Currency Lad

Poetr

Characteristics of soy bread users and their beliefs about soy products

A two-stage random telephone/mail survey was conducted during the last quarter of 1998 among Adelaide residents to determine consumers\u27 use of soy bread and other soy products and their health expectations of soy products. One in five (21%) of 1477 telephone subscribers usually consumed soy bread and related soy products. Comparisons of soy bread consumers and non-consumers, based on the mail survey sample, showed that more soy bread consumers used dietary supplements and ate low fat and vegetarian diets, though their experiences of ill health were similar. Soy bread consumers held stronger universalism (pro-nature) values than non-consumers. They also held more positive expectations about the benefits of soy consumption, including reductions in menstrual and menopausal symptoms, increased bowel regularity and reductions in the risk of heart disease and cancer. The findings are discussed in relation to the psychology of dietary supplementation, values orientations and physiological plausibility. Further investigations are suggested.<br /

Food intake patterns among Australian adolescents

Objectives: This study aimed 10 evaluate the food intake pattens of adolescents with respect to the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, and to examine variations in food intake patterns by age, gender and region of residence.Design: Cross-sectional online food survey administered through schools. Participants and setting: In 2004-2005,3841 secondary students in years seven (12-13 years) and nine (14-15 years) drawn from 37 secondary schools in Victoria, Australia completed an online food intake patterns survey. Outcome measures: Food intake was measured by a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), and categorized according to the five basic food groups (fruit, vegetables, meat, daily, cereal) and the \u27extra\u27 food group as defined by the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGHE). The foods groups were examined in the study population and compared across age, gender and region. Results: Many adolescents in this sample reported food intakes that deviated substantially from recommendations of the AGHE. For example, two-thirds of participants failed to consume foods from the five recommended food groups daily; over a third reported eating fruit \u27rarely or never\u27; and 22% reported eating fast foods every day. Food intakes were generally more in line with dietary guidelines among girls than boys.Regional differences were less consistent, and there were few differences by age. Conclusion: A significant proportion of adolescents have food intakes that fall short of the recommendations outlined in the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating. This highlights the need for public health initiatives to promote healthier food intake pattens among adolescents.<br /

Marginal Propensity

Poetry

Snacking behaviours of adolescents and their association with skipping meals

Background: Snacking is likely to play an important role in the development of overweight and obesity, yet little is known about the contexts of snacking in adolescents or how snacking may influence other dietary habits, like meal skipping. This study examines the contexts in which adolescents snack and whether these contexts are associated with demographic characteristics of adolescents and with meal skipping.Methods: A cross-sectional, self-reported online food habits survey was administered to 3,250 secondary students in years seven and nine. The students were drawn from 37 secondary schools in Victoria, Australia during 2004&ndash;2005. Frequencies of meal skipping, and snacking in eight contexts, were compared across gender, year level and region of residence. Logistic regressions were performed to examine associations between snacking contexts and meal skipping adjusting for gender and region.Results: The most common contexts for snacking among adolescents were after school (4.6 times per week), while watching TV (3.5 times per week) and while hanging out with friends (2.4 times per week). Adolescents were least likely to snack all day long (0.8 times per week) or in the middle of the night (0.4 times per week). Snacking contexts were variously associated with gender, year level and region. In contrast, meal skipping was associated with gender and region of residence but not year level. Adolescents who reported more frequent snacking on the run, on the way to or from school, all day long, or in the middle of the night were more likely to skip meals.Conclusion: These data suggest adolescents snack frequently, especially in their leisure time. In addition, adolescents who snack on the run, on the way to or from school, all day long or in the middle of the night are more likely to skip meals than are adolescents who don\u27t snack at these times. Understanding the contexts in which adolescents snack, and their associations with skipping meals, may assist those involved in the promotion of healthy food habits among adolescents.<br /

Adolescent home food environments and socioeconomic position

Many adolescents have diets that are less than optimal, particularly adolescents of low socioeconomic position (SEP). The determinants of SEP differences in adolescent dietary intake are poorly understood. This study examined the home food environments of adolescents and specifically investigated whether low SEP adolescents have less supportive home local environments, fewer eating rules and poorer home availability of fruit and vegetables than adolescents of high SEP. A cross-sectional, self-reported survey was administered to 3,264 adolescents in years 7 and 9, from 37 secondary schools in Victoria, Australia. Adolescent perceptions of the home meal environment, eating rules and home food availability were described and compared across SEP, which was measured using maternal education. Maternal education was linked to various aspects of the home meal environment, as well as home food availability, but not to eating rules. Low SEP adolescents were more likely to report that they were always allowed to watch television during meal times, and that unhealthy foods were always or usually available at home. In contrast, high SEP adolescents were more likely to report that vegetables were always served at dinner, that the evening meal was never an unpleasant time and always or usually a time for family connectedness, and that fruit was always or usually available at home. This study highlights aspects of the home food environment that might explain SEP variation in adolescent diets. Feasible ways of increasing home availability of healthy foods, and encouraging home meal environments to be supportive of healthy eating should be explored, particularly in households of low SEP adolescents.<br /

What patients want to know about genetic testing for kidney disease

Previously, genetic kidney disease was often recognised when family members shared clinical features. Now, many genetic kidney diseases are diagnosed when testing demonstrates a pathogenic variant in a gene associated with the disease. Detection of a genetic variant also identifies the mode of inheritance, and suggests family members at risk. The genetic diagnosis has additional advantages for patients and their doctors even when no specific treatment is available since it often indicates likely complications in other organs, the clinical course, and management strategies. Generally, informed consent is required for genetic testing because the result provides “certainty” with implications for the patient, and their family, and possibly for employment, and for life and medical insurance, as well as having social, ethical, and financial consequences. Patients want to be provided with a copy of their genetic test result in a format that is comprehensible and to have the result explained. Their at-risk family members should be sought out and offered genetic testing too. Patients who allow the sharing of their anonymised results in registries help advance everyone’s understanding of these diseases and expedite a diagnosis in other families. Patient Support Groups not only help normalise the disease but also educate patients, and update them on recent advances and new treatments. Some registries encourage patients to themselves submit their genetic variants, clinical features and response to treatment. More and more often, patients may volunteer for clinical trials of novel therapies including some that depend on a genetic diagnosis or variant type

Inside a one teacher school: an introduction to the collection of the One Teacher School Museum at Kelvin Grove: One Teacher School Museum Studies: No. 2

The One Teacher School Museum committee in March 1975 secured the original Loganholme state school building when it became available for removal. The century-old building was moved to a site at the Kelvin Grove College of Advanced Education. Its opening by the Governor-General, Sir Zelman Cowan, was a fitting celebration of the centenary of the passing of the 1875 Education Act in the colony of Queensland - often referred to as the free, compulsory and secular act. The one teacher school museum project was developed through the enthusiasm, initially, of Ted O'Rourke, a lecturer at Kelvin Grove, who was the major instigator of the project and was responsible for obtaining the donation of many items in the current museum from schools and the wider community. Some years later, when Kelvin Grove CAE had been amalgamated into the Brisbane College of Advanced Education, the museum was relocated to its present position, adjacent to the rain forest reserve at the Kelvin Grove campus. Following the latest amalgamation of Brisbane CAE with the Queensland University of Technology, the work of the museum has received strong support from both the Education Faculty and QUT administration. This support has enabled the publication of a series of monographs in the One Teacher School Museum Studies series. This monograph is a revised edition of the publication A History of the Loganholme One-Teacher School Museum, produced in 1992. Subsequent research into the history of the school and its teachers has enabled this fuller account to be prepared. Other titles in the monograph series include a study of David Freeman the first headmaster at Loganholme; a study of the collection held by the one-teacher school museum at Kelvin Grove; and a biographical account of the teachers who taught at Loganholme between the world wars. The study of Loganholme school and its teachers represents a neglected part of our educational history. Increasingly it is the small and ordinary stories which are providing valuable historical insights into practices such as education. This school and its teachers, together with the community they served, are presented as case studies of the unremarkable, the unspectacular. Yet it is because of these very characteristics that we are provided with valuable insights into some of the everyday experiences of Queensland schooling of the past. Welcome to the collection of the One Teacher School Museum. For some readers the items in the collection will rekindle memories, pleasant or otherwise, of their school days while for others this monograph will serve as an introduction to an era of schooling which is a part of history. The materials in this collection were used in the running of Queensland State schools during the late decades of the nineteenth century and the early decades of this century. As is the experience of most museums, this collection is far from complete. The museum committee has a collection policy which seeks to expand the holdings so that they will represent more completely the materials used in Queensland schools in the period 1860-1960. Much of the initial task of establishing the collection was carried out by the late Ted O'Rourke, a lecturer at the Kelvin Grove College of Teacher Education, who was also responsible for the setting up of the Loganholme School on the Kelvin Grove Campus. This monograph provides a detailed background to the items in the collection, placing them into an historical context, but also providing anecdotes concerning the experiences of teachers and pupils. It is hoped that as you read about the collection, you will become engaged in the life of the Queensland school of earlier times