Building Longitudinal Datasets From Diverse Historical Data in Australia

Australia is rich in population datasets generated to manage convicts, civilians, stock, land and the colonised and displaced First Nations people. It has also preserved all service and pension data from both world wars. Through nominal linkage using volunteers and paid research staff, it has been possible over the past twenty years to build four cradle-to-grave datasets derived from administrative cohorts: poor white babies born in a charity hospital 1858–1900; Aboriginal Victorians from 1855 to 1988; convicts transported to Van Diemen’s Land 1818-1853 and servicemen who embarked for World War I from the State of Victoria. The abundance of digitised historical sources from government archives to historical newspapers enables the practice of demographic prosopography, with a wide range of variables that have yielded new insights into Australia’s population and social history

Early Results From the ‘Diggers to Veterans’ Longitudinal Study of Australian Men who Served in the First World War. Short- and Long-Term Mortality of Early Enlisters

As the world marks the centenaries of the First World War, we still know remarkably little about the life course effects of military service. This paper reports on the first iteration of a cradle-to-grave dataset of men who enlisted and served overseas in the First World War from the state of Victoria, Australia. It examines mortality during military service and in civilian life and finds that mortality in both cases was strongly correlated with individual characteristics. Tall men and young single men were more likely to die in the war. In civilian life, mortality followed closely the pattern for Australian men, and was again highly correlated with individual characteristics and social class

Hyperoxemia and excess oxygen use in early acute respiratory distress syndrome : Insights from the LUNG SAFE study

Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Background: Concerns exist regarding the prevalence and impact of unnecessary oxygen use in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We examined this issue in patients with ARDS enrolled in the Large observational study to UNderstand the Global impact of Severe Acute respiratory FailurE (LUNG SAFE) study. Methods: In this secondary analysis of the LUNG SAFE study, we wished to determine the prevalence and the outcomes associated with hyperoxemia on day 1, sustained hyperoxemia, and excessive oxygen use in patients with early ARDS. Patients who fulfilled criteria of ARDS on day 1 and day 2 of acute hypoxemic respiratory failure were categorized based on the presence of hyperoxemia (PaO2 > 100 mmHg) on day 1, sustained (i.e., present on day 1 and day 2) hyperoxemia, or excessive oxygen use (FIO2 ≥ 0.60 during hyperoxemia). Results: Of 2005 patients that met the inclusion criteria, 131 (6.5%) were hypoxemic (PaO2 < 55 mmHg), 607 (30%) had hyperoxemia on day 1, and 250 (12%) had sustained hyperoxemia. Excess FIO2 use occurred in 400 (66%) out of 607 patients with hyperoxemia. Excess FIO2 use decreased from day 1 to day 2 of ARDS, with most hyperoxemic patients on day 2 receiving relatively low FIO2. Multivariate analyses found no independent relationship between day 1 hyperoxemia, sustained hyperoxemia, or excess FIO2 use and adverse clinical outcomes. Mortality was 42% in patients with excess FIO2 use, compared to 39% in a propensity-matched sample of normoxemic (PaO2 55-100 mmHg) patients (P = 0.47). Conclusions: Hyperoxemia and excess oxygen use are both prevalent in early ARDS but are most often non-sustained. No relationship was found between hyperoxemia or excessive oxygen use and patient outcome in this cohort. Trial registration: LUNG-SAFE is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02010073publishersversionPeer reviewe

Hard Cases Make Bad History: Doctors and children between the wars

B1 - Research Book Chapter

Respectability and working-class radicalism in Victorian London: 1850-1890 : a contribution to the debate

The most repulsive thing here is the bourgeois 'respectability' bred into the bones of the workers. The social division of society into innumerable gradations, each recognised without question, each with its own pride but also its inborn respect for its 'betters' and 'superiors', is so old and firmly established that the bourgeois still find it pretty easy to get their bait accepted . Throughout his acquaintance with Britain Engels was worried by the growth of respectability in the working classes. His concern provided the starting point of the debate over the meaning and significance of respectability in working-class life and politics. From such perceptions Marxist thinkers developed the theory of the Labour Aristocracy - a theory which still underwrites much Marxist and non-Marxist historical, inquiry. The values encapsulated in the notion of respectability were equated with the values of bourgeois capitalism. Roughly, the theory maintained that the leadership of the working class - the skilled worker and trade union ~lite - capitulated to bourgeois values and developed false consciousness. This false consciousness largely explained the failure of the British working class to reach Marxist revolutionary class consciousness