The costs and avoidable costs of alcohol-misuse for County Durham and Darlington and for England

This dissertation contributes to current discussions in public health policy regarding the scale and the management of the excess alcohol consumption problem and the evaluation of possible policy interventions. The dissertation provides a comprehensive assessment of relevant literature and an analysis of the societal costs of alcohol misuse and the avoidable and unavoidable costs of alcohol-related liver cirrhosis for County Durham and Darlington and for England. The costs of alcohol misuse for County Durham and Darlington and for England are estimated at £207.52 million and £17.79 billion respectively. In County Durham and Darlington, the estimated discounted costs of alcohol-attributable liver cirrhosis, over a ten year period are £5.07 million for males and £2.19 million for females, however, potentially 65% and 71% of these costs can be avoided, for males and females respectively. In England the estimated total discounted costs of alcohol-attributable liver cirrhosis, over a 10 year period are £455.46 million for males and £232.51 million for females, however, it is estimated that, potentially, 64% and 69% of these costs can be avoided, for males and females respectively. Discussions in this dissertation indicate that alcohol-related harm will increase. It is, therefore, ever more important to ensure the most economically efficient policy interventions are implemented. To do this, policy must be based on the best available evidence and data, to which this dissertation contributes significantly. It is recommended that the findings in this dissertation be applied to evaluations of alcohol-related interventions to facilitate prioritisation, appraisal and ongoing improvement within the public sector

Encounters with the controversial teaching philosophy of the Johannesburg Art Foundation in the development of South African art during 1982-1992

The Johannesburg Art Foundation (JAF), founded in 1982 by Bill Ainslie, maintained a teaching philosophy which opposed any form of discrimination and stressed that art education should be a possibility for everyone. There was no prescribed curriculum and the programme was not dependent on an external educational authority. I argue that particularly in the decade 1982-1992, the South African apartheid government's educational policy towards cultural activities was prescriptive, stifling and potentially paralysing for many artists. Nevertheless, the teaching at the JAF sustained a flexibility and tolerance of ideas combined with an emancipatory ambition that promoted exchange. The philosophy was infused with a social justice and a political activism agenda squarely in opposition to the separatist apartheid education laws. This study contextualizes the impact and efficacy of the teaching approach at the JAF in terms of its intellectual, social and political perspectives during the years 1982-1992. This teaching approach prompted acerbic encounters within the competing systems of formal and informal institutions. It is this controversial anomaly signifying elements of collision in the pursuit of developing modernism that are investigated to some extent. Personal involvement as an artist and teacher, during the period 1982-1992, allowed my contribution and participation in the development of the teaching philosophy. The paucity of available literature on the subject has stimulated a comprehensive preliminary investigation of the way in which the JAF cultivated alternative educational policies. The individual methodologies and personal experiences extracted from interviews with artists, Council Members and members of staff are documented in order to provide a detailed characterisation of the values of the JAF. In addition, original documentation representative of the genealogy of the JAF forms part of the curatorial practice for the exhibition Controversial ways of seeing at the Bag Factory Gallery. The JAF declined from 1992 and finally ceased to exist in 2001

Factors Associated with Weight Status, Weight Loss and Attrition

This thesis presents four studies which explore factors associated with weight status, weight loss and attrition. The first and second studies, respectively, examine factors associated with weight loss and attrition. The third study utilises statistical methods to detect and correct for sample selection bias on expected weight loss outcomes and the final study examines risk and time preferences in relation to BMI. Overall we identify several variables exhibiting a significant relationship with weight loss and attrition. Further, we identify and correct for non-random sample selection and, in the final research chapter, find some evidence of a relationship between risk preferences and BMI. Whilst the four research chapters presented can be read independently, each chapter builds upon the findings of the previous studies to present a rich and comprehensive assessment of variables of interest, and throughout the thesis we build an increasingly sophisticated methodological approach to the evaluation of weight status, weight loss and attrition. Our research allows for the identification of potential intervention-generated-inequalities, which are of particular importance for both the continuous development of weight management services and policy. For the first time within the current literature we complement a rich, comprehensive assessment of weight management services with sophisticated quantitative methodological approaches and concepts prevalent in the behavioural economics literature but which have rarely been utilised in studies of obesity. Finally, we evidence a requirement to control for sample selection in economic assessments of weight management services to ensure unbiased estimates within cost-benefit and return-on-investment analyses

Health Sciences Instructor Self-efficacy and Professional Development Experiences: A Phenomenological Study

The purpose of this phenomenological study aimed to understand the lowered self-efficacy of higher education health sciences faculty at the community college two-year degree level due to deficient professional development in a Mid-Atlantic state. The central research question guiding this study was: What are the professional development experiences of higher education health sciences faculty that affect self-efficacy? The theory guiding this study was Bandura’s social cognitive theory, as it focuses on the behavior determinant of self-efficacy of the participants. A hermeneutic phenomenological methodology was used for this qualitative research design. Criterion sampling was used to interview fourteen faculty individually, followed by two focus groups to gather a deep, thick, and rich understanding of their shared experience. Direct non-participant observations of four simulated labs facilitated by the faculty and classroom instruction were also conducted to collect data for the study. I analyzed the data for a thematic analysis to distinguish principal themes of personal context, behavior modifications, and environmental influences among the participants. The results of this study concluded that health science faculty and college administration have the same goals of student success but different paths regarding the professional development needed, and a balance of the constructs of self-efficacy (triadic reciprocality), is necessary to increase self-efficacy and work collaboratively. These findings will provide context to the specific field of health sciences regarding their unique relationship with professional development and fill a gap in the literature regarding the self-efficacy of health science faculty amidst deficient professional development

Strengthening Cultural Competency in California's Domestic Violence Field for High-Need, Underserved Populations

In 2012, The Blue Shield of California Foundation (BSCF)'s program area Blue Shield Against Violence (BSAV) launched a project called "Strengthening Cultural Competency in California's Domestic Violence Field for High-Need, Underserved Populations" (BSAV CC) to support and promote promising culturally competent practices within the domestic violence field. BSCF enlisted RDP Consulting (RDP) to manage the $2.6 million initiative and to provide capacitybuilding services, and provided two-year grants to 17 community partners across the state of California. The BSAV CC Project specifically sought to support domestic violence-related outreach to Tribal communities, African Americans, and recent immigrant populations.Social Policy Research Associates (SPR) received a grant from BSCF to support the learning and evaluation of this project. Over the two years of the evaluation, SPR conducted 78 phone interviews with community partners, RDP consultants, project-level evaluators, and field leaders. SPR also conducted one-day visits to 11 programs—visits that included interviews with executive directors, board members, outreach staff, key program partners, and clients. Finally, SPR attended project convenings and events, reviewed project documentation (e.g., proposals, reports), and administered two rounds of a social networking survey to all community partners. This Final Report highlights the outcomes of the two-year evaluation, at both the organizational and field levels

Unapologetically Elle : how personal experience in Elle contributes to the magazine's third-wave feminist identity

Women's magazines have traditionally used a combination of audience, advertising, and editorial to create an individual identity that distinguishes their publications from other women's magazines. That identity, or brand, is supposed to represent the magazine's values and its mission. Yet, despite the differences among women's publications, previous literature has shown them to promote unrealistic portrayals of women, both in terms of their achievements and their physical appearance. This study looked at how Elle magazine used one of its brand components, its editorial voice, to frame women's personal experiences in terms of third-wave feminist themes. It looked at how language in editor's letters, personal essays, and profiles used themes of independence, assertiveness, personal choice, and diversity as well as acknowledgement of the existence of a patriarchal society to create the feminist ideology of an Elle woman. The researcher discovered that magazine's editorial content depicted feminist values in degrees of third-wave feminism and postfeminism: editor's letters presented an ideal for women's lives, profiles tested and sometimes failed to achieve that ideal, and essays criticized the patriarchal society that obstructs those achievements

Applying behavioural science to refugee integration

Successful refugee and migrant integration has been shown to generate novel opportunities for development, and to enrich countries economically, socially, and culturally. Nonetheless, integration is one of the most complex issues of our time. Here we review this problem from a behavioural science perspective. Behavioural science brings together insights from psychology, behavioural economics, neuroscience, and sociology to devise and improve population-level interventions and to develop more effective policies. One approach in behavioural science is commonly referred to as ‘nudging’. Recently there has been a growing interest in nudge strategies among both practitioners and academics, in part because the strategies are cheap to implement. Here we provide an overview of such strategies and their applicability to refugee integration. By addressing two sectors of society where behavioural science is currently applied (education and employment), we examine how behavioural evidence may be used to bypass barriers and facilitate drivers of integration. Our review (i) reveals that few interventions aimed at refugee integration use a behavioural science approach, (ii) highlights areas in which this approach could be especially effective, and (iii) identifies some behavioural science techniques that may be counterproductive

A Prospective Study of Medical Student Mental Health and Attitudes of Mental Illness Disclosure

BACKGROUND: Little is known about whether students would disclose a history of mental illness on a residency or state medical licensure applications if disclosure were required. This study uses preliminary data to explore the burden of perceived mental illness among medical students, whether or not medical students would be willing to disclose this information on a residency or licensure application if prompted, and reasons for disclosure hesitance. METHODS: We electronically invited all University of New Mexico School of Medicine (UNM SOM) students enrolled in the Classes of 2019-2022 to participate in a REDCap survey about the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. Four e-mails were sent to these students over a one-month period. This process was then repeated the following year targeting all medical students in the Classes of 2020-2023 at the UNM SOM. RESULTS: The average response rate for the two years of analysis was 49.3% (391 respondents). There was no significant effect due to difference in the two cohorts (p-value= 0.51). There was a significant effect of year in school and odds of perceived worsening of mental health (p-value= \u3c 0.001). The odds ratio of worsening mental health when compared to 1st-year students for the pooled cohorts was highest in 3rd year students at 11.8 (95% CI: 6.09-22.88). 45% of polled students perceived that their mental health worsened during medical school. 62% of students would not disclose their mental condition to ERAS and 51% of respondents would not disclose this information on a licensure application to the New Mexico Board of Medical Education if prompted. CONCLUSION: Students who perceive themselves to have mental health conditions are unlikely to disclose their mental health status on residency applications or state medical board applications when asked to do so. Furthermore there appears to be an association between year in school and mental health status, although more data is required

Demand-side factors related to the registration of births, marriages, and deaths : a literature review

This report considers civil registration throughout life, and includes evidence from interventions aimed at improving registration at multiple levels. Strategies include greater integration of birth registration within existing health services, such as immunization and the use of multimedia campaigns. Demand-side barriers are defined as those that influence demand, operating at individual, household, and community levels. Less than 50 percent of all births are registered in Africa (UNICEF 2019), and evidence suggests that disparities in registration in the region are linked to social inequalities. The scope and implications of under-registration are wide ranging.Global Affairs Canad

Facteurs de demande liés à l’enregistrement des naissances, des mariages et des décès : revue de la littérature

Affaires mondiales Canad