Major depression can be treated effectively with antidepressants. However, in the United Kingdom, patients with depression are often referred to counsellors, and surveys indicate that public opinion favours this approach. We carried out a literature review to determine the evidence for the effectiveness of counselling for depression in primary care. Because no studies were identified in which c...

OBJECTIVE this study aims to provide insight into: (a) midwives' views on appropriate antenatal counselling for congenital anomaly tests, and (b) whether these views match clients' preferences regarding antenatal counselling. DESIGN a comparative (midwives versus clients) questionnaire survey. Cognitive interviews (n=8) were used to validate the internal validity of the midwifery questionnair...

OBJECTIVE To determine the impact of facility-based semi-intensive and home-based intensive counselling in improving exclusive breast-feeding (EBF) in a low-resource urban setting in Kenya. DESIGN A cluster randomized controlled trial in which nine villages were assigned on a 1:1:1 ratio, by computer, to two intervention groups and a control group. The home-based intensive counselling group (...

OBJECTIVES Active telephone recruitment ('cold calling') can enroll almost 45 times more smokers to cessation services than media. However, the effectiveness of proactive telephone counselling with cold-called smokers from the broader community is unknown. This study examined whether proactive telephone counselling improved abstinence, quit attempts and reduced cigarette consumption among cold-...

We compared the amount of exercise undertaken by medical students, clinicians, and sport scientists with the National Australian Physical Activity (NAPA) Guidelines. A second aim was to compare attitudes to exercise counselling as preventive medicine between university- and clinic-based professionals. The research setting was a university medical school and a sports science sports medicine cent...

BACKGROUND Studies have shown a reduced uptake of contraceptive methods in HIV-positive women of childbearing age, mainly because of unmet needs that may be a result of poor promotion of available methods of contraception, especially long-term and permanent methods (LTPM). AIM To compare the uptake of contraceptive methods, and particularly LTPM, by HIV-positive and HIV negative post-partum m...

BACKGROUND Health care professionals (HCP) are known key elements of effective patient's counselling and education. For patients taking warfarin, education about the dose, side effects, and toxicity is clearly identified as a cornerstone of achieving improved health and quality of life. The study objective was to evaluate the patients' knowledge about warfarin and assess the impact of the healt...

OBJECTIVE The aims of this study were to (i) assess healthcare workers' counselling practices concerning danger signs during antenatal consultations in rural primary healthcare (PHC) facilities in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Tanzania; to (ii) assess pregnant women's awareness of these danger signs; and (iii) to identify factors affecting counselling practices and women's awareness. METHODS Cross-...

BACKGROUND Without assistance, smokers being admitted to the hospital for coronary heart disease often return to regular smoking within a year. OBJECTIVE This study assessed the 12-month effectiveness of a telephone and a face-to-face counselling intervention on smoking abstinence among cardiac patients. Differential effects for subgroups varying in their socioeconomic status and intention to...