Living with heart failure: patient experiences and implications for physical activity and daily living.

AIMS: Heart failure (HF) substantially limits the ability of patients to engage in physical activities. A detailed understanding of how patients experience these limitations is required to develop valid and sensitive measures for use in clinical research. This qualitative study was designed to provide a thorough description of how HF patients experience physical activity limitations in their daily lives. METHODS AND RESULTS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 40 HF patients. Interview transcripts were coded with the aim of identifying key aspects of physical activity. Patients were divided between HF with preserved ejection fraction (n = 21, 52.5%) and HF with reduced ejection fraction (n = 19, 47.5%); the majority of patients were New York Heart Association Class II (n = 22, 52.5%) or Class III (n = 16, 40.0%). Relevant physical activity themes, including mobility and broader daily function areas, were identified. The most frequently reported mobility limitations involved difficulty walking (up a steep incline, up steps, and long distances), limited walking speed, difficulty standing for long periods of time, and difficulty carrying and lifting objects. These limitations were principally related to three HF symptoms: dyspnoea, tiredness/fatigue, and peripheral oedema. Patients adapted to their symptoms and related mobility limitations in several ways, including taking rests during an activity, doing an activity more slowly, and avoiding/refraining from an activity altogether. The broader daily function areas most commonly impacted by the mobility limitations were housework, exercising or playing sports, and going shopping. CONCLUSIONS: Heart failure patients report numerous physical activity limitations. These specific mobility and daily function areas can be measured using clinical outcome assessments (e.g. patient-reported outcomes and performance outcomes) in clinical trials and observational research. Accelerometry can be used to contribute to a holistic picture of patient functioning by passively collecting this type of data.

Tobacco-related cancers in India: A review of incidence reported from population-based cancer registries.

BACKGROUND: Tobacco related cancers (TRC) account for major share of all cancers and updated of incidence data are helpful in policy changes. The aim was to present an update of TRCs on age-adjusted incidence data and corresponding lifetime risk of developing TRC for different regions of the country. METHODS: The data for this study were obtained from published reports of 25 population-based cancer registries (PBCRs) in India. The PBCRs in different parts of India were divided into seven regions such as North, South, Central, Northeast, West, Rural West, and East. Data indicators such as age-adjusted rates (AARs) of incidence and the cumulative risks of TRCs up to the age of 64 years for each of the 10 TRC sites of either sex in each of 25 registries were obtained from the National Cancer Registry Programme reports. RESULTS: Among all TRCs, esophagus, lung, hypopharynx, and mouth are the leading sites for both males and females. Males in Northeast region had the highest risk 1 in 27 of developing esophageal cancer, 1 in 67 for cancer of lungs and hypopharynx, followed by 1 in 143 for both mouth and tongue cancers. Females also had the highest risk of esophagus and lungs (1 in 63 female) and cancer of mouth (1 in 250) in Northeast region. Proportion of TRC in comparison of all cancer ranged from 11-25% for men and 3-18% for women. CONCLUSIONS: Proportion of TRC in relation to all cancers was still high in different registries of India including the Northeast region.