Project description:Globally, tobacco smoke is the leading cause of preventable deaths. Smoking cessation counselling services are widely available in Canada. In British Columbia, our government-funded smoking cessation service offers counselling via phone, text, or email. In this study, we sought to determine whether age, gender, or motivation to quit affect a patient's choice of service modality. We included all adults ? 18 years who had used tobacco within 30 days prior to their Emergency Department (ED) visit and who chose to receive phone, text, or email counselling services from November 2011-February 2013 at Vancouver General Hospital as part of a randomized-controlled trial (ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT0145437). A one-way ANOVA was used to compare the mean age of patients in each group. Chi-squared tests of independence were used to determine if gender or motivation to quit were associated with modality selection. In total, 368 patients were included. The average age was 41.7 years and 67% were female. In our study, 44% chose phone, 17% chose text, and 40% chose email services. The average age for patients preferring text services (mean = 33.6 years) was significantly lower than both the email (mean = 41.3 years) and phone (mean = 45.1 years) groups (p < 0.001). Gender and motivation to quit were not associated with service modality choice. Over 80% of ED smokers who accepted a referral to counselling services chose the phone or email modality. The lesser chosen text modality was more popular with younger patients. With further research, smoking cessation counselling services can refine their programs to meet the needs of the population they serve.
Project description:BackgroundThe Dutch Healthcare Inspectorate supervises care providers in order to improve quality of care. Recently the inspectorate assessed and promoted the use of a guideline on smoking-cessation counselling in midwifery practices. The supervision programme consisted of an announcement of the enforcement deadline for the guideline and site visits. The purpose of our qualitative study was to identify factors related to guideline adherence after the supervision programme, and investigate whether the programme had helped improve adherence.MethodsWe conducted semi-structured interviews with inspected and non-inspected midwives. Additionally, we studied documents and observed the inspection process. The sampled midwives all work in primary care midwifery practices providing care to pregnant smokers. The questions included the current provision of smoking-cessation counselling, support to the midwife in counselling, recent changes in provision of counselling, reasons for recent changes, knowledge about the supervision programme, and experiences with supervision by the inspectorate.ResultsOur results show that guideline adherence depends on several factors. Awareness and familiarity with the guideline are important, as is outcome expectancy. Additionally, motivation, guideline factors and environment factors were mentioned. Besides these previously documented factors, we found that professional collaboration also determined guideline adherence. Increased collaboration in counselling is associated with greater adherence to the guideline, such as provision of counselling and taking required training. The supervision programme helped improve stop-smoking counselling, by making midwives aware of the counselling and giving them an extrinsic motivation to provide counselling.ConclusionMotivation and environmental aspects were the most important factors related to guideline adherence, and professional environment was added as significant factor. The improved guideline adherence is partly attributable to the supervision programme.
Project description:BackgroundThe Affordable Care Act mandates that new insurance plans cover smoking-cessation therapy without cost-sharing. Previous cost difference estimates, which show a spike around the time of cessation, suggest premiums might rise as a result of covering these services.PurposeThe goal of the study was to test (1) whether individuals in an RCT of pharmacotherapy and counseling for smoking cessation differed in their healthcare costs around the cessation period, and (2) whether the healthcare costs of those in the trial who successfully quit were different from a matched sample of smokers in the community.MethodsGeneralized linear regression models were used to analyze healthcare cost data on individuals enrolled in a comparative effectiveness trial of cessation therapies between October 2005 and May 2007 (1346 total participants; 1338 with requisite data for further analysis). Cost differences for the period preceding and subsequent to the cessation attempt were assessed by trial participants' 12-month sustained quit status. Healthcare cost differences between sustained quitters and a sample of community-dwelling smokers, matched to these quitters on the basis of health services use around the time trial participant enrolled and by demographics, were also examined. Data were analyzed in 2011.ResultsAll three groups had a spike in cost associated with the index clinic visit. Regression results revealed little difference in healthcare costs by quit status for trial participants until the sixth quarter post-quit. By that quarter, continuous sustained quitters cost $541 (p<0.001) less than continuing smokers. Continuous sustained quitters cost less than their matched community- dwelling smokers in almost every quarter observed. The cost difference ranged from $270 (p=0.01) during the quarter of quit, to $490 (p<0.01) in the 6th quarter after quitting.ConclusionsThe inclusion of smoking-cessation therapy does not appear to raise short-term healthcare costs. By the sixth quarter post-quit, sustained quitters were less costly than trial participants who continued smoking.
Project description:IntroductionSmoking cessation during pregnancy is beneficial to both the mother and child. Our objective was to assess if an intensive smoking cessation intervention for pregnant women increases: a) rates of smoking cessation, and b) reduces exposure to tobacco-specific carcinogens during pregnancy.MethodsA two-group single-blinded parallel randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted involving 84 pregnant smokers in either a high intensity (n=42) or minimal contact control group (n=42). Women assigned to the high intensity smoking cessation intervention group received a single 30-minute behavioural counselling session and a tailored self-help booklet. The primary outcome measures were: 7-day point prevalence abstinence measured by selfreport and urine cotinine levels, and maternal tobacco specific carcinogens nitrosamine (NNAL) urine concentrations assessed at 32 weeks of gestation.ResultsA significantly greater percentage of pregnant smokers quit smoking in the high intensity group compared to the low intensity control group (45.2% vs 21.4%; p=0.001). A significant decrease in urine cotinine concentrations was documented in the experimental group (-140.74 ± 361.70 ng/mL; p=0.004), with no significant decrease documented in the control group. A significant decrease in NNAL levels was also documented in the experimental group (158.17 ± 145.03 pg/mL before, 86.43 ± 112.54 pg/mL after; p=0.032) with no significant changes in the control group.ConclusionsThe high intensity intervention tested resulted in significantly greater cessation rates. Intensive smoking cessation interventions can be effective in reducing fetal exposure to NNAL. This is the first trial to report on NNAL tobacco-specific carcinogen concentrations before and after an intervention for smoking cessation during pregnancy.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01210118.Abbreviations5?s: ask, advise, asses, assist, arrange; GHQ: general health questionnaire; ANOVA: analysis of variance; RCT: randomized control trials; NNAL: 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol.
Project description:BackgroundSmoking is the main risk factor for most of the leading causes of death. Cessation is the single most important step that smokers can take to improve their health. With the aim of informing policy makers about decisions on future tobacco control strategies, we estimated time and age trends in smoking cessation in Europe between 1980 and 2010.MethodsData on the smoking history of 50,228 lifetime smokers from 17 European countries were obtained from six large population-based studies included in the Ageing Lungs in European Cohorts (ALEC) consortium. Smoking cessation rates were assessed retrospectively, and age trends were estimated for three decades (1980-1989, 1990-1999, 2000-2010). The analyses were stratified by sex and region (North, East, South, West Europe).ResultsOverall, 21,735 subjects (43.3%) quit smoking over a total time-at-risk of 803,031 years. Cessation rates increased between 1980 and 2010 in young adults (16-40 years), especially females, from all the regions, and in older adults (41-60 years) from North Europe, while they were stable in older adults from East, South and West Europe. In the 2000s, the cessation rates for men and women combined were highest in North Europe (49.9 per 1,000/year) compared to the other regions (range: 26.5-32.7 per 1,000/year). A sharp peak in rates was observed for women around the age of 30, possibly as a consequence of pregnancy-related smoking cessation. In most regions, subjects who started smoking before the age of 16 were less likely to quit than those who started later.ConclusionsOur findings suggest an increasing awareness on the detrimental effects of smoking across Europe. However, East, South and West European countries are lagging behind North Europe, suggesting the need to intensify tobacco control strategies in these regions. Additional efforts should be made to keep young adolescents away from taking up smoking, as early initiation could make quitting more challenging during later life.
Project description:Single-pixel cameras capture images without the requirement for a multi-pixel sensor, enabling the use of state-of-the-art detector technologies and providing a potentially low-cost solution for sensing beyond the visible spectrum. One limitation of single-pixel cameras is the inherent trade-off between image resolution and frame rate, with current compressive (compressed) sensing techniques being unable to support real-time video. In this work we demonstrate the application of deep learning with convolutional auto-encoder networks to recover real-time 128?×?128 pixel video at 30 frames-per-second from a single-pixel camera sampling at a compression ratio of 2%. In addition, by training the network on a large database of images we are able to optimise the first layer of the convolutional network, equivalent to optimising the basis used for scanning the image intensities. This work develops and implements a novel approach to solving the inverse problem for single-pixel cameras efficiently and represents a significant step towards real-time operation of computational imagers. By learning from examples in a particular context, our approach opens up the possibility of high resolution for task-specific adaptation, with importance for applications in gas sensing, 3D imaging and metrology.
Project description:A novel real-time 2+1 three-dimensional(3D) measuring method based on bicolor grating video projection is proposed. Firstly, only two frames of bicolor gratings, in which the red channels are two sinusoidal fringes with a shifting phase of π/2 and the blue channels are the same background light equivalent to the DC component of the two sinusoidal fringes are encoded and arranged alternatively to synthesize into a repetitive bicolor grating video, While this video is projected onto the measured object, the real-time bicolor deformed pattern video can be recorded by using a color CMOS camera, and the bicolor deformed pattern sequence at different moments can be extracted by computer processing, so that the 2+1 algorithm can be used to accomplish real-time 3D measurement of moving object. Before measuring, we used the same method to design two sinusoidal fringes with a difference of π in their red channels, respectively, to calibrate the sensitivity ratio between the red and blue channels of the CMOS camera, which can effectively eliminate the chromaticity imbalance between R and B channels and reduce the color crosstalk. Experimental results and analysis confirm the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. Because the proposed method needs a repetitive bicolor grating video synthesized with only two-frame bicolor gratings to be projected, the 3D measurement acquisition speed and real-time accuracy will be improved compared with the traditional 2+1 3D measuring method.
Project description:Microendoscopes allow clinicians to view subcellular features in vivo and in real-time, but their field-of-view is inherently limited by the small size of the probe's distal end. Video mosaicing has emerged as an effective technique to increase the acquired image size. Current implementations are performed post-procedure, which removes the benefits of live imaging. In this manuscript we present an algorithm for real-time video mosaicing using a low-cost high-resolution microendoscope. We present algorithm execution times and show image results obtained from in vivo tissue.