Over the last ten years we have witnessed a great increase in writing on the nature of masculinity and the development of the concept of multiple masculinities, but much of this material has been speculative and highly theoretical. The related work linking masculinities to alcohol has often had a psychometric slant. The current paper aims to show the wider relevance of new theoretical ideas on masculinities to alcohol consumption among young men. Specifically: to describe the social context of drinking and drunkenness among a sample of young men living in Greater Glasgow, and to analyse the masculine role component of such contemporary drinking cultures. A qualitative methodology was used. Ten focus groups and twelve in-depth 'life-trajectory' interviews were completed. Respondents were aged between 16 and 24 years. We discovered that the social context of male drinking is changing very rapidly and masculinities are being redefined. While there remains some evidence of traditional masculine drinking norms and alcohol use, the increasing diversity of drinking locations and alcohol products are instrumental in achieving new expressions of male identity among young men.

Objective: To assess decleration and acceleration in the disease process in the initial phase of epsilepsy in children with new onset tonic-clonic seizures.

There is increasing demand for evaluation work funded by public agencies to become more focused on demonstrating effectiveness. Focusing evaluation on outcomes and effectiveness meets the information needs of strategic planners and policy makers, but other stakeholders involved in managing, delivering or using public services and programmes may use other assessment criteria, such as improving the quality of programmes or programme design. The necessity and value of these other criteria are in danger of being obscured. Acknowledging the legitimacy of the range of stakeholder perspectives, this article presents a framework for evaluation that has been developed over a number of years within the context of evaluating health promotion programmes as part of the work of a national health promotion agency. It argues for an approach to evaluation which recognizes the contributions of theory and quality as well as effectiveness in programme development. The Health Education Board for Scotland (HEBS) framework for evaluation – and the analysis that informed it – demonstrates that there are many stages and forms of evaluation which contribute to the development of effective interventions. While outcome evaluations and effectiveness reviews tend to be the prized evaluation products for those concerned with policy and strategic planning, these forms of evaluation are just ‘the tip of the iceberg’ of what is required to build a sound evidence base, bringing together the full range of evaluation needs from the perspectives of all the different stakeholder groups.

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Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of an antismoking campaign conducted by the Health Education Board for Scotland. Design: Descriptive survey of adult callers to a telephone helpline (Smokeline) for stopping smoking; panel study of a random sample of adult callers; assessment of changes in prevalence of smoking in Scotland before and after introduction of the helpline Setting: Telephone helpline. Subjects: Callers to Smokeline over the initial one year period. Detailed information was collected on a 10% sample (n = 8547). A cohort of adult smokers who called Smokeline (total n = 848) was followed up by telephone interview three weeks, six months, and one year after the initial call. Main outcome measures: Numbers of adult smokers calling helpline; changes in smoking behaviour, especially stopping smoking among cohort members; and changes in prevalence of smoking in the general population. Results: An estimated 82 782 regular adult smokers made genuine contact with Smokeline over the year, representing about 5.9% of all adult smokers in Scotland. At one year 143 of the cohort of 848 callers (23.6%; 95% confidence interval 20.2% to 27.0%) reported that they had stopped smoking, and 534 (88.0%; 85.4% to 90.6%) reported having made some change. About 19 500 (16 700 to 22 350) adult smokers, equivalent to 1.4% (1.2% to 1.6%) of the mean adult smoking population, stopped smoking with direct help from Smokeline. During the second year of the campaign (1994) smoking prevalence among 25-65 year olds in Scotland was 6% (2.0% to 10.0%) lower than it had been before the start of the campaign. Conclusion: The Health Education Board for Scotland's antismoking campaign reached a high number of adult smokers, was associated with a highly acceptable quit rate among adults given direct help through Smokeline, and contributed considerably to an accelerated decline in smoking prevalence in Scotland.