Survival Guide to Summer

The  ABC Health & Wellbeing website has put together a selection of content to will help guide you through the Christmas and New Year season. An example of some of the topics include: SPF50+ sunscreens and how well do they protect you; Fighting festive stress and conflict; The gift of giving reaps healthy rewards and Making healthy habits stick.

New clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of lung cancer

New clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of lung cancer have been published in an electronic ‘wiki’ format to assist doctors and their patients to make informed treatment choices based on the most current research available. The Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Treatment of Lung Cancer, commissioned and co-funded by Cancer Australia and developed by Cancer Council Australia, revise the treatment section of the 2004 “Clinical practice guidelines for the prevention, diagnosis and management of lung cancer”. The guidelines are available online on Cancer Council Australia’s Cancer Guidelines Wiki:  http://wiki.cancer.org.au

Incontinence in Australia: prevalence, experience and cost

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has released a paper reporting  on the 316,500 people who experienced severe incontinence in 2009, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers. In 2009, the number of people who always needed help or supervision with their bladder or bowel control was 144,400. About 96,100 people with disability aged 10 and over living in households (2.7% of the total) and 99,700 people living in cared accommodation (63.2%) used continence aids, irrespective of their level of incontinence.
Click here to download the report.

End of Life

The following resources are available for End of Life on the Clinical Ethics Website: Advance Care Directives; Autopsies; Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide; Post Coma Unresponsiveness; Refusal of Life Sustaining or Life Saving Treatment; and Withdrawing or Withholding Treatment: Futility, Best interests and Unjustifiable Burdens.
The Clinical Ethics website is a joint  project for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine and the Centre for Health Governance, Law and Ethics at Sydney Law School, University of Sydney.

Hope & Hurdles resource for women with secondary breast cancer

Breast Cancer Network Australia (BCNA) has launched a second edition of Hope & Hurdles, the free and comprehensive information resource for women with secondary breast cancer.
"Originally developed in 2007, the second edition includes new and updated information and a series of optional booklets that women can order according to their individual needs. This allows women to access information relevant to them when they want it. Hope & Hurdles also includes brochures, magazines and CDs that offer information, support and hope for women and those around them. For more information click here.

Ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage

This clinical guideline offers evidence-based advice on the diagnosis and management of ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage in early pregnancy (ie, up to 13 completed weeks of pregnancy). Published by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) it is the latest in a collection of pregnancy-related guidelines from NICE.
Other pregnancy-related clinical guidelines published by NICE include antenatal care, pregnancy and complex social factors and multiple pregnancy. NICE has also published a quality standard on antenatal care.
Clinical guidelines, CG154 - Issued: December 2012

Telltale Signs of Progress in the Management of Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (TTP) is a rare blood disorder characterized by microscopic clots throughout blood vessels in the body. TTP can cause catastrophic damage if not quickly diagnosed and treated because sufficient oxygen is unable to reach vital organs. This video discusses the most recent research on current therapies to help manage TTP. ( from Transfusion News http://transfusionnews.com/)

Serious childhood community injury in New South Wales 2009-10

More than 23,000 children and young people in New South Wales were hospitalised because of an injury in 2009-2010, according to a report released  by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) and the NSW Commission for Children and Young People. The report, Serious childhood community injury in New South Wales 2009-10, provides information on hospitalised injury of NSW children (aged 0-17) between 1 July 2009 and 30 June 2010. It also provides information on long-term trends.
 Falls were the most commonly reported cause of hospitalised injury (39% of cases), and these frequently involved playground equipment. Transport injuries were also common (14%).

Database of cases website

Biomed Central has launched their Cases Database website to capture and aggregate medical knowledge from case studies. It includes all the cases from 100 journals such as Journal of Medical Case Reports and  BMJ Case Reports, currently amounting to over 11 000 cases and continuously updated. You can search the cases by diagnosis, intervention, medication, age, sex, ethnicity or symptoms.  The database is intended to be used for teaching, learning, researching and generating hypotheses, and practitioners are encouraged to submit their own case studies for peer review and possible inclusion.

Economic and social impact of eating disorders

The Butterfly Foundation has published Paying the price : the economic and social impact of eating disorders, in which it reveals that there are more than 913,000 people in Australia with eating disorders in 2012 and that this amounts to a socioeconomic cost of $69.7 billion.

The report estimated that mortality rates are almost twice as high for people with eating disorders compared to the general population, with up to 1828 deaths from eating disorders in 2012 (515 males and 1313 females).  Around 4% of the Australian population have eating disorders and of these, 47% have a binge eating disorder and 64% are female. 

Cancer in Australia : an overview

This AIHW report has received much media attention over the past couple of weeks.  Cancer in Australia : an overview 2012, presents the latest available information on incidence, mortality, survival, prevalence, burden of cancer, hospitalisations and national cancer screening programs.   The main findings of the report include the estimate that more than 120,700 Australians will be diagnosed with cancer in 2012, most commonly prostate, bowel and breast cancer. For all cancers combined, the incidence rate increased by 12% from 1991 to 2009, but the mortality rate decreased and survival improved over time. Cancer outcomes differ by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status, remoteness area and socioeconomic status.
For those short of time, the key points and trends of the whole report are presented in a summary paper, Cancer in Australia : in brief 2012.

National report card on mental health and suicide prevention

A Contributing life : the 2012 national report card on mental health and suicide prevention has been published recently by National Mental Health.  It examines how Australian looks after the estimated 3.2 million Australians each year who live with mental health difficulties, as well as their families and carers.   The report shows that although Australia leads the world in progressive mental health policy, it falls down in delivery.  Ten specific recommendations are made, such as: 

• reducing the early death of Australians with severe mental illness and improving their physical health

• minimising the use of seclusion and restraint

• increasing access to mental health services from 6-8 to 12 per cent of Australia’s population

• making the mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples a higher priority

• stopping people from being discharged from mental health services into homelessness or unstable homes

• increasing the employment rates of people with mental illness and paying greater attention to supporting them at work

• increasing access to home based visiting to support families and children

• providing effective, local interventions to prevent suicide.

Diabetes among young Australians

Diabetes Among Young Australians  has just been published by the AIHW and is the first report from the National Centre for Monitoring Diabetes to examine the management and impact of diabetes in youth in Australia.  In 2010 about 31,300 Australians aged 0-30 years with diabetes were registered with the National Diabetes Service Scheme.  79% of them had Type 1 diabetes.  The report looks at how young people are managing this condition, how they use health services and the diabetes-related health problems they experience.

Quick resources for depression in young people

Following the development of the NHMRC-approved Clinical Practice Guidelines for Depression in Adolescents and Young Adults in 2011, beyondblue has produced several quick and easy reference guides for health professionals.  The new resources include:

• Depression in young people - executive summary
• Assessment and management of depression in your people
• Engaging young people in health care
• Depression in young people : a desktop guide

Work-related Traumatic Injury Fatalities, Australia 2010–11

Safe Work Australia recently released the Work-related Traumatic Injury Fatalities, Australia 2010–11 report. The report found that 374 people died from a work-related traumatic injury in 2010–11. Of these 220 workers (59 percent) died from injuries incurred at work; 110 workers (29 percent) died from an incident while travelling to or from work and 44 people (12 percent) died as a bystander to someone else’s work activity.
Click here or go to www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au

Australian Health Survey: First Results, 2011-12

First results from the Australian Health Survey have some good and bad news; smoking rates continue to fall, as do rates of drinking at risky levels, but the number of people who are overweight and obese continues to rise. First Assistant Statistician at the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Dr Paul Jelfs, said the 2011-12 Australian Health Survey was the largest checkup on the nation's health ever undertaken.
"Compared to four years ago the proportion of overweight adult Australians has increased by more than two percentage points, meaning that nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of the population are now classified as overweight or obese," Dr Jelfs said.

This publication contains first results from the 2011-13 Australian Health Survey, including health risk factors (such as alcohol consumption, tobacco smoking and Body Mass Index); long-term health conditions; mental health and wellbeing; and physical activity. Information is presented for Australia and the states and territories.

4364.0.55.001 Australian Bureau of Statistics