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Aim: To determine the outcomes and satisfaction of patients who presented to a primary care musculoskeletal clinic and sports medicine clinic with a clinical or magnetic resonance imaging confi rmation of knee meniscal tear and who subsequently received an injection of intra articular hyaluronic acid.

Aim: To determine the effect of a very brief structured exercise prescription given by general practitioners (GPs) to sedentary patients attending chronic disease clinics in a primary care setting lead them to begin exercising. Materials and Methods: One hundred and six patients of the intervention (INV) group were counselled for 1–2 minutes individually about a benefit of regular exercise after which a written exercise prescription was provided by the GP. The 110 patients in the control (CON) group received usual care given to patients attending health centres. The patients in both groups were called at both one month (T1), and three months (T3) post intervention, respectively where they were interviewed about their current exercise habits. Results: At T1, 84/106 (79.2%) of INV vs. 34 (30.9%) of CON were exercising and at T3, 79/106 (74.5%) of INV vs 19/110 (17.4%) of CON were exercising at least one time weekly (P < 0.0005). Greater than 90% of patients who began exercising “agreed/strongly agreed” that the doctors’ advice was “important to start exercising.” Conclusion: The brief intervention seemed to be more effective than regular care in getting patients to begin exercising at 1 month and 3 months post intervention than regular care. The intervention was well received by most of the patients receiving the intervention.

Background Over 60% of households (HHs) in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) consume alcohol. These HHs were more likely to report illnesses, relationship problems, and behavioral problems with children. This study set out to determine what proportion of HHs were willing to support changes in specific policies, laws and regulations in a national alcohol campaign. Methods A cross-sectional convenience sample of HHs were surveyed from a random sample of enumeration districts (ED) in T&T. An interviewer-applied, field pre-tested de novo questionnaire had 5 domains and was developed over 1 1/2 years after an extensive literature review and consultation. Many of the WHO ‘best buys’ recommendations were included. Results One thousand six hundred ninety-five HHs (from 53 ED) responded from a total of 1837 HHs approached (response rate 92%). In a national campaign the following proportions of HHs would support: setting the legal age for drinking at 21 years (82.4%); restricting or banning alcohol advertising on TV and other media (73.1% and 54.4% respectively); banning all alcohol advertising at sports and cultural events (64.8%); banning radio stations playing songs with reference to alcohol use (71.3%); holding sellers of alcohol responsible for the amount of alcohol sold (79.5%); advocating that proof of age to be shown by persons buying alcohol (87.4%); placing more prominent warning labels on products displaying alcohol content (87.2%); placing more prominent warning labels on products showing harmful effects (88.5%); increasing taxes on alcohol sales (87.7%). Less than 50% of HH supported restrictions in density of outlets and reduction in opening times for alcohol outlets. Conclusions Many HHs in T&T are willing to support changes in policies around alcohol, including many of the policies shown by the WHO to be effective in reducing the harmful consumption of alcohol.

Aim: To determine the outcomes and satisfaction of patients who presented to a primary care musculoskeletal clinic and sports medicine clinic with a clinical or magnetic resonance imaging confirmation of knee meniscal tear and who subsequently received an injection of intra articular hyaluronic acid.

Background To determine the patterns of alcohol use among households in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) and to estimate the association between alcohol use and negative psychological, social, or physical events experienced by the household. Methods A convenience sample of 1837 households across T&T. We identified bivariate correlates of alcohol use, and heavy episodic drinking using chi-square and t-test analyses and used multivariable logistic regression to estimate adjusted associations between household alcohol use and experiences within the past 12 months adjusted for sociodemographic covariates. Results One thousand five hundred two households had complete data for all variables (82% response rate). Nearly two thirds (64%) of households included alcohol users; 57% of household that consumed alcohol also reported heavy episodic drinking. Households that reported alcohol consumption were significantly more likely to report illnesses within the households, relationship problems, and behavioral and antisocial problems with children. Among households where a member was employed, those who consumed alcohol were nearly twice as likely (OR = 1.98; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03, 3.82) to have a household member call in sick to work and 2.9 times as likely (OR = 2.9; CI 1.19, 7.04) to have a household member suffer work related problems compared with households who reported not consuming alcohol. Conclusions Approximately two thirds of households in T&T reported using alcohol. These households were more likely to report psychological, physical, and social problems. These findings would support efforts to enforce current policies, laws, and regulations as well as new strategies to reduce the impact of harmful alcohol consumption on households in T&T. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-017-4266-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.