Christmas wishes to all our readers!

Sally and Adele and all the library staff at CHHC and PMBH would like to wish you a very merry Christmas. Our experiments in blogging seem to be working nicely, with an average of over 700 visits a month and lots of repeat visitors and subscribers.

The picture to the right is a book tree constructed at our library in Port Macquarie by Helen from old bound journals. It's attracted a lot of attention here!
All the very best for a safe and happy festive season and we look forward to continuing this service into 2009.

Musical health dangers!

The British Medical Journal has published two articles recently on this topic.

"Head and neck injury risks in heavy metal : head bangers stuck between rock and a hard bass" by Declan Patton & Andrew MacIntosh in Vol 337, Dec 20-27 2008, p. 1455-7, has had a fair bit of airing in the media recently. More than slightly tongue-in-cheek, the authors conclude that to minimise the risk of head and neck injury, "head bangers should decrease their range of head and neck motion, head bang to slower tempo songs by replacing heavy metal with adult oriented rock, only head bang to every second beat, or use personal protective equipment."

A little more seriously, "A Symphony of Maladies" in the same issue, p.1458-60, discusses at length the health stresses professional classical musicians face, from the obvious overuse injuries and the fallout from gruelling practice and travelling regimes, to focal dystonias, dermal sensitisation, and respiratory, oropharyngeal, and cardiovascular anomalies. Fiddlers' neck, Guitarists' nipple and Cello knee are some of the more specific complaints recorded in this literature review.

You can access these articles via the NCAHS online journals list, or contact your library for a copy.

National drug survey report

In another AIHW report just released, 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey: detailed findings, information on drug use prevalence, drug-related behaviours and incidents, and support for drug-related policy and legislation in Australia is presented.

Some of the findings include the fact that one in six Australians over the age of 14 smoke tobacco daily, a drop since 1993 when it was one in four. The use of ilicit drugs in Australia has continued to decline, and the consumption of alcohol has remained almost the same.

Cancer in Australia 2008 - AIHW Report

Cancer in Australia: an overview 2008 presents comprehensive national data on cancer incidence and mortality in Australia in 2005, with projections to 2008. Also included are incidence data by state and territory,remoteness, socioeconomic status and Indigenous status. Summaries are given for cancer survival and prevalence, and cancer screening. Also presented are hospital inpatient statistics for the period 2002-03 to 2006-07, and a discussion of the burden of cancer.

The report reveals an increased prevalence of cancer diagnosis across Australia, but also increased survival times for most forms of cancer

Comprehensive womens' medicine website

The Global Library of Women's Health has been developed from the six-volume, encyclopaedic textbook Gynecology & Obstetrics, which was first published in 1934 and has been edited for the last 30 years by Professor John J. Sciarra. It is like a huge online textbook containing 442 main chapters and 53 supplementary chapters, supported by over 40,000 references kept permanently up-to-date. The chapters have been written by more than 650 specialists. Also included are videos, an image library, atlases and patient information sheets.

There is free access to the whole site, including a health professionals section you need to register for, but which costs nothing.

NSW Rural & Remote Health Conference

Presentations from the inaugural NSW Rural & Remote Health Conference: Information/Inspiration/Innovation held in Coffs Harbour, November 2008 are now available from the NSW Institute of Rural Clinical Services & Teaching website.

Dynamic spread of happiness!

The paper in BMJ (British Medical Journal) that received the widest coverage last week shows that happiness is contagious and can spread from person to person. It was the most read article on the BMJ Site, with 12,327 viewers. Authors James H Fowler and Nicholas A Christakis followed 4739 participants from 1983 to 2003. By studying social networks, the researchers found that happy people are more likely to be connected to other happy people. They also found that people at the centre of their social network were more likely to be happy than those on the periphery of it.

Plenty of Guidelines, but Where's the Evidence?

Clinical guidelines were first developed in the 1980s, but even now over 20 years later, the process for creating guidelines can be idiosyncratic and error-prone, especially in regard to children’s health, leading to sudden shifts that confuse doctors and parents.
A report in The Journal of the American Medical Association found that only about a third of clinical guidelines reviewed current medical evidence. Fewer than half followed any kind of standard format. And yet we know that Evidence-based guidelines are critical to protecting public health from bad medicine. You can read the essay on the New York Times website.

Gestational diabetes in Australia

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare recently released this report - the first national one of its type. Entitled Gestational Diabetes Mellitus in Australia 2005-6, the report uses data from the National Diabetes Services Scheme and the National Hospital Morbidity Database to determine the number of cases of GDM among Australian women of child-bearing age. Trends in the incidence of the condition over time, and a study of the high-risk groups (such as women aged over 30 years, women who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and women born overseas) are the main focus.

ABC's Radio National's Health Report this week featured an interview with the AIHW's Mardi Templeton concerning this report. You can download the audio or read the transcript.

Failures in Aboriginal health

Former Australian of the Year, Professor Fiona Stanley, delivered the 11th Annual Hawke Lecture in Adelaide last month. Now it is available online in pdf or as an audio podcast. The Great injustice : why we have failed to improve the health of aboriginal people is the title of the lecture, and in it Stanley discusses Aboriginal suicide rates, early mortality and the ongoing effects of the stolen generation.

"The most sustainable and important recommendation I want to discuss relates to how we enhance an effective Aboriginal workforce, as not only does that bring economic power to families, but also raises self esteem and longer term success. I will ... leave you with a commitment and a sense of hope that we can and must collectively tackle this major human rights issue in Australia."

Australian e-Journal for the Advancement of Mental Health

The latest issue of this journal (Volume 7, Issue 3, November 2008) has just been published free online. Articles include:

• In young people with a depressive disorder, does diagnostic specificity matter in the prediction of suicidality? Polarisation and political correctness: subtle barriers to consumer participation in mental health services.
• Increasing child and adolescent mental health content in undergraduate occupational therapy, social work and nursing programs: Lessons learnt.
• Sleep disruptions and mental health of primary caregivers of persons with disability due to chronic mental and physical conditions in the Australian population.
• Does family intervention for adolescent substance use impact parental mental health? A systematic review.
• Use of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in identifying emotional and behavioural problems in children of parents with a mental illness in Australia.
• The psychic disequilibrium of adoption: stories exploring links between adoption and suicidal thoughts and actions.
  

New melanoma guidelines

Just in time for summer, the NHMRC has published its Clinical practice guidelines for the management of melanoma in Australia and New Zealand, "developed by an expert team to provide the evidence for optimal care to assist general practitioners, dermatologists, surgeons and others in clinical decision making when managing patients with melanoma."

Figures from 2002 revealed melanoma to be the fourth most common cancer and the ninth most common cancer causing death, in Australia and New Zealand. Melanoma incidences continue to be substantially higher in these countries than reported worldwide. Early detection, referral to specialists and some sun exposure to maintain Vitimin D levels are all recommended. Population based screening is not supported by these guidelines.

Palliative Care Knowledge Network

CareSearch is funded by the Australian Government’s Dept of Health & Ageing, and aims to provide quality information and evidence on all issues relevant to palliative care. Because at any time a patient’s condition may change so that they require palliative care, CareSearch is relevant to nearly all fields of healthcare and different professionals. There is also extensive evidence-based information available there for patients and carers.

Librarians have run over 50 different topic searches related to palliative care and these are included on the site and regularly updated. The most recent are on Dysphagia and Quality of Life. This is really an excellent informational website, well worth keeping a regular eye on.

The Garling Report

Just in case you have missed all the hype surrounding the Garling Report released last Friday, here is a link to the Final Report of the Special Commission of Inquiry into Acute Care Services in NSW Public Hospitals. Consisting of three volumes, you can download it for free.

Projections of Australia's Healthcare Expenditure

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released a new report yesterday:
Projection of health care expenditure by disease 2003 to 2033. This report examines projections of Australian health care expenditure by disease for the period 2003 to 2033. Total expenditure on health is projected to increase from 9.4% of GDP in 2002-03 to 10.8% of GDP in 2032-33. This is an increase of 15% in the health to GDP ratio (or an annual growth of 0.5% greater than growth in GDP). The report:
- provides details on the five components of the projection model
- presents expenditure projections to 2033 for the 20 disease groups
- examines the main components contributing to change in expenditure for seven major disease and injury groups.