BMC Public Health 2008, 8:284 Table 2: Demographics Age* Responders Non-responders Responders Non-responders IMD Score Responders Non-responders 17 – 96 17 – 98 1 – 50 1 – 197 Range 2.36 – 66.35 2.64 – 76.39 Range (years) Total (mean ± SE) Females (mean ± SE) Males (mean ± SE) http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/8/284 57.9 ± 1.9 49.4 ± 2.6 5 4 14.71 18.31 57.0 ± 1.3 52.9 ± 2.0 4 4 14.77 17.98 56.3 ± 2.0 56.4 ± 3.0 4 4 15.09 17.29 Total (median) Females (median) Males (median) Length of stay (LoS) Range (days) Total (median) Females (median) Males (median) *Main effect of responder F(1) = 3.185, P = 0.08; main effect of gender F(1) = 1.279, P = 0.26; responder × gender interaction F(1) = 3.328, P = 0.07. IMD = Index of multiple deprivation table 3). There were however significantly more smokers (according to case note information) amongst non- responders compared to responders. Questionnaire findings Screening The majority of responders reported that they were asked by a member of the hospital staff whether they smoked (156/183; 95% CI = 0.79 to 0.90) and they were asked about their alcohol use (115/188; 95% CI = 0.54 to 0.68). However only about a quarter were asked about their usual diet (46/184; 95% CI = 0.19 to 0.32) and physical activity (42/175; 95% CI = 0.18 to 0.31). Risk factor prevalence and health education delivered Additional file 1 reports the proportion of responders identified by the questionnaire as having a risk factor, and of those with a risk factor, the proportion receiving any type of health education, plus details of the form health education took for each risk factor. Of the 20.5% respond- ents identified as smokers, 44.4% reported receiving some type of health education. The proportion of patients iden- tified as misusing alcohol according to self-reported weekly consumption compared to the Five shot tool is not significant (proportion difference = -0.019, 95% CI = - 0.11 to 0.08 P = 0.70). Between 21% and 29% of these patients received health education for alcohol misuse. While the majority of respondents consumed less than five portions of fruit and vegetables a day and were phys- ical inactive, only 11.9% and 15.4% received health edu- cation for diet and physical activity respectively. Nearly half of respondents were either obese or overweight, but very few received any form of health education concern- ing weight loss. In total sixty-three patients reported receiving health education for at least one risk factor dur- ing their hospital episode (i.e. 33.2% of respondents). Forty-four received health education for one risk factor only, eleven for two risk factors, six for three risk factors and two received health education for four risk factors. Figure 1 reports the "helpfulness" ratings for the health education delivered. 51.7% of patients reported that the health education they received was helpful (score of 4 or 5), 27.6% appear undecided (score of 3) and 20.7% viewed the health education services as unhelpful (score of 1 or 2). Change Figure 2 shows the percentage of participants who reported that they would like advice concerning how to change a risk factor (only for those with evidence of the risk factor). The majority of smokers wanted to quit smok- ing. Based on self-reported alcohol consumed in the past week, 16/31 identified as harmful/hazardous drinkers Table 3: Differences in the prevalence of smoking and alcohol misuse between responders and non-responders Audit findings Screened for smoking Screened for alcohol use Identified as a smoker* Alcohol consumption above recommendations Responder 168/190 (0.88; CI = 0.83 to 0.93) 145/190 (0.76; CI = 0.70 to 0.82) 37/167 (0.22; CI = 0.16 to 0.30) 26/138 (0.19; CI = 0.13 to 0.26) Non-responder 120/133 (0.90; CI = 0.84 to 0.95) 101/133 (0.76 CI = 0.68 to 0.83) 50/119 (0.42; CI = 0.33 to 0.51) 25/85 (0.29; CI = 0.20 to 0.40) *Proportion difference = 0.199, 95% CI = 0.090 to 0.306, P < 0.0005 Page 5 of 10 (page number not for citation purposes)