Helen Colhoun and colleagues report findings from a Scottish registry linkage study regarding contemporary risks for cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality among individuals diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

The purpose of this Consensus Statement is to provide a global, collaborative, representative and inclusive vision for educating an interprofessional healthcare workforce that can deliver sustainable healthcare and promote planetary health. It is intended to inform national and global accreditation standards, planning and action at the institutional level as well as highlight the role of individuals in transforming health professions education. Many countries have agreed to 'rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes' to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% within 10 years and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, including in healthcare. Currently, however, health professions graduates are not prepared for their roles in achieving these changes. Thus, to reduce emissions and meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), health professions education must equip undergraduates, and those already qualified, with the knowledge, skills, values, competence and confidence they need to sustainably promote the health, human rights and well-being of current and future generations, while protecting the health of the planet. The current imperative for action on environmental issues such as climate change requires health professionals to mobilize politically as they have before, becoming strong advocates for major environmental, social and economic change. A truly ethical relationship with people and the planet that we inhabit so precariously, and to guarantee a future for the generations which follow, demands nothing less of all health professionals. This Consensus Statement outlines the changes required in health professions education, approaches to achieve these changes and a timeline for action linked to the internationally agreed SDGs. It represents the collective vision of health professionals, educators and students from various health professions, geographic locations and cultures. 'Consensus' implies broad agreement amongst all individuals engaged in discussion on a specific issue, which in this instance, is agreement by all signatories of this Statement developed under the auspices of the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE). To ensure a shared understanding and to accurately convey information, we outline key terms in a glossary which accompanies this Consensus Statement (Supplementary Appendix 1). We acknowledge, however, that terms evolve and that different terms resonate variably depending on factors such as setting and audience. We define education for sustainable healthcare as the process of equipping current and

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Background: Statins have anti-inflammatory properties that may be beneficial in the treatment of asthma. A study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that atorvastatin added to inhaled corticosteroids improves lung function and airway inflammation in atopic adults with asthma. Methods: 54 adults with atopic asthma were recruited to a double-blind randomised controlled crossover trial comparing the effect of oral atorvastatin 40 mg daily with that of a matched placebo on asthma control and airway inflammation. Each treatment was administered for 8 weeks separated by a 6-week washout period. The primary outcome was morning peak expiratory flow (PEF). Secondary outcomes included forced expiratory volume in 1 s, asthma control questionnaire score, airway hyperresponsiveness to methacholine, induced sputum cytology and inflammatory biomarkers. Results: At 8 weeks the change in mean morning PEF compared with baseline did not differ substantially between the atorvastatin and placebo treatment periods (mean difference 20.5 l/min, 95% CI 210.6 to 9.6, p = 0.921). Values for other clinical outcomes were similar between the atorvastatin and placebo treatment periods. The absolute sputum macrophage count was reduced after atorvastatin compared with placebo (mean difference 245.0610 4 cells, 95% CI 280.1 to 29.7, p = 0.029), as was the sputum fluid leucotriene B4 (mean difference 288.1 pg/ml, 95% CI 2156.4 to 219.9, p = 0.014). Conclusion: The addition of atorvastatin to inhaled corticosteroids results in no short-term improvement in asthma control but reduces sputum macrophage counts in mild to moderate atopic asthma. The change in sputum macrophage count suggests potential areas for investigation of statins in other chronic lung diseases.Statins are inhibitors of 3-hydroxymethyl-3-glutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMG CoA reductase), a rate-limiting step in cholesterol synthesis. In addition to clinically important cholesterollowering properties, 1 statins also have diverse anti-inflammatory effects. [2][3][4][5]

The purpose of this study was to compare contemporary risk of hip fracture in type 1 and type 2 diabetes with the nondiabetic population. Using a national diabetes database, we identified those with type 1 and type 2 diabetes who were aged 20 to 84 years and alive anytime from January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2007. All hospitalized events for hip fracture in 2005 to 2007 for diabetes patients were linked and compared with general population counts. Age- and calendar-year-adjusted incidence rate ratios were calculated by diabetes type and sex. One hundred five hip fractures occurred in 21,033 people (59,585 person-years) with type 1 diabetes; 1421 in 180,841 people (462,120 person-years) with type 2 diabetes; and 11,733 hip fractures over 10,980,599 person-years in the nondiabetic population (3.66 million people). Those with type 1 diabetes had substantially elevated risks of hip fracture compared with the general population incidence risk ratio (IRR) of 3.28 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.52–4.26) in men and 3.54 (CI 2.75–4.57) in women. The IRR was greater at younger ages, but absolute risk difference was greatest at older ages. In type 2 diabetes, there was no elevation in risk among men (IRR 0.97 [CI 0.92–1.02]) and the increase in risk in women was small (IRR 1.05 [CI 1.01–1.10]). There remains a substantial elevation relative risk of hip fracture in people with type 1 diabetes, but the relative risk is much lower than in earlier studies. In contrast, there is currently little elevation in overall hip fracture risk with type 2 diabetes, but this may mask elevations in risk in particular subgroups of type 2 diabetes patients with different body mass indexes, diabetes duration, or drug exposure. © 2014 The Authors. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

Aims/hypothesisThe aim of our study was to identify subgroups of patients attending the Scottish Diabetic Retinopathy Screening (DRS) programme who might safely move from annual to two yearly retinopathy screening.MethodsThis was a retrospective cohort study of screening data from the DRS programme collected between 2005 and 2011 for people aged ≥12 years with type 1 or type 2 diabetes in Scotland. We used hidden Markov models to calculate the probabilities of transitions to referable diabetic retinopathy (referable background or proliferative retinopathy) or referable maculopathy.ResultsThe study included 155,114 individuals with no referable diabetic retinopathy or maculopathy at their first DRS examination and with one or more further DRS examinations. There were 11,275 incident cases of referable diabetic eye disease (9,204 referable maculopathy, 2,071 referable background or proliferative retinopathy). The observed transitions to referable background or proliferative retinopathy were lower for people with no visible retinopathy vs mild background retinopathy at their prior examination (respectively, 1.2% vs 8.1% for type 1 diabetes and 0.6% vs 5.1% for type 2 diabetes). The lowest probability for transitioning to referable background or proliferative retinopathy was among people with two consecutive screens showing no visible retinopathy, where the probability was <0.3% for type 1 and <0.2% for type 2 diabetes at 2 years.Conclusions/interpretationTransition rates to referable diabetic eye disease were lowest among people with type 2 diabetes and two consecutive screens showing no visible retinopathy. If such people had been offered two yearly screening the DRS service would have needed to screen 40% fewer people in 2009.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00125-013-2928-7) contains peer reviewed but unedited supplementary material, which is available to authorised users.

Asthma control is significantly worse in asthmatics who smoke compared with never-smokers, with all symptoms related to asthma control uniformly worse in smokers, independent of FEV(1).

Background: At the time of the 2009-10 influenza pandemic there was considerable unease about vaccination. Early surveys suggested that the intention to be vaccinated amongst healthcare workers was low.