BMC Public Health 2008, 8:284 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/8/284 20 18 16 14 12 re180 bm6 u4 N2 0 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1 2 3 Helpfulness Score 4 5 RFaigtiunrges o1f "helpfulness" for health promotion delivered Ratings of "helpfulness" for health promotion deliv- ered. A score of 1 indicated that the health promotion was "not at all helpful" and a score of 5: "very helpful". White fill: Exercise, Horizontal lines fill: Diet, Diagonal lines fill: Alcohol, Grey dots fill: Smoking. reported that they wanted to reduce their alcohol intake. On the basis of the Five shot tool 25/48 participants cate- gorised as potentially misusing alcohol said they wanted to reduce their alcohol intake. Of those who consumed alcohol within recommended weekly limits (100) only 9 wanted to reduce their alcohol intake; and only 2/140 par- ticipants categorised as having no alcohol problem according to the Five shot tool wanted to reduce their alcohol intake. While approximately half of all respondents wanted to reduce their weight, when desire to lose weight was related to BMI, 86% of obese individuals (BMI >30 Kg/m2; see fig- ure 2), 78% of overweight individuals (BMI 26–30 Kg/ m2), 28% of those with a normal BMI (18.5–25 Kg/m2) and none of the underweight participants (BMI <18.5 Kg/ m2) wanted to lose weight. Stop smoking Reduce alcohol Lose weight Dietary advice Increase exercise tPFoeigrcuerneta2ge of responders who wanted to change a risk fac- Percentage of responders who wanted to change a risk factor. Figures are based on identified need. Grey fill: Yes, White fill: No. Significantly more people who consumed less than five portions of fruit and vegetables a day wanted dietary advice during their hospital admission compared to those who consumed five portions a day (67% and 36% respec- tively, chi-square test using continuity correction, P = 0.0012). There was no difference in the proportion of patients who wanted to increase exercise when assessed according to whether patients engaged in the recommended 30 min- utes of moderate physical activity five times a week or not (55.1% and 61.3% respectively, chi-square test using con- tinuity correction, P = 0.397). Appropriateness of health education within hospitals Screening agreement Inspection of figure 3 reveals that the majority of partici- pants "strongly agreed"/"agreed" with all adult hospital patients being asked about their smoking, alcohol use, diet and exercise. The overall Friedman test statistic was significant (F = 31.94, P < 0.0001). Patients agreed signif- icantly more with screening for smoking compared to screening for all other risk factors (P < 0.0001 for smoking compared to each remaining risk factor) and with screen- ing for alcohol compared to exercise (P < 0.02). Timing of health education Of those participants who received health education, 52/ 63 reported when it was delivered. The majority reported that health education was delivered at only one time- point, with only three patients reporting health education at two time points. While the majority of patients who received health education within the hospital reported that it was delivered on admission (22/52), most reported that they would like health education delivered just prior to discharge or at discharge (see figure 4). Admission was 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Smoking Alcohol Diet Exercise aPFleilgrpcuaertnieetna3gtse sohforuelsdpboendaeskrsedagarbeoeuintgrwis kit hfatchtoersstatement that Percentage of responders agreeing with the state- ment that all patients should be asked about risk fac- tors. Grey fill: Agree, White fill: Undecided, Black fill: Disagree. Page 6 of 10 (page number not for citation purposes)