Both Leavers and Remainers can be nostalgic, but for different things

Nostalgia is one of the reasons often cited for the Leave vote. But what kind? Lindsay Richards (University of Oxford) identifies two underlying dimensions of nostalgia - 'traditional' and 'egalitarian'. People with high levels of egalitarian nostalgia were just as likely to vote Remain as those who weren't nostalgic at all

Occupational Therapy’s Role in Addressing Sexuality and Intimacy for Individuals with Progressive Neuromuscular Disorders

Individuals with progressive neuromuscular disorders (PND); specifically, Parkinson’s disease (PD), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Huntington’s Disease (HD), and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) often face physical, psychological, and social challenges related to sex and intimacy. Occupational therapy (OT) practitioners are experts in activity analysis and are equipped with unique knowledge of performance skills and client factors to address deficits in occupational performance. Though there is literature presenting the effects of PND on sexual occupations, a gap exists as it relates to qualitative data from the perspective of the individual and their partners. A mixed-methods survey was conducted examining the lived experience of adults with progressive neuromuscular disorders to inform programming addressing intimate and sexual needs. Themes were identified from study results in order to inform an evidence-based program addressing sexual and intimate participation and enhance relationships. This research reaffirmed that sexual occupations should not go unaddressed as these can be beneficial not only to the individual patient\u27s well-being, but their partnership and social domains as well. Occupational therapists can facilitate meaningful participation in sexual occupations for these individuals by addressing: their unique physical barriers through positioning and adaptations, providing stress management strategies for both internal and external stressors, and facilitating positive communication between individuals with PND and their partners. The findings from this study support an increased role for OT practitioners in the domain of sexuality

Red lines and compromises: how flexible is public opinion about Brexit negotiations?

The heated nature of the public discourse around Brexit suggests that the British public are not in a compromising mood, but is there evidence to back this up? Lindsay Richards and Anthony Heath (Nuffield College, Oxford) set out to discover what people think about the various aspects of the EU negotiations. Where are people more willing to compromise and what do they ..

Nationalism, racism, and identity: what connects Englishness to a preference for hard Brexit?

Support for Brexit was higher among those who identify as English rather than British, even after accounting for relevant economic factors. But what is it that connects English identity to a preference for Brexit? Anthony Heath and Lindsay Richards outline some key characteristics that go some way in explaining the association

Fuzzy frontiers: Remainers are more fluid than Leavers in their Englishness, but they are similar in the fluidity of their Britishness

British and English national identities have long been considered to have porous boundaries whereby English individuals consider the terms more or less interchangeable. Using panel data, John Kenny, Anthony Heath, and Lindsay Richards demonstrate that there is a notable degree of fluidity between identifying as British or English. This is higher than the fluidity between other national identities in the UK as well as more fluid than moving between any partisan or EU referendum identities

Subjective social status and trajectories of frailty: findings from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Objectives Subjective social status is a known antecedent for many health outcomes, but little research has examined the association between subjective status and frailty among older people. Using longitudinal data, the goal of this study was, first, to identify latent trajectories of frailty over time, and second, to investigate the relationship between subjective social status and frailty trajectory. Methods Data were drawn from the 2002–2019 surveys of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, involving 9484 individuals aged 50+ years at baseline. Group-based trajectory models were used to identify frailty trajectories over the 18-year period, and multinomial regression models were used to investigate the relationship between subjective social status and frailty trajectory membership. Controls were included for confounding factors, including a range of socioeconomic indicators and health behaviours. Results Four trajectories of the frailty index were retained: low frailty (53% of participants), progressive mild frailty (25%), progressive moderate frailty (15%) and high frailty (6%). Higher subjective social status is associated with higher probabilities of being in the low-frailty group and lower probabilities of being in one of the progressive or high-frailty groups. Conclusions Subjective social status is significantly associated with being in a milder frailty trajectory after controlling for age, health behaviours and a wide range of objective socioeconomic status markers

Occupational Therapy’s Role in Addressing Sex and Intimacy for Individuals with Progressive Neuromuscular Disorders

Individuals with progressive neuromuscular disorders (PND); specifically, Parkinson’s disease (PD), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Huntington’s Disease (HD), and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) often face physical, psychological, and social challenges related to sex and intimacy. Occupational therapy (OT) practitioners are experts in activity analysis and are equipped with unique knowledge of performance skills and client factors to address deficits in occupational performance. Though there is literature presenting the effects of PND on sexual occupations, a gap exists as it relates to qualitative data from the perspective of the individual and their partners. A mixed-methods survey was conducted examining the lived experience of adults with progressive neuromuscular disorders to inform programming addressing intimate and sexual needs. Themes were identified from study results in order to inform an evidence-based program addressing sexual and intimate participation and enhance relationships. This research reaffirmed that sexual occupations should not go unaddressed as these can be beneficial not only to the individual patient\u27s well-being, but their partnership and social domains as well. Occupational therapists can facilitate meaningful participation in sexual occupations for these individuals by addressing: their unique physical barriers through positioning and adaptations, providing stress management strategies for both internal and external stressors, and facilitating positive communication between individuals with PND and their partners. The findings from this study support an increased role for OT practitioners in the domain of sexuality.https://soar.usa.edu/casmsummer2020/1005/thumbnail.jp

Assessing the future threat from vivax malaria in the United Kingdom using two markedly different modelling approaches

Background: The world is facing an increased threat from new and emerging diseases, and there is concern that climate change will expand areas suitable for transmission of vector borne diseases. The likelihood of vivax malaria returning to the UK was explored using two markedly different modelling approaches. First, a simple temperature-dependent, process-based model of malaria growth transmitted by Anopheles atroparvus, the historical vector of malaria in the UK. Second, a statistical model using logistic-regression was used to predict historical malaria incidence between 1917 and 1918 in the UK, based on environmental and demographic data. Using findings from these models and saltmarsh distributions, future risk maps for malaria in the UK were produced based on UKCIP02 climate change scenarios. Results: The process-based model of climate suitability showed good correspondence with historical records of malaria cases. An analysis of the statistical models showed that mean temperature of the warmest month of the year was the major factor explaining the distribution of malaria, further supporting the use of the temperature-driven processed-based model. The risk maps indicate that large areas of central and southern England could support malaria transmission today and could increase in extent in the future. Confidence in these predictions is increased by the concordance between the processed-based and statistical models. Conclusion: Although the future climate in the UK is favourable for the transmission of vivax malaria, the future risk of locally transmitted malaria is considered low because of low vector biting rates and the low probability of vectors feeding on a malaria-infected person