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Alison Hill

Publications and source records attributed to Alison Hill.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Action on cycling in primary care trusts: results of a survey of Directors of Public Health.

BACKGROUND: Cycling is a form of physical activity with the potential to make a significant contribution to improving public health; however, participation levels are decreasing. Primary-care trusts (PCTs) are in a position to influence local provision for cycling but the extent of their involvement in policy and practice on cycling is unknown. A survey of Directors of Public Health in PCTs was conducted to establish the level and type of PCT involvement in policies, strategies, programmes and projects on cycling. METHODS: Directors of Public Health on the Faculty of Public Health database were sent an e-mail inviting them to complete an online questionnaire that addressed key issues of PCT involvement with cycling. RESULTS: One hundred and sixty-five responses were received (49% of all PCTs). Thirty-two per cent of respondents said there was someone in the PCT with specific responsibility for cycling. Less than half of PCTs had the basic facilities to encourage staff or visitors to cycle to their premises. Around one in 10 said that cycling was included in their travel plan or local delivery plan, and 49% of respondents said that their physical activity strategy contained reference to cycling. Joint working on the local strategic partnership and community plan was common, with 94% and 82% of PCTs, respectively, saying they had worked with other agencies on these plans. Most PCTs (60%) had worked on the Local Transport Plan. Specific knowledge of cycling policy was low, and demand for additional resources high. CONCLUSION: Cycling does not seem to be high on PCTs' agendas, despite its great potential to improve public health. More could be done to ensure that cycling is given a far greater emphasis within the work of PCTs, notably PCT input into local transport plan development, and production of local physical activity strategies.

Bicycling↗
PubMed2006

The Multimedia Activity Recall for Children and Adolescents (MARCA): development and evaluation.

BACKGROUND: Self-report recall questionnaires are commonly used to measure physical activity, energy expenditure and time use in children and adolescents. However, self-report questionnaires show low to moderate validity, mainly due to inaccuracies in recalling activity in terms of duration and intensity. Aside from recall errors, inaccuracies in estimating energy expenditure from self-report questionnaires are compounded by a lack of data on the energy cost of everyday activities in children and adolescents. This article describes the development of the Multimedia Activity Recall for Children and Adolescents (MARCA), a computer-delivered use-of-time instrument designed to address both the limitations of self-report recall questionnaires in children, and the lack of energy cost data in children. METHODS: The test-retest reliability of the MARCA was assessed using a sample of 32 children (aged 11.8 +/- 0.7 y) who undertook the MARCA twice within 24-h. Criterion validity was assessed by comparing self-reports with accelerometer counts collected on a sample of 66 children (aged 11.6 +/- 0.8 y). Content and construct validity were assessed by establishing whether data collected using the MARCA on 1429 children (aged 11.9 +/- 0.8 y) exhibited relationships and trends in children's physical activity consistent with established findings from a number of previous research studies. RESULTS: Test-retest reliability was high with intra-class coefficients ranging from 0.88 to 0.94. The MARCA demonstrated criterion validity comparable to other self-report instruments with Spearman coefficients ranging from rho = 0.36 to 0.45, and provided evidence of good content and construct validity. CONCLUSION: The MARCA is a valid and reliable self-report questionnaire, capable of a wide variety of flexible use-of-time analyses related to both physical activity and sedentary behaviour, and offers advantages over existing pen-and-paper questionnaires.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

Building public health skills and capacity in the English regions.

Local public health departments have variable access to a public health intelligence function, and information skills are scarce. Public health observatories are supporting the development of professional standards for public health intelligence specialists and offer training opportunities for both defined public health specialists and generalist public health specialists. In addition observatories support public health practice through educational programmes in health impact assessment, health equity audit, public health intelligence, and the provision of toolkits and advice on methods. Observatories have a key role in supporting and developing networks, in particular public health analysts, and the use of interoperable websites is enhancing these opportunities.

Health Personnel↗
PubMed2004

Low prevalence of MYOC mutations in UK primary open-angle glaucoma patients limits the utility of genetic testing.

Primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) affects 1% of people over age 40. Early detection and treatment can prevent blindness, but the disease is often asymptomatic until a late stage. Positive family history is an important risk factor and previous studies indicate that approximately 5% of POAG results from mutations in the myocilin ( MYOC) gene, raising the possibility of identifying individuals genetically predisposed to glaucoma. We collected DNA samples from 426 unselected UK POAG patients and analyzed them for MYOC mutations. The Q368X mutation was found in six patients (1.4%). No other mutations were identified, suggesting that amongst patients unselected for family history, the prevalence of MYOC mutations in the UK is lower than in other populations. Genetic and glaucoma screening was offered to first-degree relatives of these six probands (group 1) and of age/sex-matched mutation-negative controls (group 2). Of 11 group-1 relatives, three carried Q368X, one of whom already had glaucoma. Notably, of the 13 relatives in both groups who were mutation negative, one was already being treated for ocular hypertension. We therefore caution against changing glaucoma surveillance regimens in such individuals and suggest that routine untargeted genetic testing for MYOC mutations in patients with POAG would be of limited value until additional significant genetic risk factors are identified.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Delivering primary care in prison: the need to improve health information.

BACKGROUND: Electronic patient records and access to electronic information resources are the cornerstones of delivery of modern primary care, and they will be necessary to deliver effective evidence-based patient care, provide needs-driven health care, assist research and improve quality of services. However, prison health needs assessments carried out in the South East region suggested that modern information technology was lacking in prison primary care. This is despite the fact that the principle of 'equivalence of care' has been guiding the recent prison healthcare reforms in response to concerns about quality of prison healthcare services. METHODS: We visited all four male adult prisons in the Thames Valley area and conducted one-to-one semi-structured interviews with healthcare staff to investigate the information available to them, the quality and uses of the data, and their current information systems. We also ran a workshop with prison healthcare managers and other healthcare staff from prisons in the Thames Valley area. RESULTS: Primary care staff in prisons record almost all clinical data on paper and do not have access to electronic clinical records nor to the internet. The main perceived barriers to implementing health information technology in prisons were concerns about potential breaches of security and discipline in prisons, anxiety about data security and a culture that gives low priority to health in prisons. CONCLUSIONS: To provide 'equivalence of care' for prisoners, primary care trusts need to implement full electronic clinical records in prisons and ensure staff have access to resources on the internet.

Adult↗