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Language reflects and shapes our thoughts, feelings, behaviours and experiences and can have a profound impact on the lives of people with and at risk for diabetes. Inappropriate language has a negative impact on self-efficacy, well-being and confidence of people living with diabetes, can seriously undermine experiences with health-care providers and, more broadly, can contribute to diabetes stigma. To date, Diabetes Canada has had no formal position to facilitate positive and affirming attitudes towards diabetes, which is reflected by the use of more appropriate language around diabetes. This consensus statement was developed by Diabetes Canada, by a working group comprised of health-care professionals and lived experience subject matter experts (LESME: patient partners) and validated by volunteers from Diabetes Canada's Professional Section and Diabetes Action Canada's Patient Circles. The principles outlined in this document will be valuable in three broad domains: 1) Diabetes Canada's internal and external communications, 2) increasing public awareness of diabetes and reduction of stigma around diabetes and 3) enhancing the health, wellness and self-efficacy of persons living with diabetes. A major strategy to effect change in this third domain will be to disseminate these concepts broadly among all current (and future) health-care professionals to help integrate positive and supportive attitudes in everyday clinical practice.

Objective Males and females may have different attitudes and experiences concerning smoking and smoking cessation. We examined sex differences in reasons for smoking, motivations for quitting, past quit attempts, and types of cessation support provided by physicians by surveying randomly selected smokers from 16 countries. Methods Current cigarette smokers were surveyed by telephone about their attitudes and experiences regarding smoking and smoking cessation. Results Of the 3760 respondents, 1516 (40.3%) were female. Overall, females reported more reasons for smoking, were more likely to be motivated to quit by life changes, and more likely to use medications or counselling for smoking cessation than males. Although 70% of respondents recalled their physician asking about smoking and advising quitting, only 39% of females and 26% of males recalled being offered assistance for cessation. Females recalled more frequent prescription or recommendation of pharmaceutical cessation aids and more assistance in setting a quit date. Conclusion Males and females have different attitudes and experiences when it comes to smoking and cessation. Practice implications Health care providers can significantly influence smoking-cessation success by offering efficacious treatment to patients. Our data will help physicians to optimally tailor smoking-cessation interventions to patients, according to their sex.

Titer on Chip (Flu-ToC) is a new technique for quantification of influenza hemagglutinin (HA) concentration. In order to evaluate the potential of this new technique, a comparison of Flu-ToC to more conventional methods was conducted using recombinant HA produced in a baculovirus expression system as a test case. Samples from current vaccine strains were collected from four different steps in the manufacturing process. A total of 19 samples were analysed by Flu-ToC (blinded), single radial immunodiffusion (SRID), an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the purity adjusted bicinchoninic acid assay (paBCA). The results indicated reasonable linear correlation between Flu-ToC and SRID, ELISA, and paBCA, with regression slopes of log-log plots being 0.91, 1.03, and 0.91, respectively. The average ratio for HA content measured by Flu-ToC relative to SRID, ELISA, and paBCA was 83%, 147%, and 81%, respectively; indicating nearly equivalent potency determination for Flu-ToC relative to SRID and paBCA. These results, combined with demonstrated multiplexed analysis of all components within a quadrivalent formulation and robust response to HA strains over a wide time period, support the conclusion that Flu-ToC can be used as a reliable and time-saving alternative potency assay for influenza vaccines.

The smoking status of physicians can impact interactions with patients about smoking. The 'Smoking: The Opinions of Physicians' (STOP) survey examined whether an association existed between physician smoking status and beliefs about smoking and cessation and a physician's clinical interactions with patients relevant to smoking cessation, and perceptions of barriers to assisting with quitting.General and family practitioners across 16 countries were surveyed via telephone or face-to-face interviews using a convenience-sample methodology. Physician smoking status was self-reported.Of 4473 physicians invited, 2836 (63%) participated in the survey, 1200 (42%) of whom were smokers. Significantly fewer smoking than non-smoking physicians volunteered that smoking was a harmful activity (64% vs 77%; P0.001). More non-smokers agreed that smoking cessation was the single biggest step to improving health (88% vs 82%; P0.001) and discussed smoking at every visit (45% vs 34%; P0.001). Although more non-smoking physicians identified willpower (37% vs 32%; P0.001) and lack of interest (28% vs 22%; P0.001) as barriers to quitting, more smoking physicians saw stress as a barrier (16% vs 10%; P0.001).Smoking physicians are less likely to initiate cessation interventions.There is a need for specific strategies to encourage smoking physicians to quit, and to motivate all practitioners to adopt systematic approaches to assisting with smoking cessation.