A comparison of dietary behaviour in Central England and a French Mediterranean region.

UNLABELLED: BJECTIVEe: The investigation involves comparison of dietary behaviour between UK and Mediterranean France by characterizing the pattern of the current French Mediterranean diet compared with the current British diet. DESIGN: The findings of two dietary surveys, one in the UK and one in France, are compared. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used in both countries. Questions on food frequency were used to assess dietary behaviour, which were regrouped in the French survey to correspond with UK groupings. Dietary indices were constructed to describe dietary behaviour in relation to cancer recommendations for intake of fat, fibre, meat, fruit and vegetables. SETTING: The UK study was conducted in Leicestershire, central England and the French study was carried out in Hérault, southern France. SUBJECTS: UK: n=418 subjects (57.9% female and 42.1% male; mean age=45.0 y); France: n=635 subjects (50.1% female and 40.9% male; mean age=49.8 y). Age range of both samples: 20-74 y. RESULTS: There were positive and negative trends in food consumption in each country. UK respondents reported eating more beans and pulses (P=0.000), less cheese (P=0. 000), red meat (P=0.001), and processed meats (P=0.000) than French respondents. However, on the negative side, they ate less fruit and vegetables (P=0.000), fish and poultry (P=0.000), cereals (P=0.000), and more sweets and chocolates (P=0.000), and cakes, pastries, biscuits and puddings (P=0.000). Women had healthier diets in both countries. CONCLUSIONS: Overall the southern French diet was healthier as French respondents scored significantly better for indices for fat, dietary fibre, fruit and vegetables (P=0.000 in all cases). However, the French sample scored poorer for the meat index (P=0.000). SPONSORSHIP: This study was supported by a grant from l'Association de la Recherche contre le Cancer (ARC) awarded to M Holdsworth.

The nutritional health of the nation: diet, exercise and health.

Public health initiatives aimed at changing the nation's diet rely on simple messages to persuade people to eat more from certain food groups and less from others. The underlying rationale of this strategy is that control is located firmly in the hands of the individual who can 'choose' health by following the guidelines. The research reported in this article found high levels of public awareness of nutritional guidelines, and a sense of personal control over health. However, accounts of other health-related agendas showed that being in control may mean choosing to become fitter or slimmer. Within these pursuits, nutritional concerns were prioritized only in so far as they were seen to serve the attainment of a desired body shape. Health professionals need to be aware that nutritional guidelines may be competing with other mediating factors along the chosen route to health.

Patterns of switching phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors in the treatment of erectile dysfunction: results from the Erectile Dysfunction Observational Study.

AIMS: This report describes patterns of treatment changes with the phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitors tadalafil, sildenafil and vardenafil, and variables associated with those treatment changes, during the 6-month, prospective, pan-European Erectile Dysfunction Observational Study (EDOS). METHODS: EDOS observed 8047 men > or = 18 years old with erectile dysfunction (ED), who began or changed ED therapy as part of their routine healthcare. Patients could change ED treatment at any time during EDOS. Data were collected at baseline and at 3 (+/- 1) and 6 (+/- 1) months. Analyses included ED treatment-naïve patients with complete follow-up who were prescribed a PDE5 inhibitor at baseline (n = 4026). RESULTS: Most patients, regardless of what PDE5 inhibitor they were prescribed at baseline, continued on that same PDE5 inhibitor throughout the study. Continuation rates were approximately 89% in the tadalafil cohort, vs. 63-64% in the sildenafil and vardenafil cohorts. The variables most strongly associated with increased risk of switching were prescription of sildenafil or vardenafil, vs. tadalafil, at baseline (odds ratios 4.43 and 4.14 respectively; p < 0.0001). Of patients who switched from tadalafil to another treatment, nearly 25% had switched back to tadalafil by study end. In contrast, of patients who switched from sildenafil or vardenafil, < 10% from each cohort had switched back to their original treatment by study end. CONCLUSION: The data suggest that tadalafil treatment in treatment-naïve ED patients may increase their likelihood of treatment continuation. These findings should be interpreted conservatively due to the observational nature of the study.

Contemporary vegetarianism in the U.K.: challenge and incorporation?

The relationship between vegetarianism and the "orthodox" food ideology and the overall food system in the U.K. is complex and ambiguous. Vegetarianism, and a fortiori veganism, appear to represent a direct challenge to orthodox foodways and current production methods. Yet there is some evidence for the incorporation of vegetarianism into the commercial food system, which raises the question of how and why incorporation has occurred.

Contemporary nutritional attitudes and practices: a factor analysis approach.

The results reported here are based upon a survey of the nutritional attitudes and practices of a sample of adults aged between 18 and 74 years. The scaled responses to two inventories of statements were subjected to a factor analysis in order to assess the extent to which it is possible to identify a set of coherent dimensions which underly the range of "surface" issues which figure consistently in the sociological literature. The results broadly confirm the utility of the inventories, and do suggest the presence of a series of underlying themes, some of which are very much along anticipated lines. However, one theme, that of deference to what might be thought of as "authoritative agencies" within the food system, was less expected, and deserves further attention. Additionally, selected factors were aggregated by summing the scores of their component variables, and correlated with the key independent variables of age, sex and social class, with a view to identifying the social profiles of their adherents. The results obtained were by no means clear cut, with a number of the anticipated features of such profiles being absent. Moreover, where the profiles were as anticipated, the correlations, although statistically significant, were relatively weak. This raised the issue of whether such an outcome was a methodological artefact, or a reflection of the possibility that differences in nutritional attitudes and practices are shaped by a range of lifestyle variables which do not coincide with conventional indicators of social differentiation.