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Aims: To evaluate the effectiveness of a national approach to prescribing education on health professional students' prescribing and therapeutics knowledge, across multiple disciplines., Methods: In a university examination setting, 83 medical, 40 pharmacy and 13 nurse practitioner students from three different universities completed a set of multiple choice questions (MCQs) before and after completing an online module from the National Prescribing Curriculum (NPC). To minimize overestimation of knowledge, students had to indicate the level of certainty for each answer on a three-point scale. MCQs were scored using a validated certainty-based marking scheme resulting in a composite score (maximum 30 and minimum -60). Students were asked to rate their perception of usefulness of the module., Results: At the pre-module phase, there were no significant differences in the composite MCQ scores between the medical (9.0 ± 10.3), pharmacy (10.2 ± 10.6) and nurse practitioner (8.0 ± 10.7) students. The scores improved significantly for all groups at the post-module phase (P < 0.01 for all groups) by similar extents (post-module results: medical, 14.5 ± 9.6; pharmacy, 14.4 ± 9.9; nurse practitioner, 12.1 ± 9.6). 39.4% of the MCQs answered incorrectly with high level of certainty at the pre-module phase were still answered incorrectly with high level of certainty at the post-module phase. Almost all students (with no significant difference between the groups) found the NPC modules, post-module MCQs and feedback useful as a learning tool., Conclusions: A national online approach to prescribing education can improve therapeutics knowledge of students from multiple disciplines of health care and contribute towards streamlining interdisciplinary learning in medication management., (© 2012 The Authors. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology © 2012 The British Pharmacological Society.)

Objective: To examine the effects of different Pap screening patterns in preventing invasive cervical cancer among women in New South Wales, Australia., Methods: A total of 877 women aged 20-69 years diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer during 2000-2003 were matched with 2,614 controls by month and year of birth. Screening behavior patterns in 4 years preceding the time of cancer diagnosis in the cases were classified into none (no Pap test in the 4 years), 'irregular' (1 of the 4 years with Pap test(s)), and 'regular' (2 or more of the 4 years with a Pap test), and compared with those in the matched non-cases over the same period. Conditional logistic regression modeling was used to estimate the relative risk, approximated by the odds ratio, of invasive cervical cancer for regular and irregular cervical screening compared with no screening in the previous 4 years, before and after controlling for potential confounders including the first recorded Pap test result in the preceding 6-year reference period., Results: Compared with no screening, irregular Pap screening in the 4 years preceding the cancer diagnosis is estimated to reduce the risk of invasive cervical cancer by about 85% (RR = 0.15, 95% CI: 0.120-0.19); regular Pap screening reduces the risk by about 96% (RR = 0.04, 95% CI: 0.03-0.05). After adjusting for the index Pap test result, the relative risks for invasive cervical cancer were 0.19 (95% CI: 0.13-0.27) for irregular screening and 0.07 (95% CI: 0.04-0.10) for regular Pap screening., Conclusions: Regular and irregular Pap tests among women aged 20-69 years were highly effective in preventing invasive cancer. At-risk women with no Pap test history should be encouraged to undergo a Pap test every 2 years, but any Pap screening over a 4-year period remains highly protective against future invasive cervical cancer.

Objectives: This study aims to determine the association of two versus three year screening intervals with the likelihood of detection of a high-grade cervical abnormality and cervical cancer., Methods: Data were obtained from the New South Wales (NSW) Papanicolaou (Pap) Test Register (PTR) and NSW Central Cancer Registry (CCR). Subjects were human papillomavirus (HPV) unvaccinated women aged 20-69 years who had a minimum of two Pap tests with a negative result at their first recorded Pap test (n = 1,213,295). Logistic regression was used to determine the association between screening interval and the likelihood of: (1) a cytological prediction of high-grade abnormality, defined as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) 2 or greater; (2) a histologically confirmed high-grade abnormality; (3) a cytological prediction of cervical cancer and (4) a confirmed diagnosis of cervical cancer, controlling for potential confounders of age and socioeconomic status (SES) of area of residence., Results: For each year increase in the screening interval, the odds of a histologically confirmed high-grade abnormality increased significantly in women aged 20-29 years (odds ratio [OR] 1.24, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.20-1.28) and in women aged 30-49 years (OR 1.11, 95% CI 1.06-1.16), but not in women aged 50-69 years (OR 1.08, 95% CI 0.89-1.32). Similar results were observed for cytologically detected high-grade abnormalities. The screening interval was significantly and positively associated with a cytological prediction of cervical cancer (OR 1.40, 95% CI 1.28-1.54) and a confirmed cervical cancer diagnosis (OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.33-2.07) in women aged 20-69 years. Despite the higher risks, we estimate that if the screening interval were increased from two to three years, and the number of women participating in treatment screening was the same as for biennial screening in NSW, then 140 (95% CI 60-220) fewer high-grade cytology results would occur per year, and there would be around 19 (95% CI -50- 89) fewer high-grade cases confirmed by histology. As the 95% CI covers zero in the latter estimate, there is no significant difference in expected confirmed high-grade abnormalities between biennial and triennial screening if the same number of women are screened triennally as biennially. [corrected] Equivalently, 2.3 (95% CI 1.8-2.8) and 1.9 (95% CI 1.5-2.4) extra cases of high-grade cytology and histology, respectively, would be expected per 1000 women with initially negative cytology if the screening interval were extended from two to three years., Conclusion: Increasing the cervical screening interval from two to three years would be expected to significantly increase the odds of detection of a high-grade abnormality for NSW women aged 20-49 years and cervical cancer for NSW women aged 20-69 years. Accordingly, our study provides evidence in support of retaining the recommended cervical screening interval at two years for HPV unvaccinated, well women.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of an anti-smoking advertisement on young women's perceptions of smoking in movies and their intention to smoke. SUBJECTS/ SETTING: 2038 females aged 12-17 years attending cinemas in New South Wales, Australia. DESIGN/ INTERVENTION: Quasi-experimental study of patrons, who were surveyed after having viewed a movie at their local cinema. The control group was surveyed during week 1 and the intervention group, during week 2. Before seeing the movie in week 2, a 30 second anti-smoking advertisement was shown, which featured a well known female actor drawing attention to the prevalence of smoking in movies., Outcomes: Attitude of current smokers and non-smokers to smoking in the movies; intention of current smokers and non-smokers to be smoking in 12 months time., Results: Among non-smokers, 48.2% of the intervention subjects thought that the smoking in the movie they viewed was "not OK" compared with 28.3% of the control subjects (p < 0.0001). However, there was no difference among smokers in the intervention (26.4%) and control (16.9%) groups (p = 0.28). A higher percentage of current smokers in the intervention group indicated they were unlikely to smoke in 12 months time (47.8%) than smokers in the control condition (31.9%) (p = 0.03). For non-smokers, there was no difference in smoking intentions between conditions, with 95% saying they would be unlikely to be smoking in 12 months time., Conclusions: This "real world" study suggests that placing an anti-smoking advertisement before movies containing smoking scenes can help to "immunise" young women against the influences of film stars smoking.