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Introduction: Australia has experienced sustained reductions in hepatitis C testing and treatment and may miss its 2030 elimination targets. Addressing gaps in community-based hepatitis C prescribing in priority settings that did not have, or did not prioritise, hepatitis C testing and treatment care pathways is critical., Methods: The Tasmanian Eliminate Hepatitis C Australia Outreach Project delivered a nurse-led outreach model of care servicing hepatitis C priority populations in the community through the Tasmanian Statewide Sexual Health Service, supported by the Eliminating Hepatitis C Australia partnership. Settings included alcohol and other drug services, needle and syringe programs and mental health services. The project provided clients with clinical care across the hepatitis C cascade of care, including testing, treatment, and post-treatment support and hepatitis C education for staff., Results: Between July 2020 and July 2022, a total of 43 sites were visited by one Clinical Nurse Consultant. There was a total of 695 interactions with clients across 219 days of service delivery by the Clinical Nurse Consultant. A total of 383 clients were tested for hepatitis C (antibody, RNA, or both). A total of 75 clients were diagnosed with hepatitis C RNA, of which 95% (71/75) commenced treatment, 83% (62/75) completed treatment and 52% (39/75) received a negative hepatitis C RNA test at least 12 weeks after treatment completion., Conclusions: Providing outreach hepatitis C services in community-based services was effective in engaging people living with and at-risk of hepatitis C, in education, testing, and care. Nurse-led, person-centred care was critical to the success of the project. Our evaluation underscores the importance of employing a partnership approach when delivering hepatitis C models of care in community settings, and incorporating workforce education and capacity-building activities when working with non-specialist healthcare professionals., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Purpose: Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is prevalent amongst survivors, and breast cancer survivors are particularly vulnerable. Currently, there are few well-validated brief measures of FCR and none specific to breast cancer. This manuscript describes the development and initial validation of a new measure of FCR for breast cancer survivors, the Concerns about Recurrence Questionnaire (CARQ), and reports its initial validation in an Australian and Danish population-based sample of breast cancer survivors., Methods: CTT analyses explored scale reliability and validity; Rasch analyses explored model fit statistics, item bias (DIF) and local dependency. Three-item, four-item and five-item versions were considered., Results: Two hundred eighteen Australian women aged 28-45 years diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer (stages 0-2) and 2001 Danish women diagnosed with breast cancer (stages 1-3) aged 26-70 completed the CARQ. Based on the results of both CTT and IRT analyses, the four-item English version of the scale performed best. Although the CTT analyses suggested that the CARQ-4 was reliable and valid in both samples, Rasch analyses identified item bias relative to age, and local dependence which may be remedied by further scale development., Conclusions: The CARQ-4 English version is currently one of the most rigorously tested brief scales of FCR available., Implications for Cancer Survivors: The availability of more valid and reliable brief measures of FCR will help to promote research and screening of FCR amongst cancer survivors.

Background: Previous data have suggested that diabetes and hyperglycemia predict poor outcome following stroke. We studied the prognostic impact of diabetes and admission blood glucose in the Echoplanar Imaging Thrombolytic Evaluation Trial (EPITHET)., Methods: EPITHET was a prospective randomized placebo-controlled trial of intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) in the 3- to 6-hour time window. A preexisting diagnosis of diabetes was noted and baseline serum glucose was measured., Results: Intravenous tPA attenuated infarct growth in non-diabetics, but not in diabetics (p = 0.029). In the tPA treatment group, admission blood glucose was higher among patients with poor functional outcome (p = 0.002)., Conclusions: Diabetes and hyperglycemia attenuate the effects of tPA on infarct evolution. Future thrombolytic trials should consider randomizing patients by subgroups based on diabetic status and serum glucose levels.

This study investigates the discursive management of taking prohibited substances in sport. In particular, it explores how one high-profile athlete, Australian cricketer Shane Warne, accounted for his drug-taking behavior when talking to the media. Discursive psychology (DP) is used as the theoretical and methodological framework to study drug discourses in sport. Emphasis in DP is on making explicit how psychological concepts (e.g., drug explanations) are used in everyday talk to perform certain actions. The research data is Warne's first public press statement concerning his 2003 positive test for hydrochlorothiazide and amiloride. Analysis reveals that Warne constructed his drug taking as not being related to performance enhancement and substantiated this with a history of negative test results. Warne worked up his taking as the result of ignorance rather than deliberate deception. Further, he presented this as a one-off event and not reflective of systematic drug usage. It is argued in this study that to better understand drug taking in sport, sport researchers need to understand how athletes talk about drugs. For it is through talk that most sporting activities are conducted and maintained, and it is this talk that needs to be understood and analyzed.