Decision-making regarding total knee replacement surgery: a qualitative meta-synthesis

Knee osteoarthritis is a highly prevalent condition that can result in disability and reduced quality of life. The evidence suggests that total knee replacement surgery (TKR) is an effective intervention for patients with severe knee problems, but there is also an unmet need for this treatment in the UK. To help understand the reason for this unmet need, the aim of this study was to explore the factors that influence the decision-making process of TKR surgery by synthesising the available evidence from qualitative research on this topic

Assessing village food needs following a natural disaster in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea is vulnerable to natural disasters, including drought and frost associated with El Niño weather events and excessive rainfall associated with La Niña events. Drought, frost and excessive rainfall can cause major disruptions to village food supplies. Drought also reduces villagers’ access to clean drinking water, which in turn has a negative impact on peoples’ health and the capacity of schools and hospitals to operate. There are often other impacts — damage to crops and property by wildfires, out-migration and an increased death rate. In 1997–98, and again in 2015–16, a major El Niño event caused significant disruption to drinking water and food supply for many Papua New Guinean villagers. Staff of many agencies, including those working through the Church Partnership Program El Niño Drought Response Program, were involved in assessing the impact and providing relief in 2015–16. This publication brings together the experiences of those working on the Church Partnership Program response to the 2015–16 El Niño event and serves as a guide for assessing future food shortages and to help those in need.Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT

Student mentoring: An exploration of the benefits of student mentors for year 1 students on an undergraduate programme.

In 2015 I introduced the idea of student mentors for year 1 students on the BA Applied Social Work at the University of Derby. This was a small and low key idea. I recruited 5 students from the 2nd and 3rd years to run a short session during induction week and to be contactable so that new year 1s could raise questions and queries which they preferred not to raise with tutors. Discussions with all involved indicated that year 1 students wanted to have a significantly developed student mentoring scheme. So this year 19 further mentors have been recruited from current year 1 in order to develop the scheme. For 2017-18 the mentors are taking responsibility for 2 full days of student induction. They are taking responsibility for setting up and managing a Facebook group for the new year 1 students. This group will allow information to be given to new students as well as providing an opportunity for them to raise questions. Student mentors will also be involved in providing assignment guidance to year 1 students for subjects in which those mentors have been very successful. A key finding thus far has been the enthusiasm with which those invited to take on the student mentor role have responded. Keywords:University of Derb

Latino Worker Reported Respiratory Symptoms and Stall Bedding on Thoroughbred Horse Farms

Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess the association between self-reported respiratory symptoms in Latino workers and bedding type used in stalls on thoroughbred horse farms. Methods: Self-reported community-based questionnaire data from 225 Latino horse farm workers in the southeastern US collected from October 2013-April 2014 were used to investigate associations between upper and lower respiratory symptom prevalence and the type of bedding used in stalls (straw, sawdust, or straw plus wood shavings or sawdust). Analysis was performed by chi-square to compare frequencies of symptoms and demographic and exposure risk factors. Logistic regression was used to adjust comparisons of symptoms with bedding type to control for potential confounders. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Upper or lower respiratory symptoms were reported in over half the subjects. 86% of the sample was male. A small percent were current smokers (17%) and over half stated they never smoked (57%). More than two-thirds stated they never, seldom, or only sometimes wore a dust mask. Over two-thirds only used straw in horse stalls (68%), 24% used straw mixed with wood shavings or sawdust, and 8% used sawdust alone. One-third of sawdust workers reported upper respiratory symptoms and 28% lower respiratory symptoms. Half of the straw only subjects reported upper or lower respiratory symptoms. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of straw plus wood shavings or sawdust subjects reported upper respiratory symptoms and more than half reported lower respiratory symptoms (59%). Males had decreased odds for both upper (OR: 0.41 CI: 0.17-0.97) and lower respiratory symptoms (OR: 0.2 CI: 0.08-0.53). Former smokers had increased odds for both upper (OR: 2.78 CI: 1.09-7.08) and lower respiratory symptoms (OR: 2.96 CI: 1.15-7.59). Never, seldom or sometimes use of dust masks had increased odds of upper (OR: 2.76 CI: 1.44-5.29) and lower respiratory symptoms (OR: 1.99 CI: 1.03-3.85). Workers in barns using sawdust had lower odds for lower respiratory symptoms, but this did not reach the level of significance. Conclusion: Many Latino horse farm workers reported experiencing upper or lower respiratory symptoms. The findings in this analysis suggest that sawdust as a bedding type may be protective in development of respiratory symptoms, but small sample size was a limitation in this analysis