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Study objective-To assess the impact of a national campaign on awareness of the campaign, change in knowledge of physical activity recommendations and self reported physical activity. Design-three year prospective longitudinal survey using a multi-stage, cluster random probability design to select participants. Setting-England. Participants-A nationally representative sample of 3189 adults aged 16-74 years. Main outcome measures-Awareness of the advertising element of the campaign, changes in knowledge of physical activity recommendations for health and self reported physical activity. Results-38% of participants were aware of the main advertising images, assessed six to eight months after the main television advertisement. The proportion of participants knowledgeable about moderate physical activity recommendations increased by 3.0% (95% CI: 1.4%, 4.5%) between waves 1 and 2 and 3.7% (95% CI: 2.1%, 5.3%) between waves 1 and 3. The change in proportion of active people between baseline and waves 1 and 2 was −0.02 (95% CI: −2.0 to +1.7) and between waves 1 and 3 was −9.8 (−7.9 to −11.7). Conclusion-The proportion of participants who were knowledgeable about the new recommendations, increased significantly after the campaign. There was however, no significant diVerence in knowledge by awareness of the main campaign advertisement. There is no evidence that ACTIVE for LIFE improved physical activity, either overall or in any subgroup. (J Epidemiol Community Health 2001;55:755-761) It is close to 50 years since the first study linking physical inactivity and an increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) was published.

The feasibility of providing postoperative analgesia using thoracic extradural blockade following thoracotomy has been assessed. Extradural block was produced by intermittent injections of 0.5% bupivacaine with adrenaline 1:200,000 or a continuous infusion of 0.25% or 0.125% bupivacaine. The only toxic symptom was drowsiness which was most frequent after a continuous infusion of 0.25% bupivacaine and with arterial plasma bupivacaine concentrations above 1.5 mug/ml. Arterial hypotension was a troublesome complication with all techniques although stability of arterial pressure was more easily achieved with a continuous infusion technique. However, this produced a high incidence of urinary retention. Practical aspects and effectiveness of providing extradural analgesia in patients following thoracotomy are discussed.

The use of ketamine to provide anaesthesia for the dressing and application of graft to burned patients has been assessed. In a small number of severely burned patients, it was found to be most satisfactory provided that the circumstances in which it was used were carefully controlled.

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