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Background: The Taiwanese government increased financial subsidies for smoking cessation services in 2012. We aimed to evaluate the effects of this new policy on smoking cessation services from the physician's perspective.Methods: This was a cross-sectional nationwide survey. Physicians who provided smoking cessation services for more than ten patient encounters in the preceding year of the new policy (February 2011 to March 2012) were recruited. The questionnaire was developed by two experts and was validated by a committee consisting of 11 delegates.Results: We sent a total of 1,319 questionnaires. The response rate was 45.9 %. The majority of respondents were male (88.4 %), middle-aged (65.3 %), and worked as family physicians (56.1 %). Most physicians agreed that the new policy had increased the number of patients seeking smoking cessation, increased patients' willingness to adopt pharmacotherapy, helped physicians to prescribe medications, improved patients' adherence to medications, and improved quality of care. These changes were most prominent in medical centers. Changes in the practice of the 5As (ask, advise, assess, assist, arrange) were moderate. Among different medical settings, the most significant change was an increase in the expenditure on smoking cessation medications.Conclusions: The new subsidization policy in Taiwan has improved smoking cessation services. Overall, physicians reported positive effects of the new policy. Further study is warranted to evaluate the long-term influence of the policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In recent years, the creation of supportive environments for encouraging mothers to breastfeed their children has emerged as a key health issue for women and children. The provision of lactation rooms and breast pumping breaks have helped mothers to continue breastfeeding after returning to work, but their effectiveness is uncertain. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of worksite breastfeeding-friendly policies and work-related factors on the behaviour of working mothers. Methods: This study was conducted at a large Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer in August-September 2003. Questionnaires were used to collect data on female employees' breastfeeding behaviour, child rearing and work status when raising their most recently born child. A total of 998 valid questionnaires were collected, giving a response rate of 75.3%. Results: The results showed that 66.9% of survey respondents breastfed initially during their maternity leave, which averaged 56 days. Despite the provision of lactation rooms and breast pumping breaks, only 10.6% mothers continued to breastfeed after returning to work, primarily office workers and those who were aware of their company's breastfeeding-friendly policies. Conclusion: In conclusion, breastfeeding-friendly policies can significantly affect breastfeeding behaviour. However, an unfavourable working environment, especially for fab workers, can make it difficult to implement breastfeeding measures. With health professionals emphasizing that the importance of breastfeeding for infant health, and as only females can perform lactation, it is vital that women's work "productive role" and family "reproductive role" be respected and accommodated by society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Comprehensive periodic health examination of elderly people is popular in Taiwan. The purpose of this study is to identify predictors of mortality of the elderly from the findings of their periodic health examination. Methods: From the period 1996-1999, 4794 elderly people aged 65 and older underwent periodic health examination in our institution. The status of survival of these 4794 subjects up to 31 December, 2000 was ascertained. Cox proportional hazard regression was performed to estimate the hazard ratio of mortality of the findings in the health examination. Results: The median follow-up time was 34 months. In the multivariate model, significant findings associated with increased mortality included: smoking daily (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.401; 95% CI = 1.000-1.963); intake less than three dishes of vegetables and two fruits per day (HR: 1.434; 95% CI = 1.049-1.960); urine protein > 0.3 g/L (HR: 2.184; 95% CI = 1.399-3.411); low hemoglobin (HR: 1.924; 95% CI = 1.423-2.602); serum albumin < 40 g/L (HR: 2.108; 95% CI = 1.514-2.935); globulin > 35 g/L (HR: 1.421; 95% CI = 1.034-1.952); serum aspartate transaminase level > 40 IU/L (HR:2.468, 95% CI = 1.571-3.878); and blood urea nitrogen level > 7.8 mmol/L (HR: 1.427; 95% CI = 1.025-1.988). Conclusions: Lifestyle, dietary habit and some findings of the blood and urine tests done in the periodic health examination were found to be significantly associated with the mortality of people aged 65 years or older in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]