871 research outputs found
Barriers and enablers to optimal consumer involvement in research: the perspectives of health and medical researchers in the UK
Numerous reasons exist for involving consumers in research, falling mainly into three categories: moral/ethical,
methodological, and political. The moral and ethical reasons for involving
consumers in research centre on concepts of rights, citizenship and democracy, specifically related to publicly
funded research whereby the word âconsumerâ is seen as a synonym for âtaxpayerâ. The methodological reasons focus on the potential benefits that consumer involvement may
have on the research process, including increasing its relevance, credibility, dissemination and transferability of
research findings. The political imperative is centred on current policy directives in addition to requirements
by research funding agencies, research governance organisations, and research ethics committees (RECs)
A case for reorienting health systems and investing in primary health care in Australia
In recent times, many developing countries have been going through a process of re-orienting health
policy and services towards early detection and prevention, rather than solely on the treatment and
on-going management, of illness and disease. For example, in the UK, the fundamental philosophy
underpinning the approach to funding primary healthcare is analogous to the adage âprevention is
better than cureâ, with the NHS Improvement Plan stating that âIf England is to secure world-class
standards of health, the enormous human, financial and physical resources available to the NHS need
to be focussed on the prevention of disease and not just its treatmentâ. Within Australia, there are
similar shifts in thinking and policy, with the development of the National Preventative Health
Taskforce, which has been tasked with developing a National Preventative Health Strategy
The alcohol industry, neo-liberalism and the political economy of health
Writing in the Australasian Medical Journal Bond, Daube, & Chikritzhs present a fascinating analysis of
previously confidential, internal industry documents. The documents became available due to the 1998
Master Settlement Agreement, which was originally initiated to allow public access to internal tobacco
industry documents, but since some alcohol companies are controlled by tobacco companies (in this
case, Phillip Morris), the internal documents of the alcohol companies (in this case, Miller Brewing
Company) became available. It is also interesting to note that Kraft foods is also controlled by Phillip
Morris, which means that researchers interested in food policy, marketing and regulation can now access
potentially useful documentation on the underlying intentions of a particular food company.
The paper presented an analysis of a vast array of alcohol industry documents, and the authors discuss a
number of key areas with which the alcohol industry stated their concerns. Within this Editorial, I wish to highlight the implications of many of these concerns within two areas of social and political thought:
the political economy of health, and the impact of neo-liberalism
HIV among immigrants living in high-income countries: a realist review of evidence to guide targeted approaches to behavioural HIV prevention
Immigrants from developing and middle-income countries are an emerging priority in HIV prevention in high-income countries. This may be explained in part by accelerating international migration and population mobility. However, it may also be due to the vulnerabilities of immigrants including social exclusion along with socioeconomic, cultural and language barriers to HIV prevention. Contemporary thinking on effective HIV prevention stresses the need for targeted approaches that adapt HIV prevention interventions according to the cultural context and population being addressed. This review of evidence sought to generate insights into targeted approaches in this emerging area of HIV prevention
Will the need for effective communication between doctors redefine primary care?
The medical profession differentiated into specialities decades ago. Most doctors are no
longer able to serve everyone who might seek medical advice. Put simply surgeons are not
expert in psychiatry. Therefore all doctors regularly refer patients to colleagues in other
specialties. Geography and logistic considerations determine that doctors seldom âtalkâ to
one another when seeking opinions or advice. To date the main medium of communication
between doctors is the traditional âletterâ. There are numerous studies reporting the impact
of this communication and most conclude that doctors often fail to pen enough information
when they write to each other. Why articulate people donât seem to communicate
âeffectivelyâ on paper, and increasingly online, is the subject of this editorial
Do your patients trust you? A sociological understanding of the implications of patient mistrust in healthcare professionals
The trust that patients invest in healthcare professionals and their advice has been shown to facilitate
positive clinical outcomes, although there is evidence that patient trust in expertise, including healthcare
professionals, has been declining over the years. Questions about whether or not to trust healthcare
professionals have been raised recently in international media by Australian pop icon Kylie Minogue,
who spoke of her alleged initial misdiagnosis with breast cancer and went on to tell women that they
should âfollow their intuitionâ rather than placing unquestioning trust in doctors or medical advice. Given
the power of the media in shaping public opinion, there is a potential for such stories to further impact on
the already potentially friable doctor-patient relationships, with questions of trust taking centre-stage.
Therefore, an understanding of the nature of trust, in addition to the reasons for the decline in patient
trust, is exceedingly important for health professionals. This paper presents an overview of social
theories of trust that provide a lens through which we can analyse the development of mistrust in
healthcare, and identifies ways in which healthcare professionals may aim to facilitate and sustain patient
trust
Reworking the sociology of trust: making a semantic distinction between trust and dependence
Trust, as a sociological construct, has become increasingly important in recent times
but an agreed definition is yet to be found. A potentially useful way of âdefiningâ trust
is by distinguishing it from other semantically similar concepts. Niklas Luhmann has
provided semantic distinctions between trust and familiarity, and trust and confidence.
The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of a further semantic
distinction between trust and dependence. This distinction allows us to further define
trust and also to investigate the difference between âtrustâ and âdependenceâ
Smoking and stress
Primary care-based smoking cessation interventions are often less effective among
low-SES groups. Higher stress levels may explain the lower quit rate and higher prevalence of
smoking in low-SES groups, and why the relative smoking prevalence rate is not declining at an
equitable rate (same prevalence rate as higher SES groups). To understand these issues, this
paper sought answers to two questions: is stress perceived by ex-smokers and current smokers as
a barrier to quitting; and does stress act as a barrier to quitting in relation to other barriers in
disadvantaged areas
Improving Access to, Use of, and Outcomes from Public Health Programs: The Importance of Building and Maintaining Trust with Patients/Clients
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.The central argument in this paper is that âpublic trustâ is critical for developing and maintaining the health and wellbeing of individuals, communities, and societies. I argue that public health practitioners and policy makers need to take âpublic trustâ seriously if they intend to improve both the publicâs health and the engagement between members of the public and public health systems. Public health practitioners implement a range of services and interventions aimed at improving health but implicit a requirement for individuals to trust the practitioners and the services/interventions, before they engage with them. I then go on to provide an overview of the theory of trust within sociology and show why it is important to understand this theory in order to promote trust in public health services. I then draw on literature in three classic areas of public healthâhospitals, cancer screening, and childhood immunizationâto show why trust is vital in terms of understanding and potentially improving uptake of services. The case studies in this paper reveal that public health practitioners need to understand the centrality of building and maintaining trusting relationships with patients/clients because people who distrust public health services are less likely to use them, less likely to follow advice or recommendations, and more likely to have poorer health outcomes
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