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Press releases Saturday 13 August 2005
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(1) HOW EASY IS IT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE UK TO OBTAIN TOBACCO, ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUGS?
(2) MEDICAL SCANDALS MAY HAVE A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
(3) SPECIALIST COUNSELLING DOES NOT HELP PREGNANT SMOKERS QUIT
(1) HOW EASY IS IT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE UK TO OBTAIN
TOBACCO, ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUGS?
(Young people’s access to
tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/331/7513/393
Young people in the UK report little difficulty in obtaining cigarettes, alcohol, and other drugs, show public health specialists from Scotland in this week’s BMJ.
Reviewing several recent surveys of young people, the authors note that underage smokers can acquire cigarettes easily, often from friends and relatives. Most regular smokers aged 12-15 also say they buy cigarettes from shops.
Around 80% of 15 year olds say alcoholic drinks are very or fairly easy to obtain. Friends and relatives are the most common source, but by age 15, a substantial minority say they buy from pubs, off licences or shops, and by the age of 16-17, most drinkers usually buy alcohol themselves.
Around 10-20% of 10-12 year olds, and two thirds of 15 year olds, say they have been offered other drugs (boys slightly more than girls). About a quarter of 15 year olds say cannabis can easily be bought at school, and at least 10% claim to have been offered heroin, cocaine, or crack cocaine.
The authors go on to summarise research findings across the field about the effects of measures to control availability. Increasing the price of tobacco and alcohol is likely to reduce young people’s demand for them, say the authors.
Demand for illicit drugs is also price sensitive, but there is little evidence that enforcement measures targeting the drug supply chain have had any effect on street prices, let alone on drug use.
Research has also shown that rigorously enforcing the minimum purchase age can reduce underage sales of tobacco and alcohol. However, state control of commercial markets is clearly only part of the picture, say the authors. Young teenagers, and experimental or occasional smokers and drinkers, are more likely to obtain their supplies from social sources such as friends and relatives.
There is clearly more to learn about the role of social and illicit markets, and the effects of intervening in these markets, on young people’s patterns of consumption and their health consequences, they conclude.
Contact:
Jane Cook, Communications Manager,
NHS Health Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland
Email: jane.cook@health.scot.nhs.uk
(2) MEDICAL SCANDALS MAY HAVE A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
(Effect of media portrayals
of removal of children’s tissue on UK tumour bank)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/331/7513/401
Media reporting of the UK organ retention controversies was associated with a fall in donations for ethically approved scientific research, finds a study in this week’s BMJ.
This analysis shows how media scandals may affect scientific research, even when the research is not directly linked to the scandal.
The authors examined the relation between newspaper reports on the use of children’s tissue for research purposes and donations to a UK tumour bank from 1998 to 2004.
Both newspaper coverage and tissue registrations varied greatly during the study period. However in late 1999, with the breaking of the organ retention story, coverage increased dramatically. This was associated with a significant fall in registrations of samples with the tumour bank, showing how the controversies may have affected unrelated areas of use of human materials.
Newspaper reports blurred the boundaries between organ retention and donations from living children with appropriate consent and ethical approval, say the authors. “During the height of the controversy, press reports suggested that the only proper response to any use of children’s tissue was scepticism and questioning of professional motives.”
Anecdotal experience also suggests that medical staff may have been deterred from asking for donations during the scandal, they add.
Although registrations began to recover towards the end of the study period, when medical sources attempted to restore public confidence and the scandal began to wane, these findings show that media reporting of science can have important implications for those who conduct and regulate science, they conclude.
Contacts:
Dr Mary Dixon-Woods, Senior Lecturer
in Social Science and Health, Department of Health Sciences, University of
Leicester, UK
Email: md11@le.ac.uk
Kathy Pritchard-Jones, Professor
of Childhood Cancer Biology & Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Oncology,
Children's Dept, Royal Marsden Hospital & Institute of Cancer Research,
Sutton, Surrey, UK
Email: Kathy.Pritchard-Jones@icr.ac.uk
Email (PA): Regan.Barfoot@icr.ac.uk
(3) SPECIALIST COUNSELLING DOES NOT HELP PREGNANT SMOKERS QUIT
(Randomised controlled trial
of home based motivational interviewing by midwives to help pregnant smokers
quit or cut down)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/331/7513/373
Motivational interviewing by specially trained midwives does not help pregnant smokers to quit, finds new research in this week’s BMJ.
A third of pregnant women smoke and current guidelines recommend that they should be offered intensive support to help them quit. Motivational interviewing - a one to one counselling style designed for treating addictions - is widely taught on smoking cessation training courses but may not apply during pregnancy.
The study took place in Glasgow, Scotland, and involved 762 pregnant women who were regular smokers at antenatal booking. All women received standard health promotion information and 351 were also offered up to five motivational interviews at home with a specially trained midwife.
Levels of cotinine (a by-product of nicotine present in blood and saliva) were measured to verify results in women who reported quitting or cutting down.
There were no significant differences in change in smoking behaviour in the intervention group compared with the control group, although fewer women in the intervention group reported smoking more.
Seventeen (4.8%) of the women in the intervention group stopped smoking compared with 19 (4.6%) in the control group. Fifteen (4.2%) in the intervention group cut down compared with 26 (6.3%) in the control group.
This study gives information to clinicians and policy makers that behavioural intervention alone for those heavily addicted women who continue to smoke at maternity booking is unlikely to be effective enough to provide good value for money, say the authors.
Nicotine replacement therapy is effective in the general population but is not routinely recommended during pregnancy. However, the authors suggest that midwives could provide close supervision of nicotine replacement in women who would not otherwise stop, once safety and effectiveness have been examined.
Contact:
David Tappin, Director, Paediatric
Epidemiology and Community Health Unit, Department of Child Health, University
of Glasgow, Scotland
Email: goda11@udcf.gla.ac.uk
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