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Interventions are crucial as they offer simple and inexpensive public health solutions that will be useful over the long term use. A Task Force on designing trials of nutritional interventions to slow cognitive decline in older adults was held in Toulouse in September 2012. The aim of the Task Force was to bring together leading experts from academia, the food industry and regulatory agencies to determine the best trial designs that would enable us to reach our goal of maintaining or improving cognitive function in apparently healthy aging people. An associated challenge for this Task Force was to determine the type of trials required by the Public Food Agencies for assessing the impact of nutritional compounds in comparison to well established requirements for drug trials. Although the required quality of the study design, rationale and statistical analysis remains the same, the studies designed to show reduction of cognitive decline require a long duration and the objectives of this task force was to determine best design for these trials. Two specific needs were identified to support trials of nutritional interventions: 1- Risk- reduction strategies are needed to tackle the growing burden of cognitive decline that may lead to dementia, 2- Innovative study designs are needed to improve the quality of these studies.

Objective: A survey was performed in 5 European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) to estimate the prevalence of fibromyalgia (FM) in the general population., Methods: In each country, the London Fibromyalgia Epidemiological Study Screening Questionnaire (LFESSQ) was administered by telephone to a representative sample of the community over 15 years of age. A positive screen was defined as the following: (1) meeting the 4-pain criteria alone (LFESSQ-4), or (2) meeting both the 4-pain and the 2-fatigue criteria (LFESSQ-6). The questionnaire was also submitted to all outpatients referred to the 8 participating rheumatology clinics for 1 month. These patients were examined by a rheumatologist to confirm or exclude the FM diagnosis according to the 1990 American College of Rheumatology classification criteria. The prevalence of FM in the general population was estimated by applying the positive-predictive values to eligible community subjects (ie, positive screens)., Results: Among rheumatology outpatients, 46% screened positive for chronic widespread pain (LFESSQ-4), 32% for pain and fatigue (LFESSQ-6), and 14% were confirmed FM cases. In the whole general population, 13 and 6.7% screened positive for LFESSQ-4 and LFESSQ-6, respectively. 3The estimated overall prevalence of FM was 4.7% (95% CI: 4.0 to 5.3) and 2.9% (95% CI: 2.4 to 3.4), respectively, in the general population. The prevalence of FM was age- and sex-related and varied among countries., Conclusion: FM appears to be a common condition in these 5 European countries, even if data derived from the most specific criteria set (LFESSQ-6) are considered., (Copyright 2010. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of fibromyalgia (FM) syndrome in the French general population., Methods: A validated French version of the London Fibromyalgia Epidemiology Study Screening Questionnaire (LFESSQ) was administered via telephone to a representative community sample of 1014 subjects aged over 15 years, selected by the quota method. A positive screen was defined as: (1) meeting the 4-pain criteria alone (LFESSQ-4), or (2) meeting both the 4-pain and 2-fatigue criteria (LFESSQ-6). To estimate the positive predictive value of LFESSQ-4 and LFESSQ-6, this questionnaire was submitted to a sample of rheumatology outpatients (n=178), who were then examined by a trained rheumatologist to confirm or exclude the diagnosis of FM according to the 1990 American College of Rheumatology criteria. The prevalence of FM in the general population was estimated by applying the predictive positive value to eligible community subjects (i.e., positive screens)., Results: In the community sample, 9.8% and 5.0% screened positive for LFESSQ-4 and LFESSQ-6, respectively. Among rheumatology outpatients, 47.1% screened positive for LFESSQ-4 and 34.8% for LFESSQ-6 whereas 10.6% were confirmed FM cases. Based on positive screens for LFESSQ-4, the prevalence of FM was estimated at 2.2% (95% CI 1.3-3.1) in the French general population. The corresponding figure was 1.4 % (95% CI 0.7-2.1) if positive screens for LFESSQ-6 were considered., Conclusion: Our findings suggest that FM is also a major cause of widespread pain in France since a point prevalence of 1.4% would translate in approximately 680,000 patients.

Objective: To evaluate the use and costs of medical resources before and after a diagnosis of fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) in a large primary care population in the UK., Methods: We applied an existing data set for medical resource use among patients with a coded diagnosis of FMS. The observed quantities of 157 types of medical resource use before and after the diagnosis of FMS were multiplied by unit costs in order to calculate the cost of care (general practitioner [GP] visits, drugs, referrals, and diagnostics) within the National Health Service, excluding hospital costs. Costs before diagnosis were used in a trend analysis to predict later costs, assuming the diagnosis had never been made, and these predicted costs were compared with the observed costs after diagnosis., Results: Following a diagnosis of FMS, a decrease in costs as compared with the predicted trend was observed. In the 4 years after diagnosis, the average difference between the predicted and observed cost was pound66.21 per 6 months per patient. This suggests that making the diagnosis leads to savings and a decrease in resource use. The main effect was observed for tests and imaging ( pound24.02 per 6 months), followed by pharmaceuticals ( pound22.27), referrals ( pound15.56), and GP visits ( pound4.36)., Conclusion: Failure to diagnose a true case of FMS has its own costs, largely in excess GP visits, investigations, and prescriptions.