Facilitators and Barriers to Effective Water and Sanitation Interventions for Characterizing Shigellosis Incidence in Jiangsu, China

AbstractEffective water and sanitation interventions can help to reduce the prevalence of waterborne diseases such as shigellosis, which is a diarrheal disease prevalent in rural areas of China. Water and sanitation interventions can be strengthened or undermined by facilitators and barriers, which are factors that assist or hinder access to safe water and adequate sanitation. Facilitators and barriers can be assessed using a conceptual framework of socioeconomic and water and sanitation determinants to understand the prevalence of shigellosis. Insight into facilitators and barriers can help various stakeholders to strategize with communities to implement a sensible solution to the rural water crisis in China

A GLOWING footprint: Developing an index of wellbeing for low to middle income countries

Our world faces unprecedented, intense and rapid change. As such, it is difficult to fathom how we might monitor related impacts on the wellbeing of population(s) affected. In the past, the world has typically relied upon measures of economic health or wellbeing such as gross domestic product (GDP). As the world ends its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and embarks on a commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, questions about where we as a global society should continue our investments in wellbeing and efforts to measure those outcomes are now up for debate. These questions are particularly poignant for those populations most vulnerable to change: low to middle income countries (LMICs). This paper reviews existing “beyond GDP” measures of population wellbeing as a foundation for developing a truly global index of wellbeing (GLOWING) that can be used by LMICs to document change, and measure the impact of policy, across space and over time. The paper describes a proposed index of wellbeing that is simple, meaningful, and built on the use of available secondary data at the ecological level. It is built on the foundation of the innovative Canadian Index of Wellbeing, and hinges on plans for a proof of concept inEast Africafollowed by a scaling up, all of which is founded on the twin pillars of capacity building and empowerment

Role of IL-33 and ST2 signalling pathway in multiple sclerosis: expression by oligodendrocytes and inhibition of myelination in central nervous system

Recent research findings have provided convincing evidence indicating a role for Interleukin-33 (IL-33) signalling pathway in a number of central nervous system (CNS) diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS) and Alzheimer’s disease. However, the exact function of IL-33 molecule within the CNS under normal and pathological conditions is currently unknown. In this study, we have mapped cellular expression of IL-33 and its receptor ST2 by immunohistochemistry in the brain tissues of MS patients and appropriate controls; and investigated the functional significance of these findings in vitro using a myelinating culture system. Our results demonstrate that IL-33 is expressed by neurons, astrocytes and microglia as well as oligodendrocytes, while ST2 is expressed in the lesions by oligodendrocytes and within and around axons. Furthermore, the expression levels and patterns of IL-33 and ST2 in the lesions of acute and chronic MS patient brain samples are enhanced compared with the healthy brain tissues. Finally, our data using rat myelinating co-cultures suggest that IL-33 may play an important role in MS development by inhibiting CNS myelination

Predictors of locating children participants in epidemiological studies 20 years after last contact: Internet resources and longitudinal research

This study examines predictors of locating participants that were last contacted 20 years ago using public web-search directories, in order to facilitate longitudinal environmental health research. Participants (n = 3,202) resided in four distinct geographical neighborhoods in Hamilton, Ontario during childhood; they were between 15 and 17 years old when they were last contacted in 1986. Data used for tracing included available addresses, telephone numbers, given names, and parental names. Reverse and forward search strategies were used to retrieve updated contact details. 43% of the sample was traced using online directories. Following ethical approval, participants were contacted using traced data and 29% of the original cohort was located. Predictors of locating participants were: availability of paternal names, being traced to original addresses or telephone numbers, gender (male), relatively higher socioeconomic status in childhood, and not being exposed to smoking in childhood. Where participants resided in childhood was not a significant predictor of locating participants. Although 13% of the sample was traced using forward search by name, only 4% were located. For participants traced to available addresses or telephone numbers, the difference between the proportions of traced and located participants was \u3c3%. Prospective studies on children may benefit from including the listed names that pertain to each child\u27s telephone number and full parental names at recruitment, thereby increasing the likelihood of locating participants using Internet resources. Integrating the use of Internet-based public directories for cohort reconstruction can reduce financial costs related to follow-up for longitudinal research. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V

The incidence and make up of ability grouped sets in the UK primary school

The adoption of setting in the primary school (pupils ability grouped across classes for particular subjects) emerged during the 1990s as a means to raise standards. Recent research based on 8875 children in the Millennium Cohort Study showed that 25.8% of children in Year 2 were set for literacy and mathematics and a further 11.2% of children were set for mathematics or literacy alone. Logistic regression analysis showed that the best predictors of being in the top set for literacy or mathematics were whether the child was born in the Autumn or Winter and cognitive ability scores. Boys were significantly more likely than girls to be in the bottom literacy set. Family circumstances held less importance for setting placement compared with the child’s own characteristics, although they were more important in relation to bottom set placement. Children in bottom sets were significantly more likely to be part of a long-term single parent household, have experienced poverty, and not to have a mother with qualifications at NVQ3 or higher levels. The findings are discussed in relation to earlier research and the implications for schools are set out

“Ne nnipadua mmpe” (the body hates it): Exploring the lived experience of food allergy in Sub-Saharan Africa

The final publication is available at Elsevier via https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.03.031 © 2018. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Allergic diseases have closely followed the rise of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) especially in western societies. As prevalence of NCD is increasing in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), researchers are hinting that the same future may hold for (food) allergic disease in this world region. Already, researchers are beginning to record prevalence, though with little attention to the social experience of individuals and parents with food allergic children. This paper presents the first qualitative analysis of the daily realities of adults and parents of children with allergies in SSA using Ghana as a case study. Drawing on political ecology of health, this study contextualizes the psychological (e.g. anxiety and fear), social (e.g. stigmatization, social exclusion), and economic (e.g. impact on work & household expenditures) wellbeing of affected persons within the broader sociocultural environment. By exploring the sociocultural environment, the results provide insights into the likely structures (e.g. the lack of familiarity, absence of local discursive repertoire on food allergy, infrastructure deficit) which interact to shape anxiety, and social exclusion of people with allergy. The case study provides evidence suggesting food allergies do have a global reach, and policy makers must heed the message to integrate food allergy into the broader chronic disease prevention agenda