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Objective: To assess the effectiveness of 12 weekly physical therapy sessions for urinary incontinence (UI) compared with a control intervention, for reducing the number of UI episodes measured with the 7-day bladder diary, at 3 months and 1 year postrandomization. Methods: A single parallel-group randomized controlled trial was conducted at one outpatient public health center, in postmenopausal women aged 55 years and over with osteoporosis or low bone density and UI. Women were randomized to physical therapy (PT) for UI or osteoporosis education. The primary outcome measure was number of leakage episodes on the 7-day bladder diary, assessed at baseline, after treatment and at 1 year. The secondary outcome measures included the pad test and disease-specific quality of life and self-efficacy questionnaires assessed at the same timepoints. Results: Forty-eight women participated (24 per group). Two participants dropped out of each group and one participant was deceased before 3-month follow-up. Intention-to-treat analysis was undertaken. At 3 months and 1 year, there was a statistically significant difference in the number of leakage episodes on the 7-day bladder diary (3 mo: P = 0.04; 1 y: P = 0.01) in favor of the PT group. The effect size was 0.34 at 1 year. There were no harms reported. Conclusions: After a 12-week course of PT once per week for UI, PT group participants had a 75% reduction in weekly median number of leakage episodes, whereas the control group's condition had no improvement. At 1 year, the PT group participants maintained this improvement, whereas the control group's incontinence worsened.

Objective: Children's letters to Father Christmas provide an opportunity to use naturalistic methods to investigate the influence of television advertising. Methods: This study investigates the number of toy requests in the letters of children aged between 6 and 8 (n 98) in relation to their television viewing and the frequency of product advertisements prior to Christmas. Seventy-six hours of children's television were sam- pled, containing over 2,500 advertisements for toys. Results: Children's viewing frequency, and a preference for viewing commercial channels, were both related to their requests for advertised goods. Gender effects were also found, with girls requesting more advertised products than boys. Conclusion: Exploring the children's explicit understanding of advertising showed that children in this age group are not wholly aware of the advertisers' intent and that, together with their good recall of advertising, this may account for their vulnera- bility to its persuasive messages. (J Dev Behav Pediatr 28:1-1, 2007) Index terms: children, advertising, television, Christmas. With children in the UK watching an average of 2½ hours of television per day, 63% possessing a television in their bedroom 1 and the growth of commercial TV chan- nels in the UK, the potential exposure to television ad- vertising for today's children is considerable. There is now a growing body of literature examining the effects of television advertising on children, their understanding of it and the extent of its influence. This research is highly relevant to those concerned with the regulation of advertis- ing to children and those who see a need to protect children from aggressive marketing. 2 Young children are a vulnerable group, it is suggested, because they lack the cognitive skills necessary to defend themselves against the persuasive power of advertising. 3 This paper takes account of theories about children's development in assessing this vulnerability and uses a methodology that examines children's behavioral responses to television advertising. Advertisers are not completely free to bombard chil- dren with television advertising as regulations control the amount and type of television advertising targeted at children in many parts of Europe and the US. Neverthe- less, controls vary considerably from country to country ranging from few restrictions to timing restrictions to total bans on any TV advertising which is aimed directly at children. 4 In the UK the content and amount of adver- tising are regulated. 5 Nonetheless, while strict regulations

Many vets around the world work under difficult conditions and with limited resources. To help, BSAVA Publications makes donations of manuals. Penny Wilson looks at some of the beneficiaries.