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Currently in the UK and Ireland, after a hip fracture most patients do not receive bone protection medication to reduce the risk of refracture. Yet randomised controlled trial data specifically examining patients with hip fracture have shown that intravenous zoledronate reduces refracture risk by a third. Despite this evidence, use of intravenous zoledronate is highly variable following a hip fracture; many hospitals are providing this treatment, whilst most are currently not. A range of clinical uncertainties, doubts over the evidence base and practical concerns are cited as reasons. This paper discusses these concerns and provides guidance from expert consensus, aiming to assist orthogeriatricians, pharmacists and health services managers establish local protocols to deliver this highly clinically and cost-effective treatment to patients before they leave hospital, in order to reduce costly re-fractures in this frail population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer trust in the modern food system is essential given its complexity. Contexts vary across countries with regard to food incidents, regulation and systems. It is therefore of interest to compare how key actors in different countries might approach (re)building consumer trust in the food system; and particularly relevant to understanding how food systems in different regions might learn from one another. The purpose of this paper is to explore differences between strategies for (re)building trust in food systems, as identified in two separate empirical studies, one conducted in Australia, New Zealand and the UK (Study 1) and another on the Island of Ireland (Study 2). Interviews were conducted with media, food industry and food regulatory actors across the two studies (n  = 105 Study 1; n  = 50 Study 2). Data were coded into strategy statements, strategies describing actions to (re)build consumer trust. Strategy statements were compared between Studies 1 and 2 and similarities and differences were noted. The strategy statements identified in Study 1 to (re)build consumer trust in the food system were shown to be applicable in Study 2, however, there were notable differences in the contextual factors that shaped the means by which strategies were implemented. As such, the transfer of such approaches across regions is not an appropriate means to addressing breaches in consumer trust. Notwithstanding, our data suggest that there is still capacity to learn between countries when considering strategies for (re)building trust in the food system but caution must be exercised in the transfer of approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Within the European Union (EU), substantial efforts are being made to achieve economic and social cohesion, and the reduction of health inequalities between EU regions is integral to this process. This paper is the first to examine how self-reported conditions and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) vary spatially between and within countries. Methods: Using 2014 European Social Survey (ESS) data from 20 countries, this paper examines how regional inequalities in self-reported conditions and NCDs vary for men and women in 174 regions (levels 1 and 2 Nomenclature of Statistical Territorial Units, 'NUTS'). We document absolute and relative inequalities across Europe in the prevalence of eight conditions: general health, overweight/obesity, mental health, heart or circulation problems, high blood pressure, back, neck, muscular or joint pain, diabetes and cancer. Results: There is considerable inequality in self-reported conditions and NCDs between the regions of Europe, with rates highest in the regions of continental Europe, some Scandinavian regions and parts of the UK and lowest around regions bordering the Alps, in Ireland and France. However, for mental health and cancer, rates are highest in regions of Eastern European and lowest in some Nordic regions, Ireland and isolated regions in continental Europe. There are also widespread and consistent absolute and relative regional inequalities in all conditions within countries. These are largest in France, Germany and the UK, and smallest in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. There were higher inequalities amongst women. Conclusion: Using newly available harmonized morbidity data from across Europe, this paper shows that there are considerable regional inequalities within and between European countries in the distribution of self-reported conditions and NCDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide one of the first cross-country empirical analyses of the intensity and diversity of knowledge exchange activities by academics. Focusing on the wide perspective of knowledge exchange, the results are based on two large-scale surveys with academics in the UK and Ireland and compare them in terms of: modes of interactions, types of partners, motivations and impacts of interactions, constraints on interactions and mission of higher education perceived by academics. It is found that academics in both countries are involved in a wide range of activities, with intellectual property activities being the interactions that they are least frequently engaged in. However, academics working at Irish and UK universities show distinct patterns of interactions with private sector companies and public sector organisations. Our analysis calls for caution over one country seeking to borrow policies from another without understanding the specific context of the higher education sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the presentation of original research to learned societies is valuable, the target should be publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Therefore, the strength of a meeting may be assessed by the rate of the subsequent publication of papers from the presented abstracts. We conducted an analysis of abstracts presented at consecutive annual meetings of the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery (SCTS) in Great Britain and Ireland over a 15-year period. Abstract books and other documentation from the 1993–2007 meetings were reviewed; abstracts from other major Cardiothoracic Surgery meetings held in 2007 were also reviewed. Medline was searched to identify the peer-reviewed publications arising from each work presented. For abstracts presented at SCTS in 2003–07, the factors potentially associated with publication were analysed by logistic regression. If no publications were identified, authors were contacted through a standardized email questionnaire to ascertain its status and reasons for non-publication. Over the 15-year period, 909 abstracts were presented at the SCTS meetings. The rate of publication rose from ∼30% in the mid-1990s to consistently >60% from recent meetings, with a high of 81.3% from 2006. However, in comparison with other Cardiothoracic Surgery meetings in 2007, the chance of subsequent publication from SCTS (66.7%) was lower than from the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (75.0%), the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (83.9%) and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (72.5%) meetings. For abstracts presented at the last five SCTS meetings, publication was most commonly in a speciality journal (56.3%) and the median time for publication was 15 months (range −24 to 63 months) with 14 papers published prior to presentation at the meeting. On regression analysis, the only factor associated with publication was the study design comparing randomized trials and systematic reviews with other types of study (P < 0.01). Of the 90 unpublished abstracts, 48 (53.3%) authors replied to an email questionnaire revealing that 41 (85.4%) were never submitted for publication. The most common reasons given were low priority (29.6%) and low likelihood of acceptance (24.1%). In recent years, the annual meeting of the Society has become a forum for the presentation of high-quality research that usually withstands peer-review, most commonly in a speciality journal. The rate of publication has increased to consistently >60%, although those that remain unpublished are generally never submitted. This compares favourably with national meetings of other surgical societies, although it is lower than other major cardiothoracic meetings which have an affiliated journal. At a time when it has been suggested that medical research in the UK is in decline, cardiothoracic surgery appears to be thriving. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The two surviving inventories of the library of the Fitzgerald Earls of Kildare bear witness to a particularly large and diverse collection of books in the Earls' castle at Maynooth, Co. Kildare. Between them, the lists record well over one hundred separate items in four languages: Latin, French, English and Irish. This paper traces the history of the library and analyses the Fitzgeralds' particular interests as book collectors and as readers. It provides the first full published set of suggested identifications and bibliographical details for the books at Maynooth. It also includes a fresh transcription of the library lists and a discussion of the manuscript context in which they are preserved. Sources like the Kildare library lists provide valuable evidence for the potential circulation of a wide range of non-native manuscripts and prints in late-medieval Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper has contributed to confirming the link between education and health in developed countries. The analysis is based on 11 European Union countries. We estimate country-specific health functions, where the dependent variable is self-reported health status and the education attainment is one of the main inputs. All eight waves (1994–2001) of the European Community Household Panel are deployed. A random effects ordered probit is estimated in order to control, to a given extent, for unobserved heterogeneity. Explanatory variables are both time invariant (education attainment and gender) and time varying (gross wages, hours of work, age and living alone). Results confirm the positive impact of secondary education on health in most cases and tertiary education in all cases, even after controlling for other inputs in the health function and taking unobserved heterogeneity into account. Secondary education has an impact on health in all countries in the sample except for The Netherlands and UK. The effect does not differ between secondary and tertiary education in France, Ireland and Greece. The correlation between education and health is interpreted in different but complementary ways by diverse approaches and we may not disentangle the precise mechanism that connects health with education from our results. Anyway, it seems clear that better coordination is needed between education and health policies to effectively improve health literacy. Other relevant results from our study are that women register poorer health than men, age contributes to worsening health status and wages contribute positively to health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) Bacteraemia and Respiratory Resistance Surveillance Programmes are designed for long-term surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in key pathogens of bloodstream and community-acquired respiratory infection in the UK and Ireland. This paper describes their methods in detail. Methods: Sentinel laboratories across the UK and Ireland contributed up to a fixed quota of isolates of defined bacterial groups. Collecting laboratories were compared with national benchmarks for size of Hospital Trust and distribution of bacteraemia pathogens. A central laboratory for each programme confirmed the identification of isolates, measured MICs by the BSAC agar dilution method and undertook further testing by standard methods. The variability of the MIC method was assessed by repeated annual testing of a panel of control isolates. Classification as susceptible, intermediate or resistant was by BSAC and European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing breakpoints. Statistical analysis was adjusted for inter-centre variation using random effects logistic regression. Results: Thirty-two laboratories contributed 16 550 respiratory isolates from 1999-2000 to 2006-07; 30 laboratories contributed 15 812 bacteraemia isolates from 2001 to 2006. Although large and teaching hospitals were over-represented, the pattern of bacteraemia organisms seen in the collecting laboratories in England and Wales was similar to that in national data reported to the Health Protection Agency. Replicate MIC measurements showed that >/=90% agreed within +/-1, and >/=98% within +/-2, doubling dilutions. Conclusions: These surveillance programmes have provided reliable information on antimicrobial susceptibility in the UK and Ireland over six and eight seasons, respectively, so far. Detailed results showing non-susceptibility trends, and relationships with potential predictive factors, are presented in six linked papers in this Supplement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]