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• Follow-up programs after surgery for intermittent claudication are highly valuable for increasing patients' awareness about and reflection on their own health • Nurse-led, person-centred care is experienced as important in maintaining a health-promoting lifestyle • Surgical units should consider collaboration between patients and health professionals with a person-centred approach during treatment and follow-up Claudication is the most usual symptom of peripheral artery disease, it is described as painful contractions in the leg when walking and alleviated upon resting. People with claudication have an added risk of cardiocerebrovascular events, amputation, and death. Adherence to medical treatment and changes in lifestyles can lower this risk, but this secondary prevention therapy requires engagement, participation, and adherence from the patient. To explore patients' experiences of participating in a 1-year multicentre clinical trial with two follow-up programs evaluating a nurse-led, patient-centered health-promoting programme after surgical treatment for claudication, the FASTIC study. A descriptive design with qualitative semi-structured interviews was used among participants in the FASTIC study. The study was conducted at two centres for vascular surgery in the city of Stockholm, Sweden. In all, 17 patients (nine men and eight women) who had completed the FASTIC study participated. Data was analysed using qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach. Two main categories were identified, 'Patient-Professional collaboration' and 'Experience of one´s health ' , which were associated with four subcategories: facing opportunities and obstacles, cooperating based on the illness experience, increasing awareness of one's own health, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Patients' participation in follow-up programs after surgical treatment for claudication is highly valuable for an increased awareness of one's own health. A person-centered care with patient-professional collaboration is experienced as important for maintaining a health-promoting lifestyle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Few countries offer organized screening of siblings of patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs), although a hereditary trait is well known to exist. Male relatives, but not female, are invited within the population-based screening programs for elderly men in Sweden. Evidence regarding the optimal age to screen siblings is scarce. The aim of this study was to describe the age at detection in siblings found with AAAs. Methods All patients treated for AAAs in two Swedish counties were screened for siblings. Consenting siblings aged 80 and younger were examined (N = 529) with ultrasound and were interviewed per protocol. Results In the cohort of 529 siblings to AAA patients, 53 siblings were diagnosed with AAAs (sisters 16/276 [5.8%] and brothers 37/253 [14.6%]). The prevalence of AAAs in the siblings 65 years of age or younger was 16/207 (7.7%). One-third of the siblings found with AAAs were young (16/53 [30%]). Among the young siblings with AAAs, 8/16 (50%) had an aneurysm larger than 50 mm or were already surgically treated. The prevalence of AAAs in siblings older than 65 years of age was 37/322 (12%). Conclusions The AAA prevalence in this sibling cohort is strikingly high compared to the prevalence in the population (in Sweden, 1.4%-2.2% in 65-year-old men). The young ages among diagnosed siblings reinforce that male siblings of AAA patients should be screened before age 65 (before the population-based program) and that structured programs for female siblings are called for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Population-based screening for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) in elderly men is organized in many regions and countries in the Western world, and the prevalence of disease is reported to decline. Whether the prevalence among those with a family history also is declining is unknown. The primary purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of AAAs among siblings of persons with AAAs and to investigate the proportion of siblings already diagnosed by opportunistic screening. Methods: Patients treated for AAAs from January 2008 through December 2010 (n = 412) in Stockholm, Sweden, were screened for siblings. Seven hundred seventy-nine siblings were identified. All siblings <80 years residing in Stockholm County were considered eligible and were invited to participate in the study (n = 174). Deceased siblings were not included in the study, regardless of the cause of death. One hundred fifty siblings were enrolled in the study after informed consent was provided. One hundred thirty-four siblings were screened for AAAs with ultrasound scan and maximum aortic, infrarenal, anteroposterior, external (outer-to-outer) aortic diameter was measured. Characteristics of siblings with and without AAAs were compared. Results: The mean age of the screened siblings was 66.4 years (standard deviation, 7.1). Of the siblings, 11% were found to have an AAA, 17% (n = 11) of the brothers, and 6% (n = 5) of the sisters. Only 11% of the siblings were screened for AAAs before the study. One of 16 siblings with AAAs was <65 years. Ever smoking was evident in 81% of the AAA siblings compared to 59% in the non-AAA siblings. Factors associated with increased risk of AAAs in the multivariate regression analysis were: male sex (odds ratio, 3.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.1-10.8; P = .04) and age >65 (odds ratio, 10.8; 95% confidence interval, 1.3-86.4; P = .03). Ever smoking was not statistically significant as a risk. Conclusions: A strikingly high prevalence of AAAs in siblings was found as compared to the reported declining aneurysm prevalence in elderly men in the Western world. Systematic improvements regarding screening of first-degree relatives is mandated and selective screening of siblings is an underused tool to prevent death from aneurysm disease, both among men and women. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]