Process Evaluation of a Medical Student-Delivered Smoking Prevention Program for Secondary Schools: Protocol for the Education Against Tobacco Cluster Randomized Trial.

BACKGROUND: Most smokers start smoking during their early adolescence under the impression that smoking entails positive attributes. Given the addictive nature of cigarettes, however, many of them might end up as long-term smokers and suffering from tobacco-related diseases. To prevent tobacco use among adolescents, the large international medical students' network Education Against Tobacco (EAT) educates more than 40,000 secondary school students per year in the classroom setting, using evidence-based self-developed apps and strategies. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of the school-based EAT intervention in reducing smoking prevalence among seventh-grade students in Germany. Additionally, we aimed to improve the intervention by drawing conclusions from our process evaluation. METHODS: We conduct a cluster-randomized controlled trial with measurements at baseline and 9, 16, and 24 months postintervention via paper-and-pencil questionnaires administered by teachers. The study groups consist of randomized schools receiving the 2016 EAT curriculum and control schools with comparable baseline data (no intervention). The primary outcome is the difference of change in smoking prevalence between the intervention and control groups at the 24-month follow-up. Secondary outcomes are between-group differences of changes in smoking-related attitudes and the number of new smokers, quitters, and never-smokers. RESULTS: A total of 11,268 students of both sexes, with an average age of 12.32 years, in seventh grade of 144 secondary schools in Germany were included at baseline. The prevalence of cigarette smoking in our sample was 2.6%. The process evaluation surveys were filled out by 324 medical student volunteers, 63 medical student supervisors, 4896 students, and 141 teachers. CONCLUSIONS: The EAT cluster randomized trial is the largest school-based tobacco-prevention study in Germany conducted to date. Its results will provide important insights with regards to the effectiveness of medical student-delivered smoking prevention programs at school. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/13508.

[Improvement of cardiopulmonary exercise capacity in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome under CPAP therapy]. / Verbesserung der kardiopulmonalen Leistungsfähigkeit bei Patienten mit obstruktivem Schlafapnoesyndrom unter CPAP-Langzeittherapie.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is regarded as a cardiovascular risk factor. Therefore, cardiopulmonary exercise capacity in patients with OSAS before and under treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) was investigated. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Cardiopulmonary exercise capacity was investigated in 36 patients with untreated OSAS using spiroergometry. A follow-up after at least 6 months was performed in 17 of these patients being treated with CPAP and in eight CPAP-neglecting patients, who served as controls. RESULTS: Maximum oxygen uptake ( O(2max)) was significantly reduced in all 36 patients with untreated OSAS (17.68 +/- 6.1 ml/min/kg) compared with reference values (30.72 +/- 4.9 ml/min/kg; p < 0.001). After an average of 305.7 +/- 104.8 nights of CPAP therapy, O(2max) rose from 15.33 +/- 4.8 to 18.53 +/- 6.9 ml/min/kg, whereas O(2max) remained unchanged in controls. Further spirometric parameters of exercise capacity as well as arterial blood pressure were also significantly improved under CPAP therapy. CONCLUSION: Cardiopulmonary exercise capacity is markedly reduced in patients with OSAS. Long-term CPAP therapy leads to a significant improvement of reduced cardiopulmonary exercise capacity in these patients.

[Early polysomnographic detection of congestive heart failure caused by aortic valve stenosis]. / Polysomnographische Früherkennung einer kardialen Dekompensation infolge hochgradiger Aortenklappenstenose.

BACKGROUND: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSAS) is assumed to be an independent cardiovascular risk factor, whereas central sleep apnea with Cheyne-Stokes breathing occurs in congestive heart failure and has a prognostic value. CASE REPORT: The case of a 74-year-old man with long-term continuous positive airway pressure treatment due to OSAS is reported. In a routine polysomnography central apneas and Cheyne-Stokes breathing without any clinical signs of heart failure were seen. Further investigations revealed a newly diagnosed aortic valve stenosis with good left ventricular function. Clinical signs of congestive heart failure came up 2 weeks after first diagnosed Cheyne-Stokes breathing. CONCLUSION: Cheyne-Stokes breathing can be observed in acute heart failure before occurrence of any clinical signs of congestive heart failure and should always lead to further investigations. The current understanding of pathophysiological pathways in Cheyne-Stokes breathing is reviewed.

Sleep-disordered breathing decreases after opioid withdrawal: results of a prospective controlled trial.

An increased cardiovascular event rate in elderly patients under opioid medications was recently reported. One reason for this increase could be the occurrence of nocturnal apnea and hypoxia, as a consequence of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). Using a controlled study, we prospectively analyzed SDB using polysomnography in a total of 18 patients before and after opioid withdrawal (opioid withdrawal group [OG]) and 14 patients before and after comprehensive pain management (without any strong-acting opioids) who served as the control group (CG). To analyze the differences, unpaired/paired t tests and Mann-Whitney U tests/Wilcoxon rank tests were used. At baseline, the OG presented more nocturnal apneas/hypopneas than the CG with an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of 41.4 ± 27.8 vs 21.8 ± 15.9 (P = 0.018). After treatment, the AHI decreased significantly only in the withdrawal group (OG: 16.7 ± 8.9; CG: 20.1 ± 12.9) (P < 0.01). Before treatment, none of the CG but half of the OG patients showed central apnea, which disappeared afterwards. A mean O2 saturation during rapid eye movement sleep lower than 90% was found in 27.5% of the OG patients before opioid withdrawal and in none of the patients after withdrawal (P < 0.01). The AHI was not significantly affected by body mass index, age, or sex. Obviously, nocturnal apnea and O2 desaturation occurred more frequently, as was clinically expected in patients with opioid intake; these findings may explain the opioid-associated cardiovascular morbidity. Thus, SDB may be a risk at lower opioid doses than hitherto described, and particular caution should be exercised in patients with comorbidities that might make them vulnerable to the consequences of SDB.