The social determinants of otitis media in Aboriginal children in Australia : are we addressing the primary causes? : a systematic content review

Background: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children experience some of the highest rates of otitis media in the world. Key risk factors for otitis media in Aboriginal children in Australia are largely social and environmental factors such as overcrowded housing, poverty and limited access to services. Despite this, little is known about how to address these risk factors. A scoping content review was performed to determine the relationship between social determinants of health and otitis media in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children as described by peer-reviewed and grey literature. Method: Search terms were established for location, population and health condition. The search terms were used to conduct a literature search using six health research databases. Following the exclusion process, articles were scoped, analysed and categorised using scoping parameters and a social determinants of health framework. Results: Housing-related issues were the most frequently reported determinants for otitis media (56%). Two articles (4%) directly investigated the impact of social determinants of health on rates of otitis media within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The majority of the literature (68%) highlights social determinants as playing a key role in the high rates of otitis media seen in Aboriginal populations in Australia. There were no intervention studies targeting social determinants as a means to reduce otitis media rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Conclusions: This review identifies a disconnect between otitis media drivers and the focus of public health interventions within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. Despite consensus that social determinants play a key role in the high rates of otitis media in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, the majority of intervention studies within the literature are focussed on biomedical approaches such as research on vaccines and antibiotics. This review highlights the need for otitis media intervention studies to shift away from a purely biomedical model and toward investigating the underlying social determinants of health. By shifting interventions upstream, otitis media rates may decrease within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, as focus is shifted away from a treatment-focussed model and toward a more preventative model

Utilization of Multiyear Plant Breeding Data to Better Predict Genotype Performance

Despite the availability of multiyear, multicycle, and multiphase data in plant breeding programs for annual crops, selection is often based on single-year, single-cycle, and single-phase data. As genotypes in the same fields are usually grown under the same management practice, data from these fields can and should be analyzed together. In Monsanto’s North American maize (Zea mays L.) breeding program, this approach enables a spatial model to be fitted in each field, providing an estimate of spatial trend and a better estimate of residual variance in each field. Multiyear, multicycle analysis showed that the estimates of genotype × year variance (VGY) and genotype × year × location variance (VGYL) were still the largest components of the estimated phenotypic variance. Analysis of any single-year subset of the data inflated the estimate of genotypic variance (VG) by the size of the estimate of VGY, resulting in potential bias in the estimates of genotype performance. These results demonstrate the advantage of a combined analysis of data across years and cycles to make selection decisions for genotype advancement