Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) can reduce cardiovascular mortality and improve health-related quality of life. In the United Kingdom, patient uptake of CR remains low (52%), falling well short of the target in the 2019 National Health Service long-term plan (85%). Mobile health (mHealth) technologies, offering biometric data to patients and healthcare professionals, may bridge the gap between supervised exercise and physical activity advice, enabling patients to engage in regular long-term physically active lifestyles. This randomised controlled trial (RCT) will evaluate the feasibility of mHealth technology when incorporated into a structured home-based walking intervention, in people with recent myocardial infarction.

This is a feasibility, assessor blinded, parallel group RCT. Participants will be allocated to either CR standard care (control group) or CR standard care+mHealth supported exercise counselling (mHealth intervention group). Feasibility outcomes will include the number of patients approached, screened and eligible; the percentage of patients who decline CR (including reasons for declining), agree to CR and consent to being part of the study; the percentage of patients who enrol in standard CR and reasons for drop out; and the percentage of participants who complete clinical, physical and psychosocial outcomes to identify a suitable primary outcome for a future definitive trial.

The trial was approved in the UK by the Northwest—Greater Manchester East Research Ethics Committee (22/NW/0301) and is being conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and Good Clinical Practice. Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national and international scientific meetings.

NCT05774587

Patients with complex multimorbidity face a high treatment burden and frequently have low quality of life. General practice is the key organisational setting in terms of offering people with complex multimorbidity integrated, longitudinal, patient-centred care. This protocol describes a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of an adaptive, multifaceted intervention in general practice for patients with complex multimorbidity.

In this study, 250 recruited general practices will be randomly assigned 1:1 to either the intervention or control group. The eligible population are adult patients with two or more chronic conditions, at least one contact with secondary care within the last year, taking at least five repeat prescription drugs, living independently, who experience significant problems with their life and health due to their multimorbidity. During 2023 and 2024, intervention practices are financially incentivised to provide an extended consultation based on a patient-centred framework to eligible patients. Control practices continue care as usual. The primary outcome is need-based quality of life. Outcomes will be evaluated using linear and logistic regression models, with clustering considered. The analysis will be performed as intention to treat. In addition, a process evaluation will be carried out and reported elsewhere.

The trial will be conducted in compliance with the protocol, the Helsinki Declaration in its most recent form and good clinical practice recommendations, as well as the regulation for informed consent. The study was submitted to the Danish Capital Region Ethical Committee (ref: H-22041229). As defined by Section 2 of the Danish Act on Research Ethics in Research Projects, this project does not constitute a health research project but is considered a quality improvement project that does not require formal ethical approval. All results from the study (whether positive, negative or inconclusive) will be published in peer-reviewed journals.

NCT05676541.

This study aimed to determine the factors associated with continuation of hormonal contraceptive methods among married women of Gilgit, Pakistan at least 6 months after their initiation.

Unmatched case–control study.

Community settings of Gilgit, Pakistan from 1 April 2021 to 30 July 2021.

The cases were married women of reproductive age who, at the time of interview, were using a hormonal method of contraception for at least 6 months continuously, and controls were married women of reproductive age who had used a hormonal method in the past and currently were using a non-hormonal method for at least 6 months.

OR for continuation of hormonal contraceptive.

The factors significantly associated with continuous use of hormonal contraceptive methods for our sample from Gilgit were the family planning centre’s distance from home (adjusted OR (AOR) 6.33, 95% CI 3.74 to 10.71), satisfaction with current method used (AOR 3.64, 95% CI 2.06 to 6.44), visits to the family planning centre to avail services (AOR 1.86, 95% CI 1.07 to 3.45) and relatively older age of women (AOR 1.07, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.12). In addition, women with formal education (AOR 0.27, 95% CI 0.12 to 0.6) were less likely to use a modern contraceptive method.

Continuation of using a hormonal method was associated with easy access to family planning centres, satisfaction with the current method and frequent visits to the family planning centres. Continuation of using a hormonal method was also seen in women with low education status. The importance of the presence of family planning centres near residential areas cannot be emphasised more. This does not only provide easy access to family planning methods, but also reassure women of continuation of modern methods when they face any unpleasant effects while using these.