diabetes-related complications (mean disease duration 12 years, and high blood glucose levels); however, there was a low prevalence for adverse neurovascular characteristics, a high prevalence for pre-ulcerative lesions and the participants had a good understanding of diabetes and related complications. This study demonstrates the need for ongoing podiatry screening and management for people with diabetes.

SUMMARY

What’s in a cost? Comparing economic and public health measures of alcohol’s social costs

Eric Crampton, Matt Burgess, Brad Taylor

We often hear that alcohol costs the country about $5 billion dollars. But did you know that over $700 million of that figure is drinkers spending on alcohol? The vast majority of costs tallied in measures of the social costs of drinking are costs that drinkers bear from their own drinking, with no consideration of that many drinkers enjoy consuming alcohol. Social cost figures built on drinkers spending on their own alcohol may be useful in policy advocacy, but are not useful for sensible policy addressing the very real, but smaller, costs that harmful drinkers impose on others.

SUMMARY

The Christchurch Breast Cancer Patient Register: the first year

Valerie Davey, Bridget Robinson, Birgit Dijkstra, Gavin Harris

Established in 2009, Christchurch Breast Cancer Patient Register is the only breast cancer register in the South Island that was approved by the regional ethics committees to collect data from patients who had given prior consent. In its first year, the Register had a high recruitment rate of 337 patients which was 94% of eligible patients. Overall, 86% of patients had invasive breast carcinoma, and 14% pre-cancer, or cin situ d cancer. For those with invasive cancers, mastectomy (removal of the breast) was carried out in 47% and removal of the lump with radiation in 45%. Sentinel node biopsy, whereby the first lymph node draining from the breast is removed for evaluation, without full axillary surgery was undertaken in 73% of patients, which is hoped to reduce later side effects.

SUMMARY

Alcohol-related harm to others in New Zealand: evidence of the burden and gaps in knowledge

Jennie Connor, Sally Casswell

Most research on the impacts of alcohol focuses on the drinkers, but harm to people other than the drinker is a concern of policy makers and communities. A careful search for existing sources of data about harm to others in NZ revealed that where there was information the burden is very large, for example in crime and traffic crashes. Police data and information from surveys of the general public suggests that about 50% of assault and other crime involves alcohol, and that alcohol is associated with more serious and severe events. In alcohol-related crashes, 40% of those injured were not the drinker responsible. For most other areas of harm we were unable to identify systematic collection of information about alcohol-related harm that could be used for measuring the size and nature of the problem, developing interventions, or monitoring efforts at prevention. The lack of reliable, timely information about harm to children warrants attention. As well as the effect of heavy drinkers on large numbers of individuals and families, the resources required for services to respond to the health, educational, justice and social welfare burden of heavy drinking constrains other public spending.

SUMMARY

Providing care for women with gynaecological malignancy: the need for a coordinated national approach

Peter Sykes, Michelle Vaughan, Kathryn Chrystal, Nieves Ehrenberg, Martin Hefford, Sarah Hutchings, Ai Ling Tan, Bryony Simcock, Digby Ngan Kee

About a thousand New Zealand women develop gynaecological cancers every year. There is evidence that women (particularly with ovarian cancer) benefit from undergoing treatment in specialist centres. Currently there is inequity of access for women to these centres and there are critical workforce shortages. This paper presents some information collated in a recent report commissioned by the Ministry of Health and lays out the argument for a coordinated national approach for the management of women with gynaecological malignancy.

SUMMARY

One in three New Zealand drinkers reports being harmed by their own drinking in the past year

Jessica Meiklejohn, Jennie Connor, Kypros Kypri

This study examined the extent to which New Zealand drinkers are adversely affected by their own drinking. One in three people in the study reported experiencing at least one of 15 harmful consequences as a result of their own drinking in the previous 12 months. There was a clear association between the amount of alcohol consumed and the likelihood of experiencing adverse consequences. There were also evidence to suggest being male, young, Maori or living in a very deprived area increases the risk of suffering alcohol-related harm.

ALL ARTICLES
SUMMARY

Medical image. Creeping eruption

Narasimhalu C R Venkata, Algesan Murali

A shining light in the New Zealand cancer gloom

Ian D Campbell

Professional Misconduct (Med11/181P)

Foot problems in Māori with diabetes

Belinda Ihaka, Angela Bayley, Keith Rome

Computerised tomography indices of raised intracranial pressure and traumatic brain injury severity in a New Zealand sample

Suzanne Lyn Barker-Collo, Nicola Starkey, Michael Kahan, Alice Theadom, Valery Feigin

What’s in a cost? Comparing economic and public health measures of alcohol’s social costs

Eric Crampton, Matt Burgess, Brad Taylor

Alcohol harms

Doug Sellman, Simon Adamson

The Christchurch Breast Cancer Patient Register: the first year

Valerie Davey, Bridget Robinson, Birgit Dijkstra, Gavin Harris

Professional Misconduct (Med10/161P)

Examination Intensive Care Medicine (2nd ed; Foot C, Steel L, Vidhani K, Lister B, MacPartlin M, Blackwell N)

David Knight

Medical image. Fingernail lines

Sonali Kaushal, Vivek Kumar, Vishal Sharma

Professional Misconduct (Med10/145P)

Professional Misconduct – Possession of Objectionable Matter (Med11/175P)

Alcohol-related harm to others in New Zealand: evidence of the burden and gaps in knowledge

Jennie Connor, Sally Casswell

Health and nuisance impacts from outdoor smoking on public transport users: data from Auckland and Wellington

Marie Russell, Nick Wilson, George Thomson

Providing care for women with gynaecological malignancy: the need for a coordinated national approach

Peter Sykes, Michelle Vaughan, Kathryn Chrystal, Nieves Ehrenberg, Martin Hefford, Sarah Hutchings, Ai Ling Tan, Bryony Simcock, Digby Ngan Kee

Presidential Address: Alcohol

One in three New Zealand drinkers reports being harmed by their own drinking in the past year

Jessica Meiklejohn, Jennie Connor, Kypros Kypri

Corticosteroids and monocytosis

Simeon Barker, Marilyn Scott, George T C Chan

Perioperative management of dabigatran: the Nelson experience to date

Elizabeth Travis, Jane Strang

Pulmonary infiltrates with eosinophilia syndrome in ibuprofen overdose

Nicole Vogts, Simon Young

SUMMARY

Foot problems in Māori with diabetes

Belinda Ihaka, Angela Bayley, Keith Rome

The aim of this study is to identify podiatric characteristics of M ori with diabetes. Participants with type 2 diabetes were selected from two M ori Health Organisations and underwent a podiatry assessment to determine their overall susceptibility to risk of diabetes-related complications (neuropathy, peripheral arterial disease, foot deformity). The majority of this group displayed clinical risk factors for diabetes-related complications (mean disease duration 12 years, and high blood glucose levels); however, there was a low prevalence for adverse neurovascular characteristics, a high prevalence for pre-ulcerative lesions and the participants had a good understanding of diabetes and related complications. This study demonstrates the need for ongoing podiatry screening and management for people with diabetes.

SUMMARY

What’s in a cost? Comparing economic and public health measures of alcohol’s social costs

Eric Crampton, Matt Burgess, Brad Taylor

We often hear that alcohol costs the country about $5 billion dollars. But did you know that over $700 million of that figure is drinkers spending on alcohol? The vast majority of costs tallied in measures of the social costs of drinking are costs that drinkers bear from their own drinking, with no consideration of that many drinkers enjoy consuming alcohol. Social cost figures built on drinkers spending on their own alcohol may be useful in policy advocacy, but are not useful for sensible policy addressing the very real, but smaller, costs that harmful drinkers impose on others.

SUMMARY

The Christchurch Breast Cancer Patient Register: the first year

Valerie Davey, Bridget Robinson, Birgit Dijkstra, Gavin Harris

Established in 2009, Christchurch Breast Cancer Patient Register is the only breast cancer register in the South Island that was approved by the regional ethics committees to collect data from patients who had given prior consent. In its first year, the Register had a high recruitment rate of 337 patients which was 94% of eligible patients. Overall, 86% of patients had invasive breast carcinoma, and 14% pre-cancer, or cin situ d cancer. For those with invasive cancers, mastectomy (removal of the breast) was carried out in 47% and removal of the lump with radiation in 45%. Sentinel node biopsy, whereby the first lymph node draining from the breast is removed for evaluation, without full axillary surgery was undertaken in 73% of patients, which is hoped to reduce later side effects.

SUMMARY

Alcohol-related harm to others in New Zealand: evidence of the burden and gaps in knowledge

Jennie Connor, Sally Casswell

Most research on the impacts of alcohol focuses on the drinkers, but harm to people other than the drinker is a concern of policy makers and communities. A careful search for existing sources of data about harm to others in NZ revealed that where there was information the burden is very large, for example in crime and traffic crashes. Police data and information from surveys of the general public suggests that about 50% of assault and other crime involves alcohol, and that alcohol is associated with more serious and severe events. In alcohol-related crashes, 40% of those injured were not the drinker responsible. For most other areas of harm we were unable to identify systematic collection of information about alcohol-related harm that could be used for measuring the size and nature of the problem, developing interventions, or monitoring efforts at prevention. The lack of reliable, timely information about harm to children warrants attention. As well as the effect of heavy drinkers on large numbers of individuals and families, the resources required for services to respond to the health, educational, justice and social welfare burden of heavy drinking constrains other public spending.

SUMMARY

Providing care for women with gynaecological malignancy: the need for a coordinated national approach

Peter Sykes, Michelle Vaughan, Kathryn Chrystal, Nieves Ehrenberg, Martin Hefford, Sarah Hutchings, Ai Ling Tan, Bryony Simcock, Digby Ngan Kee

About a thousand New Zealand women develop gynaecological cancers every year. There is evidence that women (particularly with ovarian cancer) benefit from undergoing treatment in specialist centres. Currently there is inequity of access for women to these centres and there are critical workforce shortages. This paper presents some information collated in a recent report commissioned by the Ministry of Health and lays out the argument for a coordinated national approach for the management of women with gynaecological malignancy.

SUMMARY

One in three New Zealand drinkers reports being harmed by their own drinking in the past year

Jessica Meiklejohn, Jennie Connor, Kypros Kypri

This study examined the extent to which New Zealand drinkers are adversely affected by their own drinking. One in three people in the study reported experiencing at least one of 15 harmful consequences as a result of their own drinking in the previous 12 months. There was a clear association between the amount of alcohol consumed and the likelihood of experiencing adverse consequences. There were also evidence to suggest being male, young, Maori or living in a very deprived area increases the risk of suffering alcohol-related harm.

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