Objective To investigate the effectiveness of facilitated physical activity as an adjunctive treatment for adults with depression presenting in primary care.Design Pragmatic, multicentre, two arm parallel randomised controlled trial.Setting General practices in Bristol and Exeter.

The fourth age remains a poorly understood phenomenon and there is a lack of understanding of the perceptions of those who might be considered to be living in it. This article draws on findings from a study of dignity in later life which examined the day-to-day experiences of participants who were in need of support and care because of failing health. It discusses their accounts of the changes to their sense of self and their identity that came about as a result of their ageing and health problems and looks also at the ways in which the support and care they received helped to shape their adjustment to those changes. The accounts given by participants reveal a great deal about the physical, mental and emotional effort entailed in maintaining a sense of self and highlight the essential role played by social relationships in the maintenance of identity. These findings are analysed by reference to emerging theories of the fourth age.

No abstract

Objectives: To explore the circumstances and factors that explain variations in response to a cardiac event and to identify potentially modifiable factors. Design: Qualitative analysis of semistructured, face to face interviews with patients admitted to two district hospitals for a cardiac event and with other people present at the time of the event. Patients were divided into three groups according to the length of delay between onset of symptoms and calling for medical help. Subjects: 43 patients and 21 other people present at the time of the cardiac event. Patients were divided into three groups according to the length of time between onset of symptoms and seeking medical help: non-delayers ( < 4 h; n = 21), delayers (4-12 h; n = 12), and extended delayers ( > 12 h; n = 10). Main outcome measures: Decision making process, strategies for dealing with symptoms, and perception of risk and of heart attacks before the event according to delay in seeking help. Results: The illness and help seeking behaviour of informants had several components, including warning, interpretation, preliminary action, re-evaluation, and final action stages. The length of each stage was variable and depended on the extent to which informants mobilised and integrated resources into a strategy to bring their symptoms under control. There were obvious differences in informants' knowledge of the symptoms that they associated with a heart attack before the event. Non-delayers described a wider range of symptoms before their heart attack and twice as many (13) considered themselves to be potentially at risk of a heart attack compared with the other two groups. For most informants the heart attack differed considerably from their concept of a heart attack. Conclusion:The most critical factor influencing the time between onset of symptoms and calling for professional medical help is that patients and others recognise their symptoms as cardiac in origin. This study suggests that various points of intervention in the decision making process could assist symptom recognition and therefore faster access to effective treatment.

No abstract