BACKGROUND Voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) for HIV first evolved in Western settings, with one aim being to promote behaviours which lower the risk of onward transmission or acquisition of HIV. However, although quantitative studies have shown that the impact of VCT on sexual behaviour change has been limited in African settings, there is a lack of qualitative research exploring percept...

BACKGROUND There is no more effective intervention for secondary prevention of coronary heart disease than smoking cessation. Yet, evidence about the (cost-)effectiveness of smoking cessation treatment methods for cardiac inpatients that also suit nursing practice is scarce. This protocol describes the design of a study on the (cost-)effectiveness of two intensive smoking cessation intervention...

Studies indicate that the influence of institutionalised religion is waning in most Western nations. In contrast, personal, spiritual, and subjective approaches to faith are on the rise. The latter may or may not relate to traditional Christian frameworks. These trends are most apparent with the aging ‘baby boomer’ population, thus changing notions of pastoral care in many countries. Counsellin...

We investigated the impact of pre-packaging antimalarial drugs and counselling on compliance with treatment of malaria at the Adult Outpatient Department of Port Moresby General Hospital. Adult patients who were prescribed standard antimalarial drugs following clinical and microscopic diagnosis of malaria were randomly assigned to one of three groups: an intervention group, where pre-packaging ...

OBJECTIVE To audit the effectiveness of a female sterilisation counselling clinic. DESIGN A prospective, observational study of a female sterilisation counselling clinic over a 6-month period to determine the proportions of attenders keeping their appointment, proceeding to sterilisation, and attending for surgery. SETTING A hospital-based, city centre family planning clinic run by permanen...

INTRODUCTION This study aimed to investigate patients' evaluation of a compulsory pre-in vitro fertilisation (IVF) counselling session in Singapore and determine their attitudes towards attending a support group during IVF treatment. METHODS 464 patients due to undergo their first IVF treatment were recruited at the Clinic for Human Reproduction, National University Hospital, Singapore. All p...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the effectiveness of telephone counselling as an adjunct to nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) by transdermal patch in smoking cessation. DESIGN Randomised controlled trial. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING 854 smokers from New South Wales, aged 18 years and older, who had smoked at least 10 cigarettes per day for the past year and responded to newspaper advertisements bet...

OBJECTIVE To identify factors predicting uptake of voluntary HIV counselling and testing in pregnant women. METHODS All pregnant women receiving ante-natal group health education at St Camille Medical Center, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso from 1 May 2002 to 30 April 2004 were offered voluntary HIV counselling and testing. If they consented, the women were pre-test counselled, tested by two rapid ...

A pregnancy contains a fetus, and if the fetus is abnormal the pregnancy is in one sense also abnormal. In this context, a consideration of genetic counselling is apposite to the pathology of pregnancy. Although counselling is not in itself a pathologist's technique, it is becoming increasingly reliant on sophisticated laboratory services, and genetic counsellors are often members of laboratory...