38 research outputs found

    Health promotion in emergency care: rationale, strategies and activities.

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    The concept of health promotion emerged in the 1970s, prompting global health leaders to adopt a perspective on maintaining and improving the population's health that accounts for the underlying causes of ill-health and mortality. Health is affected by social, economic and environmental factors, which explains why there are health inequalities within and between countries. Health services have been partly reoriented to focus on promoting health as well as treating ill-health, but health promotion is still misunderstood, including in the nursing profession. Health promotion is often viewed as being concerned with addressing patients' lifestyle behaviours, but this is only one aspect of a much broader framework of health promotion strategies. This article introduces the concept of health promotion, explains its relevance to nurses working in the emergency department (ED), and identifies activities ED nurses can undertake to promote the health of patients, staff and the wider community. It also explains how ED nurses can play a role in health activism to better understand the social determinants of health and address health inequalities. [Abstract copyright: © 2021 RCN Publishing Company Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be copied, transmitted or recorded in any way, in whole or part, without prior permission of the publishers.

    The hidden harm: alcohol’s impact on children and families

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    Examines the prevalence and effects of heavy drinking on families and children, and the extent to which they persisted or changed over time. Summary The 2015 study examined the prevalence and effects of heavy drinking on families and children, and the extent to which they persisted or changed over time. It paints a concerning picture of the prevalence of alcohol-related family and domestic violence in Australia, shedding new light on a hidden dimension of alcohol harms that occurs largely behind closed doors. Key findings The hidden harm draws on two national surveys of alcohol’s harm to others, service system data and qualitative interviews with families, providing for the first time a detailed and valuable insight into the magnitude of the problem and the large numbers of Australian children who are being put at risk. In 2011 there were 29,684 police-reported incidents of alcohol-related domestic violence in Australia, and that’s just in the four states and territories where this data is available. Children are being verbally abused, left in unsupervised or unsafe situations, physically hurt or exposed to domestic violence because of others’ drinking. Many were also witnessing verbal or physical conflict, drinking or inappropriate behaviour. Over a million children (22 per cent of all Australian children) are estimated to be affected in some way by the drinking of others (2008). 142,582 children were substantially affected (2008), and more than 10,000 Australian children are in the child protection system because of a carers drinking (2006-07)

    Knee Pain Predicts Subsequent Shoulder Pain and the Association Is Mediated by Leg Weakness: Longitudinal Observational Data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative

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    Objective: To assess whether the ‘spread’ of joint pain is related to pain-associated muscle loss in one joint leading to increased loading and subsequent pain in other joints. Methods: Associations between persistent knee pain (pain in one or two knees over years 0-3 versus no persistent pain) and incident shoulder pain at year 4 were examined in participants from the longitudinal NIH Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI). Associations were assessed using log multinomial modelling, adjusted for age, sex, BMI, depression score, other lower limb pain and baseline leg weakness (difficulty standing from a sitting position). Results: In older adults with clinically significant knee OA or at risk of knee OA (n=3486), the number of painful joints increased yearly, from 2.1 joints (95% CI 2.0, 2.2) at baseline increasing by 5.2% (95% CI 2.2%, 8.3%) at year 4. Shoulders were the next most commonly affected joint after knees (28.5%). Persistent pain in 1 or 2 knees increased risk of bilateral shoulder pain at year 4 (1 knee RR 1.59 (95% CI 0.97, 2.61); 2 knees RR 2.02 (1.17, 3.49)) after adjustment for confounders. Further adjustment for leg weakness attenuated effect sizes (1 knee RR 1.13 (95% CI 0.60, 2.11); 2 knees RR 1.44 (0.75, 2.77)), indicating mediation by functional leg weakness. Conclusions: Spread of joint pain is not random. Persistently painful knees predict new bilateral shoulder pain, which is likely mediated by leg weakness; suggesting that biomechanical factors influence the spread of pain

    The effect of FTO variation on increased osteoarthritis risk is mediated through body mass index : a mendelian randomisation study

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    Objective: Variation in the fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) gene influences susceptibility to obesity. A variant in the FTO gene has been implicated in genetic risk to osteoarthritis (OA). We examined the role of the FTO polymorphism rs8044769 in risk of knee and hip OA in cases and controls incorporating body mass index (BMI) information. Methods: 5409 knee OA patients, 4355 hip OA patients and up to 5362 healthy controls from 7 independent cohorts from the UK and Australia were genotyped for rs8044769. The association of the FTO variant with OA was investigated in case/control analyses with and without BMI adjustment and in analyses matched for BMI category. A mendelian randomisation approach was employed using the FTO variant as the instrumental variable to evaluate the role of overweight on OA. Results: In the meta-analysis of all overweight (BMI≥25) samples versus normal-weight controls irrespective of OA status the association of rs8044769 with overweight is highly significant (OR[CIs] for allele G=1.14 [01.08 to 1.19], p=7.5×10−7). A significant association with knee OA is present in the analysis without BMI adjustment (OR[CIs]=1.08[1.02 to 1.14], p=0.009) but the signal fully attenuates after BMI adjustment (OR[CIs]=0.99[0.93 to 1.05], p=0.666). We observe no evidence for association in the BMI-matched meta-analyses. Using mendelian randomisation approaches we confirm the causal role of overweight on OA. Conclusions: Our data highlight the contribution of genetic risk to overweight in defining risk to OA but the association is exclusively mediated by the effect on BMI. This is consistent with what is known of the biology of the FTO gene and supports the causative role of high BMI in OA

    Schools, families, and social reproduction

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    Neoliberal educational discourse across the Global North is marked by an increasing homogeneity, but this masks significant socio-spatial differences in the enactment of policy. The authors focus on four facets of roll-out neoliberalism in English education policy that have expanded the function of primary schools, and redrawn the boundary between state and family responsibilities. Specifically, these are increased state support for: (1) working parenthood through provision of wraparound childcare; (2) parent-child relationships through school-led provision of parenting classes; (3) parental involvement in children’s learning; and (4) child development through schools’ fostering of extracurricular activities. The politics of policies that both enhance state responsibility for, and influence in, matters that were previously within the purview of families are complex. The collective impact of these developments has been both to reform how the work of daily and generational social reproduction is done, and to reshape the social reproduction of a classed and gendered society

    Women in (Dis)placement: The Field of Studies on Migrations, Social Remittances, Care and Gender in Chile

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    This article presents current perspectives on the gender approach to the study of migration in Chile between 1990 and 2018, contextualizing it in light of international debates in the social sciences. We will discuss how the feminization and the growth of Latin American migrations have given rise to a prolific field of research, as exemplified by studies conducted in central and northern Chile. We will show how the concepts of social remittances and caregiving permeate the Chilean debate on migrant women. We conclude with reflections on topics and perspectives to be incorporated into the Chilean research agenda on gender and migration.Se presenta un estado del arte sobre el enfoque de género en los estudios de la migración en Chile entre 1990 y 2018, contextualizándolo a la luz de debates internacionales de las ciencias sociales. Abordaremos cómo la feminización y el incremento de las migraciones latinoamericanas inauguran un prolijo campo de investigaciones, articulado a través de estudios desarrollados en el centro y en el norte de Chile. Señalaremos cómo los conceptos de remesas sociales y cuidados permean el debate chileno sobre las mujeres migrantes. Finalizamos con reflexiones sobre temas y perspectivas a ser incorporados en la agenda chilena de investigaciones sobre género y migración.The authors would like to thank the Chilean National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT) for funding the study that led to this article through Fondecyt Regular Project number 1160683: “Ser Mujer Mayor en Santiago. Organización social de los cuidados, feminización del envejecimiento y desigualdades acumuladas” (“Being an older woman in Santiago. Social organization of care, feminization of ageing and accumulated inequalities”), led by Herminia Gonzálvez Torralbo and Fondecyt Regular Project number 1190056: “The Boundaries of Gender Violence: Migrant Women’s Experiences in South American Border Territories” led by Menara Lube Guizardi

    A systematic review of the relationship between subchondral bone features, pain and structural pathology in peripheral joint osteoarthritis

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    Introduction: Bone is an integral part of the osteoarthritis (OA) process. We conducted a systematic literature review in order to understand the relationship between non-conventional radiographic imaging of subchondral bone, pain, structural pathology and joint replacement in peripheral joint OA. Methods: A search of the Medline, EMBASE and Cochrane library databases was performed for original articles reporting association between non-conventional radiographic imaging-assessed subchondral bone pathologies and joint replacement, pain or structural progression in knee, hip, hand, ankle and foot OA. Each association was qualitatively characterised by a synthesis of the data from each analysis based upon study design, adequacy of covariate adjustment and quality scoring. Results: In total 2456 abstracts were screened and 139 papers were included (70 cross-sectional, 71 longitudinal analyses; 116 knee, 15 hip, six hand, two ankle and involved 113 MRI, eight DXA, four CT, eight scintigraphic and eight 2D shape analyses). BMLs, osteophytes and bone shape were independently associated with structural progression or joint replacement. BMLs and bone shape were independently associated with longitudinal change in pain and incident frequent knee pain respectively. Conclusion: Subchondral bone features have independent associations with structural progression, pain and joint replacement in peripheral OA in the hip and hand but especially in the knee. For peripheral OA sites other than the knee, there are fewer associations and independent associations of bone pathologies with these important OA outcomes which may reflect fewer studies; for example the foot and ankle were poorly studied. Subchondral OA bone appears to be a relevant therapeutic target. Systematic review: PROSPERO registration number: CRD 4201300500

    Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

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    Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe
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