Objective To describe the experiences of illness and needs and use of services in two groups of patients with incurable cancer, one in a developed country and the other in a developing country. Design Scotland: longitudinal study with qualitative interviews. Kenya: cross sectional study with qualitative interviews. Settings Lothian region, Scotland, and Meru District, Kenya. Participants Scotla...

BACKGROUND It is suggested the declining male birth proportion in some industrialized countries is linked to ubiquitous endocrine disruptor exposure. Stress and advanced parental age are determinants which frequently present positive findings. Multi-factorial influences on population sex ratio are rarely explored or tested in research. OBJECTIVES To test the hypothesis that dual factors of po...

BACKGROUND Some doubts exist as to whether the increase in the prevalence of asthma is real or an artefact. The 10 year trend of asthma up to 1993 in England and Scotland was therefore assessed. METHODS Information on asthma and bronchitis attacks, occasional wheeze, and persistent wheeze in the last 12 months, was obtained using a self administered questionnaire completed by the parents. Exa...

An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) occurred in Surrey on August 3, 2007. A Great Britain-wide ban on livestock movements was implemented immediately. This coincided with the start of seasonal sheep movements off the hills in Scotland; the majority of these animals are sold via markets. The ban therefore posed severe economic and animal-welfare hardships if it was to last through Septem...

BACKGROUND Employee engagement is a fundamental component of quality healthcare. In order to provide empirical data of engagement in NHS Scotland an Employee Engagement Index was co-constructed with staff. 'iMatter' consists of 25 Likert questions developed iteratively from the literature and a series of validation events with NHS Scotland staff. The aim of this study was to test the face, cont...

Background Detailed assessments of mortality by occupation are scarce. We aimed to assess mortality by occupation in the UK, differences in rates between England and Wales and Scotland, and changes over time in Scotland. Methods We analysed adults of working age (20-59 years) using linked census and death records. Main occupation was coded into more than 60 groups in the 2001 census, with mor...