Immune function and health outcomes in women with depression

This research reports immune function and health outcomes in women with depression, as compared with a non-depressed control group. Using Psychoneuroimmunolgy theory and a descriptive comparison design, scores on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were used to divide 40 non-hospitalized Caucasian women between the ages of 18 and 65 years into either the control or depression comparison group. Women with depression were found to report significantly more incidences of illness over the previous two months and they were found to have significantly more indicators of illness at the time of the exam as compared to the controls. However, contrary to what has been documented in some earlier studies of depression, women with depression were not found to have significantly different immune function measures as compared to the control group. There was also no significant correlation between scores on the BDI and natural killer cell cytotoxicity in this study. While these findings support a connection between depression and both increased self-report of illness and increased signs and symptoms of minor illness or inflammation on physical exam, this study was not able to document that these effects were related to decreased immune function, as measured by natural killer cell activity or white blood cell counts

Nurse Practitioner and Pharmacist Interactions: Implications for Effectiveness of Interdisciplinary Health Care Teams

The Institute of Medicine report, “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health,” makes specific recommendations for removing barriers to advanced practice nursing scope of practice. The report also makes important recommendations concerning interdisciplinary teamwork. This article examines the challenges on the professional working relationship between nurse practitioners and pharmacists and provides some insight into the difficulties faced as health care practitioners attempt to work toward the goal of collaborative efforts to advance the care of our patients

2017 Research & Innovation Day Program

A one day showcase of applied research, social innovation, scholarship projects and activities.https://first.fanshawec.ca/cri_cripublications/1004/thumbnail.jp

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

“He’s too much of a man to do that”: The role of masculine identities and self-conscious emotions in men’s help-seeking in preventative health

Despite lower life expectancy than women and higher likelihood of premature death from disease, men are reluctant to access preventative health services. Such services are transformative and aim to improve consumer well-being, usually through the co-creation of value between the service and the consumer in an interactive process, such as consumer attendance at a cancer screening clinic and participating in a screening procedure. However, the potential value of some services is not always realised, for example when men reject bowel cancer screening services. Gender literature theorises that men demonstrate their masculinity through their health beliefs and behaviours, which are usually unhealthy or risky. Health literature has found that male consumers cite threat to masculinity and emotions like embarrassment and guilt as barriers to help-seeking and accessing preventative health services. Emotions such as embarrassment, guilt and shame are examples of emotions known as self-conscious emotions and are usually triggered by self-representations or identity goals. Self-conscious emotions are important in social marketing for transformative services as they motivate people’s feelings, thoughts and behaviours. To date, there is sparse literature that examines the role of different masculine identities for men’s help-seeking and the role of self-conscious emotions and masculine identities in mature men’s help-seeking for preventative health. Through thematic analysis of five focus groups with mature men (N=39), this research identified seven key masculine identities for men’s help-seeking from 12 Jungian male archetypes, particularly the Thinker and Caregiver for positive help-seeking, and the Outlaw and Ruler for negative help-seeking. Three key themes of masculinity for the key masculine identities and their help-seeking behaviours were identified: role in family, normative influences and stoicism and self-reliance. The research also found three themes of masculinity that triggered self-conscious emotions for the key masculine identities: head of family role, agency and power, and toughness and stoicism. The themes of masculinity also lead to regulation of self-conscious emotions through either positive or negative help-seeking behaviours. The contribution of this research includes traditional masculine identities that: obstruct or promote healthy men’s help-seeking behaviour, regulate self-conscious emotions for men’s positive or negative help-seeking, and regulate self-conscious emotions through negative help-seeking behaviours because of masculine ideals of agency and power

Tough but not terrific: When value is destroyed in men’s preventative health services

Transformative Service Research (TSR) is usually focussed on positive consumer outcomes. However, not all service experiences are positive experiences for the consumer or have resulted in improved well-being. Social marketing services including preventative health services such as bowel cancer screening struggle to engage men to access their service and co-create value. In fact, this research found that in some cases value was destroyed for male health consumers through intentional and unintentional misuse of resources. Health literature indicates masculine identity is a barrier to men’s help-seeking in preventative health services. However, there is little investigation into the role of masculine identity and the value destruction process in transformative services. Through thematic analysis of focus group interviews with 39 older men, this research investigates the role different masculine identities play in destroying value in preventative health services, finding that being tough is not terrific for mature men’s health and well-being