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Walzman M. Every contact is an opportunity to promote healthy lifestyles
BMJ 2014; 349 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g7222 (Published 10 December 2014)
Walzman encourages clinicians to use every opportunity to promote healthy lifestyles and gives examples of alcohol consumption amongst younger people. Clinicians need to be able to ‘tune in’ quickly to the likely influences and understanding of their patients1 and be aware of national campaigns and media messages. For example, has anyone else noticed the Archers warming up to enter the next Be Clear on Cancer (BCOC) campaign2 to alert people to the warning signs of oeso-phago gastric (OG) cancer due to launch on 26 January?
Although the target audience for BCOC is people aged 50+ from lower socio-economic groups, 84 year old Jill (“the matriarch, and for many the lynchpin of life in Ambridge”3) is as middle class as her prize-winning Victoria sponge, but has definitely been under the weather recently. As one who dislikes “fuss and pretension” she stalwartly denies that her recent fainting episode and lack of energy to organise Christmas dinner at Brookfield is anything other than anxiety about leaving the Archers’ family home of more than 60 years to accompany her son to a new farm in Northumberland.
But last Friday she revealed to her best friend Carole Tregorran that she had “a touch of indigestion that just keeps coming back” and she just can’t seem to shift it. Jill would not immediately appear to be high risk for OG cancer, but now that friend Carole, a wine merchant, has returned to the series from a 24 year exile, it does seem that Jill sups a good deal more alcohol than we realised. Although she declined a glass of wine because of the indigestion, she asked for a small sherry. “The Amontillado – absolutely sovereign for indigestion” says Carole, who does however encourage Jill to go to the doctor.
It’s most likely going to turn out to be a scare, which will both warn listeners about the importance of responding promptly to potential OG cancer symptoms (indigestion for more than 3 weeks) and keep David and Ruth in Ambridge instead of moving to be near Ruth’s frail mum. Most ‘Soaps’ can’t manage more than one leading cast member dangerously ill at a time, and with Tony Archer’s life in the balance for the last few weeks after being trampled by Otto, his prize bull, that’s enough hospital for now.
Without stereotyping their patients (too much), clinicians can make good use of current events and stories in the media such as this story in The Archers or cervical cancers in Eastenders4 and Coronation Street5.
References
1. Jones RB, Hampshire AJ, Tweddle S, Moult B, Hill A. The clinician's role in meeting patient information needs: suggested learning outcomes. Medical Education. 2001;35:565-71.
2. Cancer Research UK. Oesophago-gastric cancers campaign. http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/early-diagnosis-acti...
3. BBC. The Archers: Who’s Who. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/2PyW5l1l3fVTyWBLRZcc9j3/whos-who
4. Jones R, Soler-Lopez M, Zahra D, Shankleman J, Trenchard-Mabere E. Using online adverts to increase the uptake of cervical screening amongst “real Eastenders”: an opportunistic controlled trial. BMC Research Notes; 2013;26:117.
5. Howe A, Owen-Smith V, Richardson J: The impact of a television soap opera on the NHS cervical screening programme in the North West of England. J Pub Hlth Med 2002, 24:299–304.
Competing interests:
No competing interests
15 December 2014
Judith Shankleman
Senior Public Health Strategist
Ray Jones, Professor of Health Informatics, University of Plymouth
In a qualifying examination I proctored, one mock patient gave a smoking history as an incidental piece of information. Despite the hight stakes situation, very few candidates counselled smoking cessation nor did the exam require it. Under such circumstances, failure to counsel cessation is likely, in my opinion, to be perceived by many younger patients as evidence that for them smoking is not a serious health issue.
Re: Every contact is an opportunity to promote healthy lifestyles
Walzman M. Every contact is an opportunity to promote healthy lifestyles
BMJ 2014; 349 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g7222 (Published 10 December 2014)
Walzman encourages clinicians to use every opportunity to promote healthy lifestyles and gives examples of alcohol consumption amongst younger people. Clinicians need to be able to ‘tune in’ quickly to the likely influences and understanding of their patients1 and be aware of national campaigns and media messages. For example, has anyone else noticed the Archers warming up to enter the next Be Clear on Cancer (BCOC) campaign2 to alert people to the warning signs of oeso-phago gastric (OG) cancer due to launch on 26 January?
Although the target audience for BCOC is people aged 50+ from lower socio-economic groups, 84 year old Jill (“the matriarch, and for many the lynchpin of life in Ambridge”3) is as middle class as her prize-winning Victoria sponge, but has definitely been under the weather recently. As one who dislikes “fuss and pretension” she stalwartly denies that her recent fainting episode and lack of energy to organise Christmas dinner at Brookfield is anything other than anxiety about leaving the Archers’ family home of more than 60 years to accompany her son to a new farm in Northumberland.
But last Friday she revealed to her best friend Carole Tregorran that she had “a touch of indigestion that just keeps coming back” and she just can’t seem to shift it. Jill would not immediately appear to be high risk for OG cancer, but now that friend Carole, a wine merchant, has returned to the series from a 24 year exile, it does seem that Jill sups a good deal more alcohol than we realised. Although she declined a glass of wine because of the indigestion, she asked for a small sherry. “The Amontillado – absolutely sovereign for indigestion” says Carole, who does however encourage Jill to go to the doctor.
It’s most likely going to turn out to be a scare, which will both warn listeners about the importance of responding promptly to potential OG cancer symptoms (indigestion for more than 3 weeks) and keep David and Ruth in Ambridge instead of moving to be near Ruth’s frail mum. Most ‘Soaps’ can’t manage more than one leading cast member dangerously ill at a time, and with Tony Archer’s life in the balance for the last few weeks after being trampled by Otto, his prize bull, that’s enough hospital for now.
Without stereotyping their patients (too much), clinicians can make good use of current events and stories in the media such as this story in The Archers or cervical cancers in Eastenders4 and Coronation Street5.
References
1. Jones RB, Hampshire AJ, Tweddle S, Moult B, Hill A. The clinician's role in meeting patient information needs: suggested learning outcomes. Medical Education. 2001;35:565-71.
2. Cancer Research UK. Oesophago-gastric cancers campaign. http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/early-diagnosis-acti...
3. BBC. The Archers: Who’s Who. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/2PyW5l1l3fVTyWBLRZcc9j3/whos-who
4. Jones R, Soler-Lopez M, Zahra D, Shankleman J, Trenchard-Mabere E. Using online adverts to increase the uptake of cervical screening amongst “real Eastenders”: an opportunistic controlled trial. BMC Research Notes; 2013;26:117.
5. Howe A, Owen-Smith V, Richardson J: The impact of a television soap opera on the NHS cervical screening programme in the North West of England. J Pub Hlth Med 2002, 24:299–304.
Competing interests: No competing interests