Interacting Factors Associated With Adult Male Drowning In New Zealand

Objectives: i) to identify factors that contribute to the global trend of the higher incidence of male drowning relative to females, and; ii) to explore relationships between such factors from mortality data in New Zealand. Methods: Drownings from 1983 to 2012 were examined for: Age, Ethnicity, Site, Activity, Buoyancy and Alcohol. Conditional frequency tables presented as mosaic plots were used to assess the interactions of these factors. Results: Alcohol was involved in a high proportion of Accidental Immersion drownings (61%) and was highest for males aged 20-24 years. When alcohol was involved there were proportionally more incidences where a life jacket was Available But Not Worn and less incidences where a life jacket was Worn. Many 30-39 year old males drowned during underwater activities (e.g., snorkeling, diving). Older men (aged +55 years old) had a high incidence of drowning while boating. Different ethnicities were over-represented in different age groups (Asian men aged 25-29, and European men aged 65-74) and when involved in different activities. Conclusions: Numerous interacting factors are responsible for male drownings. In New Zealand, drowning locations and activities differ by age and ethnicity which require targeted intervention strategies

A new qualitative typology to classify treading water movement patterns

This study proposes a new qualitative typology that can be used to classify learners treading water into different skill-based categories. To establish the typology, 38 participants were videotaped while treading water and their movement patterns were qualitatively analyzed by two experienced biomechanists. 13 sport science students were then asked to classify eight of the original participants after watching a brief tutorial video about how to use the typology. To examine intra-rater consistency, each participant was presented in a random order three times. Generalizability (G) and Decision (D) studies were performed to estimate the importance variance due to rater, occasion, video and the interactions between them, and to determine the reliability of the raters’ answers. A typology of five general classes of coordination was defined amongst the original 38 participants. The G-study showed an accurate and reliable assessment of different pattern type, with a percentage of correct classification of 80.1%, an overall Fleiss’ Kappa coefficient K = 0.6, and an overall generalizability φ coefficient of 0.99. This study showed that the new typology proposed to characterize the behaviour of individuals treading water was both accurate and highly reliable. Movement pattern classification using the typology might help practitioners distinguish between different skill-based behaviours and potentially guide instruction of key aquatic survival skills

Patients Not Passports: Learning from the international struggle for universal healthcare

This report focuses on the set of policies introduced as part of the government’s Hostile Environment immigration policies – which restrict access to public services and criminalise everyday activities – to expand border enforcement into the National Health Service (NHS) and restrict access to healthcare

Pain reconceptualisation after Pain Neurophysiology Education in adults with chronic low back pain:A qualitative study

Pain neurophysiology education (PNE) is an educational intervention for patients with chronic pain. PNE purports to assist patients to reconceptualise their pain away from the biomedical model towards a more biopsychosocial understanding by explaining pain biology. This study aimed to explore the extent, and nature, of patients’ reconceptualisation of their chronic low back pain (CLBP) following PNE. Eleven adults with CLBP underwent semistructured interviews before and three weeks after receiving PNE. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed in a framework approach using four a priori themes identified from our previous research: (1) degrees of reconceptualisation, (2) personal relevance, (3) importance of prior beliefs, and (4) perceived benefit of PNE. We observed varying degrees of reconceptualisation from zero to almost complete, with most participants showing partial reconceptualisation. Personal relevance of the information to participants and their prior beliefs were associated with the degree of benefit they perceived from PNE. Where benefits were found, they manifested as improved understanding, coping, and function. Findings map closely to our previous studies in more disparate chronic pain groups. The phenomenon of reconceptualisation is applicable to CLBP and the sufficiency of the themes from our previous studies increases confidence in the certainty of the findings