One year effectiveness of an individualised smoking cessation intervention at the workplace: a randomised controlled trial.

AIMS: To assess the effectiveness of a smoking cessation intervention at the workplace. The intervention was adapted to smokers' tobacco dependence, and included minimal structured counselling at the first visit (5-8 minutes), nicotine patches for three months, and three sessions of counselling for reinforcement of abstinence (2-3 minutes) over a three month period. METHODS: Open randomised trial with two groups: the intervention group, and the control group which was subjected to standard clinical practice, consisting of short (30 seconds to one minute) sporadic sessions of unstructured medical antismoking advice. The trial was carried out among 217 smokers of both sexes, aged 20-63 years, motivated to quit smoking and without contraindications for nicotine patches, who were employees at a public transport company and at two worksites of an electric company. The main outcome measure was self reported tobacco abstinence confirmed by carbon monoxide in expired air

The relationship of overweight and obesity with subjective health and use of health-care services among Spanish women.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship of overweight and obesity with subjective health and use of health-care services among women in Spain. METHODS: Data were drawn from the 1993 Spanish National Health Survey, covering a 13 244-woman sample representative of the non-institutionalised Spanish population aged 16 y and over. Information was collected through home-based interviews. Multiple logistic regression models were used to calculate odds ratios for suboptimal health (fair, poor or very poor) and utilisation of health-care services by women with normal weight (BMI 18.5-24.9 kg/m(2)), overweight (BMI 25.0-29.9 kg/m(2)) and obesity (BMI>or=30 kg/m(2)). Analyses were adjusted for age, education level, occupation, civil status, social support, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, physical activity at work and during leisure time, job status and town of residence. RESULTS: Frequency of suboptimal health was higher in women with overweight (OR 1.7; 95% CI 1.5-1.9) and obesity (OR 2.1; 95% CI 1.8-2.5) than in those with normal weight. Overweight and obese women visited the physician, used hospital emergency services and took medication with greater frequency than did women of normal weight. There was a positive dose-response relationship (P<0.05) of BMI>or=18.5 kg/m(2) with suboptimal health and utilisation of health-care services. These associations were not wholly explained by BMI-related risk factors and chronic diseases, since their statistical significance remained unchanged and their magnitude was only slightly reduced after adjustment for those factors. The association of overweight and obesity with the use of health-care services did not vary with age, educational level or presence of chronic disease. CONCLUSION: Overweight and obese women have worse subjective health and make greater use of health-care services. This finding is an additional argument for implementing weight-control programmes in Spain.

Consumption of alcoholic beverages and subjective health in Spain.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To examine the relation between alcohol and main alcoholic beverage consumption and subjective health in Spain. DESIGN: Logistic regression analysis using a cross sectional survey based on self reported data on alcohol and alcoholic beverage consumption, subjective health and the principal confounding factors (age, sex, civil status, educational level, job status, social support, region of residence, size of town or city, tobacco consumption, physical activity during leisure time and work hours, and chronic disease). SETTING: The 1993 Spanish National Health Survey. PARTICIPANTS: A 19 573 person sample, representative of the non-institutionalised Spanish population aged 16 years and over. MAIN RESULTS: Among Spaniards, 31.4% reported their health as suboptimal (fair, poor or very poor) and 56.9% consumed alcohol regularly, with the majority having a preference for wine. Light (1-2 drinks per day) or moderate consumption (3-4 drinks per day) was the most frequent pattern. After adjusting for confounding factors, a negative dose-response relation was observed between consumption of total alcohol, wine and beer, and prevalence of suboptimal health (linear trend: p<0.001 for total alcohol, p=0.023 for wine, and p=0.030 for beer). In contrast, for consumption of spirits the prevalence of ill health in moderate drinkers was lower than in non-drinkers, with no clear relation at higher consumption. While persons reporting a preference for wine had a lower frequency of suboptimal health than did abstainers, they showed no difference in frequency of subjective ill health with respect to persons with preference for other types of drink or no preference whatsoever. CONCLUSIONS: The higher the consumption of total alcohol, wine and beer, the lower the prevalence of suboptimal health. These results differ from those obtained in several Nordic countries, where a "J shaped" relation has been observed for total alcohol and wine, and suggest that the relation between alcohol consumption and subjective health may be different in Mediterranean countries.

[Smoking and subjective health in Spain]. / Consumo de tabaco y salud subjetiva en España.

BACKGROUND: To examine the relationship between smoking and subjective health in Spain. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Datacome from the 1993 National Health Survey. Analyses were performed with logistic regression, adjusting for the main confounding factors. RESULTS: Among those less than 25 years, there is a dose-response relationship (p = 0.0001)between cigarette consumption and suboptimal health (fair, pooror very poor health). CONCLUSIONS: Smoking controlactivities should inform on the worse subjective health of youngsmokers, for whom other effects of tobacco smoking are less relevant because they appear to happen in the distant future.