There is evidence of increased morbidity, decreased quality of life, and premature mortality in people living with HIV (PLHIV) who smoke tobacco compared to PLHIV who do not smoke tobacco. Evidence-based screening for tobacco dependence, pharmacological treatment, and treatment monitoring and education into relapse prevention are not readily available in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). We evaluated the effects of a brief tobacco dependence intervention in improving knowledge on the health effects of smoking and intention to quit smoking in PLHIV in Nepal, a low-income country in south Asia.

Using a quasi-experimental design, we assigned 59 smokers to participate in the intervention and 67 in the control group. The 1.5 h smoking cessation intervention emphasized harms of smoking, reasons for smoking and quitting, causes of relapse in previous quit attempts, and quitting strategies. We collected data at baseline and immediately post-intervention.

Findings indicate that a brief smoking cessation intervention produced a significant increase in smoking-related knowledge and intention to quit among PLHIV. The positive effects of our intervention remained significant after adjusting for potential confounders.

Our brief tobacco dependence intervention was effective in improving knowledge on the health effects of smoking and intention to quit among PLHIV. Further studies are required to evaluate the effectiveness of our intervention in increasing smoking cessation among PLHIV in LMIC.

Although dietary patterns have been linked to depression, a frequently observed precondition for suicide, no study has yet examined the association between dietary patterns and suicide risk.

To prospectively investigate the association between dietary patterns and death from suicide.

Participants were 40 752 men and 48 285 women who took part in the second survey of the Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study (1995–1998). Dietary patterns were derived from principal component analysis of the consumption of 134 food and beverage items ascertained by a food frequency questionnaire. Hazard ratios of suicide from the fourth year of follow-up to December 2005 were calculated.

Among both men and women, a ‘prudent’ dietary pattern characterised by a high intake of vegetables, fruits, potatoes, soy products, mushrooms, seaweed and fish was associated with a decreased risk of suicide. The multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio of suicide for the highest v. lowest quartiles of the dietary pattern score was 0.46 (95% CI 0.28–0.75) (P for trend, 0.005). Other dietary patterns (Westernised and traditional Japanese) were not associated with suicide risk.

Our findings suggest that a prudent dietary pattern may be associated with a decreased risk of death from suicide.