The benefits of a 5-day dysphagia intensive placement

Finding practical dysphagia opportunities for students pre-qualification is challenging. Discussions with clinicians led to the development of a new placement model. The placement was just five days and had an accompanying workbook. The current study aimed to evaluate the benefits of the placement. Data were analysed from 40 students who attended an adult dysphagia placement and 13 who attended a paediatric dysphagia placement. Measures included a pre and post self-rating questionnaire, qualitative feedback from clinical educators and students and a pre and post measure of knowledge using concept maps. Student self-rating data indicated gains in experience, awareness, knowledge, clinical skills, competence, confidence and interest in dysphagia. Clinical educators and students also reported a range of benefits from this placement. Students who undertook a placement that focused on adult dysphagia significantly increased their knowledge of adult dysphagia, but this did not generalize to paediatric dysphagia. Despite reporting that they felt they had gained in knowledge of dysphagia, the students who did a paediatric dysphagia placement did not significantly increase their knowledge of dysphagia. The study raises a number of important considerations when designing placements including length, timing, intensity, how best to encourage generalization of knowledge, and how best to measure learning

Work-Family Life Courses and Metabolic Markers in the MRC National Survey of Health and Development

The aim was to investigate whether the combined work-family life courses of British men and women were associated with differences in metabolic markers?waist circumference, blood pressure, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, and glycated haemoglobin?in mid-life. We used data from the Medical Research Council?s National Survey of Health and Development?the 1946 British birth cohort. Multi-channel sequence analysis was used to create a typology of eight work-family life course types combining information on work, partnerships and parenthood between ages 16?51. Linear regression tested associations between work-family types and metabolic outcomes at age 53 on multiply imputed data (20 imputations) of >2,400 participants. Compared with men with strong ties to employment and early transitions to family life, men who made later transitions to parenthood and maintained strong ties to paid work had smaller waist circumferences (-2.16cm, 95% CI: -3.73, -0.59), lower triglycerides (9.78% lower, 95% CI: 0.81, 17.94) and lower blood pressure (systolic: -4.03mmHg, 95% CI: -6.93, -1.13; diastolic: -2.34mmHg, 95% CI: -4.15, -0.53). Married men and women who didn?t have children had increased high density lipoprotein cholesterol (7.23% higher, 95% CI: 0.68, 14.21) and lower waist circumferences (-4.67cm, 95% CI: -8.37, -0.97), respectively. For men later transitions to parenthood combined with strong ties to paid work were linked to reduced metabolic risk in mid-life. Fewer differences between work-family types and metabolic markers were seen for women

Cognitive ability, parental socioeconomic position and internalising and externalising problems in adolescence: Findings from two European cohort studies

We investigated whether cognitive ability (CA) may be a moderator of the relationship of parental socioeconomic position (SEP) with internalising and externalising problems in adolescents. We used data from two longitudinal cohort studies; the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) and the Tracking Adolescents’ Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS). Indicators of SEP were mother’s education and household income. CA was estimated with IQ scores, derived from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. Internalising and externalising problems were measured with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in ALSPAC and with the Child Behavior Checklist in TRAILS. Logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the relative index of inequality (RII) for each outcome; the RII provides the odds ratio comparing the most to least deprived for each measure of SEP. In fully adjusted models an association of mother’s education with externalising problems was observed [ALSPAC RII 1.42 (95%CI: 1.01–1.99); TRAILS RII 2.21 (95%CI: 1.37–3.54)], and of household income with internalising and externalising problems [pooled ALSPAC & TRAILS internalising RII 1.30 (95%CI: 0.99–1.71); pooled ALSPAC & TRAILS externalising RII 1.38 (95%CI: 1.03–1.84)]. No consistent associations were observed between mother’s education and internalising problems. Results of stratified analyses and interaction-terms showed no evidence that CA moderated the association of SEP with internalising or externalising problems

Parents’ marital status and child physical abuse potential: the mediation of depression symptoms

Informed by a social interactional framework of stress and parenting, the aim of this study was to examine the mediating effect of depression symptoms on the asso- ciation between parents’ marital status (married and divorced parents) and child physical abuse potential, in a Portuguese community sample. It was hypothesized that the possible observed differences between divorced and married parents in the child physical abuse potential would be explained by their depression symptoms. Parents (N = 892) were assessed in their marital status, severity of depression symptoms and child physical abuse potential. Results showed that, when compared with married parents, divorced parents had higher child physical abuse potential. However, parents’ depression symptomatology was found as a mediator of the effect of marital status differences on child physical abuse potential. The influence of the status of divorced parents on the increase of child physical abuse potential was explained by the increase of the parents’ depression symptoms. This finding suggested that parents’ divorced status had no longer an effect on child physical abuse potential when parents’ depression symptomatology was tested as a mediator vari- able. The present mediation model explained 47 % of the variability in the child physical abuse potential score. Prac- tical implications of these findings for prevention and psy- chological intervention are also discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Aquaporin water channels in the nervous system.

The aquaporins (AQPs) are plasma membrane water-transporting proteins. AQP4 is the principal member of this protein family in the CNS, where it is expressed in astrocytes and is involved in water movement, cell migration and neuroexcitation. AQP1 is expressed in the choroid plexus, where it facilitates cerebrospinal fluid secretion, and in dorsal root ganglion neurons, where it tunes pain perception. The AQPs are potential drug targets for several neurological conditions. Astrocytoma cells strongly express AQP4, which may facilitate their infiltration into the brain, and the neuroinflammatory disease neuromyelitis optica is caused by AQP4-specific autoantibodies that produce complement-mediated astrocytic damage

Difficult Life Events, Selective Migration and Spatial Inequalities in Mental Health in the UK

Objective: Research has indicated that people moving towards neighbourhoods with disadvantaged socio-economic status have poor health, in particular mental health, but the reasons for this are unclear. This study aims to assess why people moving towards more socio-economically deprived areas have poor mental health. It focuses upon the role of difficult life events that may both trigger moves and damage mental health. This study investigates how mental health and socio-spatial patterns of mobility vary between people moving following difficult life events and for other reasons.<p></p> Methods: Longitudinal analysis of British Household Panel Survey data describing adults’ moves between annual survey waves, pooled over ten years, 1996-2006 (N=122,892 observations). Respondents were defined as ‘difficult life event movers’ if they had experienced relationship breakdown, housing eviction/repossession, or job loss between waves. Respondents were categorised as moving to more or less deprived quintiles using their Census Area Statistic residential ward Carstairs score. Mental health was indicated by self-reported mental health problems. Binary logistic regression models of weighted data were adjusted for age, sex, education and social class.<p></p> Results: The migration rate over one year was 8.5%; 14.1% of movers had experienced a difficult life event during this time period. Adjusted regression model odds of mental health problems among difficult life event movers were 1.67 (95% CI 1.35-2.07) relative to other movers. Odds of difficult life events movers, compared to other movers, moving to a less deprived area, relative to an area with a similar level of deprivation, were 0.70 (95% CI 0.58-0.84). Odds of mental health problems among difficult life event movers relocating to more deprived areas were highly elevated at 2.40 (95% CI 1.63-3.53), relative to stayers.<p></p> Conclusion: Difficult life events may influence health selective patterns of migration and socio-spatial trajectories, reducing moves to less deprived neighbourhoods among people with mental illness