Predictors of smoking cessation success

PURPOSE: To evaluate Smoking Cessation Clinic success rate and attitudes toward smoking among current and quitters enrolled at the clinic. METHODS: Telephone survey among a random sample of 61 subjects enrolled at the Smoking Cessation Clinic in the San Juan Veterans Affairs Hospital. The questionnaire was validated and standardized for Hispanic subjects. RESULTS: Twenty eight percent of the subjects interviewed referred they had quit smoking. Quitters used to smoke more cigarettes than current smokers do. Quitters perceived their general health to be worse than current smoker's perception. Even though Quitters were concerned about weight gain after quitting, it was not a negative outcome for smoking cessation. No association was found between active smoking and use of ethanol, neither socializing with friends nor feeling anxious. CONCLUSION: The Smoking Cessation Clinic at the San Juan Veterans Affairs Hospital has a success rate similar to other clinics reported in the literature. Poor health perception and consumption of more than one pack per day predicted smoking cessation. There was no single strong factor associated to smoking cessation. The idiosyncrasy of targeted population should be taken in account when designing smoking cessation program.

Asthma knowledge among internal medicine residents.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the medical knowledge about asthma among residents from the Accreditation Council on Graduate Education (ACGME) accredited Internal Medicine programs. BACKGROUND: Asthma prevalence and morbidity has increased significantly in the last 20 years. Recent morbidity data suggests that approximately 14 to 15 million Americans suffer from asthma and 5,000 of them die annually due to this illness. Previous studies have suggested that Puerto Ricans are disproportionally affected by asthma. In order to impact both morbidity and mortality relates to asthma, primary care givers should be knowledgeable about the disease. METHODS: Based in the 1993 National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) guidelines, a questionnaire was developed to evaluate the knowledge of asthma in physicians in the Internal Medicine Residency Programs. It consisted of 27 questions covering the areas of diagnosis and treatment of asthma. RESULTS: The questionnaire was answered by 90% of the 138 residents active at the moment of the study. Fifty-one percent of the residents failed to obtain a score of 70% or greater. Score on asthma diagnosis was less than 70% and did not improve through year of training. Score obtained on asthma treatment improved through training year although no statistical difference was obtained. CONCLUSIONS: In view of these results it is imperative to reinforce the state of the art asthma education of physicians. Research initiatives must evaluate educational strategies to improve asthma education.

Prevention of Borrelia burgdorferi transmission in guinea pigs by tick immunity.

We examined the effect of repeated infestation of guinea pigs with Ixodes scapularis on the capacity of ticks to transmit Borrelia burgdorferi infection. Repeated challenges with nymphs or larvae lead to a reduction in duration of nymphal tick attachment and weight of recovered ticks consistent with the development of tick immunity. Only one of 18 I. scapularis-immune guinea pigs challenged with B. burgdorferi-infected nymphal ticks became infected, whereas 10 of 18 naive guinea pigs similarly challenged became infected. We conclude that tick immunity interferes with borrelial transmission.