Patients' Persistent Symptoms, Clinician Demographics, and Geo-Economic Factors Are Associated with Choice of Therapy for Hypothyroidism by European Thyroid Specialists: The "THESIS" Collaboration.

Background: Hypothyroidism is common, however, aspects of its treatment remain controversial. Our survey aimed at documenting treatment choices of European thyroid specialists and exploring how patients' persistent symptoms, clinician demographics, and geo-economic factors relate to treatment choices. Methods: Seventeen thousand two hundred forty-seven thyroid specialists from 28 countries were invited to participate in an online questionnaire survey. The survey included respondent demographic data and treatment choices for hypothyroid patients with persistent symptoms. Geo-economic data for each country were included in the analyses. Results: The response rate was 32.9% (6058 respondents out of 17,247 invitees). Levothyroxine (LT4) was the initial treatment preferred by the majority (98.3%). Persistent symptoms despite normal serum thyrotropin (TSH) while receiving LT4 treatment were reported to affect up to 10.0% of patients by 75.4% of respondents, while 28.4% reported an increasing such trend in the past 5 years. The principal explanations offered for patients' persistent symptoms were psychosocial factors (77.1%), comorbidities (69.2%), and unrealistic patient expectations (61.0%). Combination treatment with LT4+liothyronine (LT3) was chosen by 40.0% of respondents for patients who complained of persistent symptoms despite a normal TSH. This option was selected more frequently by female thyroid specialists, with high-volume practice, working in countries with high gross national income per capita. Conclusions: The perception of patients' dissatisfaction reported by physicians seems lower than that described by hypothyroid patients in previous surveys. LT4+LT3 treatment is used frequently by thyroid specialists in Europe for persistent hypothyroid-like symptoms even if they generally attribute such symptoms to nonendocrine causes and despite the evidence of nonsuperiority of the combined over the LT4 therapy. Pressure by dissatisfied patients on their physicians for LT3-containing treatments is a likely explanation. The association of the therapeutic choices with the clinician demographic characteristics and geo-economic factors in Europe is a novel information and requires further investigation.

Timeliness and equity of infant pertussis vaccination in wales: Analysis of the three dose primary course.

Infants aged under one year are at the highest risk of severe complications or death from pertussis infection. Prompt vaccination with a three dose course at two, three and four months of age decreases the amount of time they are vulnerable following waning of maternal antibodies. In Wales, uptake of all three doses of the primary course of pertussis containing vaccine is high. However, timeliness and equity at a population level have not been previously reported. This analysis included 163,733 children born from 1st January 2013 to 31st December 2017. In this cohort 87.9% received the first dose of a pertussis containing vaccine by 12 weeks of age, 87.1% had received all three doses by 24 weeks of age, and 96.3% received three doses by 52 weeks of age. Differences in uptake between those living in the most deprived and least deprived quintiles of Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) were smaller than differences in timeliness, but statistically significant. In 2017 the difference in timely uptake between those living in the most and least deprived quintiles was 4%, 5% and 7% for doses one, two and three respectively. There was a difference of 10% in the proportion of infants receiving all three primary vaccinations on time between the most and least deprived quintile of LSOAs. Consideration is needed on interventions that will help improve timeliness such as enhanced follow up of defaulters, electronic communication between primary care data systems, enhanced health visitor intervention and opportunistic vaccination in those who fail to attend scheduled vaccination appointments. There is also the need for routine monitoring of timeliness and further research into what influences delayed vaccination.

Measuring inequalities in immunization in Wales and the impact of interventions.

We reviewed uptake of childhood immunization in Wales by quintile of deprivation and found that uptake was significantly lower in residents in the most socio-economically deprived areas compared with the least deprived. Differences were greater in older children. Services generally met best practice recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence; however, follow up of children who had not responded to invitations to attend routine immunization sessions needed more consistent implementation. Over a three year period to 2014-15 the difference in uptake between upper and lower quintiles at the fourth birthday reduced from 8.9% to 6.7%.