When is an ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure: The case of cardiovascular disease?

Objective: To provide decision makers with a tool to inform resource allocation decisions at the local level, using cardiovascular disease prevention as an example. Method: Evidence from the international literature was extrapolated to estimate the health and financial impacts in Central Sydney Area Health Service (CSAHS) of three different prevention programs; smoking cessation; blood pressure reduction and cholesterol lowering. The cost-effectiveness analysis framework was reconfigured to 1) estimate the risk of CVD in the community using local risk factor data, 2) estimate the number of CVD events prevented through investment in preventive programs and 3) estimate the local financial flow-on effects of prevention on acute care services. The model developed here estimates an upper bound of what local decision makers could spend on preventive programs whilst remaining consistent with their willingness to pay for one additional life-year gained. Results: The model predicted that over a five-year period the cumulative impact of the three programs has the potential to save 1245 life-years in people aged 40-79 years living in CSAHS. If decision-makers are willing to invest in cost-saving preventive programs only, the model estimates that they can spend up $12 per person in the target group per year. However, if they are willing to spend$70,000 per life-year gained, this amount rises to $201. Conclusions: Modelling the impact of preventive activities on the acute care health system enables us to estimate the amount that can be spent on preventive programs. The model is flexible in terms of its ability to examine these impacts in a variety of settings and therefore has the potential to be a useful resource planning tool.Resource allocation, cardiovascular disease, health promotion, Australia

Same words, different meanings: Learning to talk the scientific language of pharmacy

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Motivation, learning and group work – the effect of friendship on collaboration

Group work is an established practice in all levels of education, and skills in collaboration are valued graduate attributes of the University of Sydney (The University of Sydney, 2004). Sociocultural theory, which posits that individual learning and motivation emerge from participation in social activity, suggests that collaboration can be effective in promoting the emergence of both learning and motivation. A number of strategies for allocating students to groups are commonly used, including self-selection, random assignment or deliberate allocation, depending on the purpose and format of the work to be undertaken. Barron (2003) has suggested that friendship is a critical mediator of productive collaboration in that friends engage in more extensive talk which elaborate and extend expressed ideas. Further, friendship is also posited to mediate more effective collaboration through familiarity with ways of thinking and personal histories, and through increased motivation to work harder. As part of a wider study of science learning among first year Pharmacy students, we investigated the interactions within two self-selected groups, one consisting of five individuals who claimed to be close friends and one consisting of six individuals who were mostly acquaintances. These groups were videotaped while undertaking classroom workshop activities designed to promote discussion and collaborative problem-solving, and each individual was interviewed on several occasions to elicit their perspectives on their group's functioning, together with their own motivations and extent of their learning. Using Rogoff's (1998) planes of analysis approach, which allows interdependent analysis of the interpersonal and intrapersonal dimensions of motivation, we evaluated the ways in which perceptions of friendship shaped and were shaped by the motivations of individuals, the nature of the collaboration apparent within the two groups, and the quality and persistence of individual conceptual development and learning. In contrast to Barron (2003), we found a more complex relationship between friendship and productivity of collaboration, and that individual motivations were critical in mediating this complexity. Members of the "friends" group demonstrated significantly greater competitive behaviours towards each other than members of the "acquaintances" group, with the result that their friendships began to deteriorate over the study period. Individuals within the "friends" group were primarily motivated by the need for personal achievement, particularly in examinations, which was manifest in a range of behaviours towards each other and in relation to the activities in which they participated. Member of the "acquaintances" group, on the other hand, were motivated to a significantly greater extent by a focus on learning the material and assisting the others in their group to learn. The latter group, although less academically well-performed, demonstrated significantly greater persistence of their learning than the former, although the former outperformed the latter in the end-of-semester examination. A greater reported level of friendship was thus associated with the phenomenon of familiarity-breeds-contempt, whereas acquaintanceship was associated with politeness and respect. Individual and collective motivation thus mediated qualitative differences in the productivity of collaboration and extent of learning. These findings have not been previously reported, and the study thus contributes to a deeper understanding of the interactions between individual and collective behaviours, motivations and outcomes

St Helena Social Welfare Review

The objectives of the whole review were to: *Provide recommendations for the uprating of benefits (initially for the uprating due in October 2012). * Review the benefits system and make recommendations. Throughout the review, and particularly in looking to the future, we were asked to take into account the possible effects and impacts of the opening of the St Helena international airport (scheduled for 2016). A minimum income standard for St Helena was recommended as the basis for setting and uprating benefit levels. The introduction of a child benefit allowance was recommended to start as soon as possible. Further recommendations on the targeting of benefits, reorganisation of benefits structures and or office procedures were also made

Wildlife health outcomes and opportunities in conservation translocations

It is intuitive that the health status of wildlife might influence conservation translocation outcomes, however, health as a topic has received limited attention in the conservation translocation literature. We determined the forms and frequency of disease and other biological problems reported in translocated animals and plants, and in populations linked to translocation, and associations between their mention and translocation ‘success’. From these problems we deduced the forms of ill-health potentially associated with conservation translocation and developed contextual frameworks to inform health management

Diets of European polecat Mustela putorius in Great Britain during fifty years of population recovery

Following nineteenth-century declines, polecats Mustela putorius are recolonising Great Britain. Polecat diet relates to two potential risks to recovery. First, rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus, which are important prey for polecats, have experienced extreme population fluctuations, with near extirpation due to myxomatosis in the 1950s, recovery in 1960s–1990s and declines in 1990s–2010s. Second, polecats are secondarily exposed to anticoagulant rodenticides by eating contaminated rodents, and the frequency of polecat exposure to rodenticides is increasing. We analysed stomach contents from 99 polecats collected in 2012–2016 and compared results with earlier studies. Lagomorphs were the most abundant prey (66% frequency of occurrence, 95% confidence interval 53–74%), followed by other mammals (12%, 4–18%), amphibians (10%, 3–16%) and birds (7%, 1–13%). Diet varied seasonally; lagomorph occurrence was highest in spring and summer and lowest in autumn. Dietary niche breadth was greater in the 1960s, when rabbits were scarce, than in other decades, but did not differ between the 1990s and 2010s, indicating that diets have not diversified with recent rabbit declines. This may be because rabbit abundance is not yet low enough to cause dietary diversification or because polecats were collected in areas where rabbits were still abundant. Rodents did not increase in diet between the 1990s and 2010s and still occur with < 10% frequency, indicating that rodents need not contribute much to diet to expose polecats to rodenticides. This potentially limits the effectiveness of management actions designed to minimise polecat exposure to contaminated rodent prey

Implications of squirrelpox virus for successful red squirrel translocations within mainland UK

Remnant red squirrel populations in the UK mainland are threatened by squirrelpox viral disease and the reservoir of the squirrelpox virus, the invasive grey squirrel, is expanding its range. Until this threat can be effectively mitigated, there is a high risk from disease outbreaks, following proposed conservation translocation of red squirrels

Capacity building for wildlife health professionals: the Wildlife Health Bridge

The Wildlife Health Bridge was established in 2009 with the aim of improving the expertise and knowledge base of wildlife health professionals in biodiverse low- and middle-income countries. The Wildlife Health Bridge centres around partnerships among educational institutions: the Zoological Society of London, the Royal Veterinary College, the University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, the Wildlife Institute of India, and the University of Melbourne Veterinary School. The Wildlife Health Bridge provides quality education in wildlife health, ecosystem health, and wildlife biology, facilitates the interchange of students between collaborating countries for research studies and provides a global graduate network of wildlife health professionals. In addition to established Masters’ level wildlife health training programmes run by the partner organisations, the Wildlife Health Bridge has developed a collaborative field-based course, Interventions in Wild Animal Health, provided annually in India since 2016, which has trained 138 veterinarians to date, enhancing local and international capacity in managing emerging wildlife health issues and building global professional linkages. The Wildlife Health Bridge’s Wild Animal Alumni network facilitates networking and exchange between Wildlife Health Bridge institutions and graduates, with over 701 members from 67 countries, half of which are biodiverse low- and middle-income countries. Collaboration between educational institutions has enabled new ideas and ongoing developments in the delivery of materials and learning outcomes. The Wildlife Health Bridge is building global capacity in trained wildlife health professionals, through educational programmes and a synergised network, with the aim of impacting conservation practice to benefit human, domestic animal and wildlife health