All That Glitters: Diamond Mining and Tłįchǫ Youth in Behchokǫ, Northwest Territories

Currently, Canada’s northern territories have three active diamond mines and one mine under construction, and one mine has recently closed. In response to local concerns, and in partnership with members of the Tłįchǫ First Nation, this ethnographic study examines the positive and detrimental impacts of diamond mining on youth in Behchokǫ, Northwest Territories, using data collected from intensive fieldwork and participant observation, focus groups, interviews, and archival documents. The study of mining impacts remains a complex and contested field. Youth in Behchokǫ experience both negative and positive effects of mining. Diamond mining companies are places of employment and act as community resources; their development has influenced the transience of individuals in the region, the identity and roles of family caregivers, the motivation of students, the purpose of schooling, and the level of economic prosperity in some (but not all) families. The diverse impacts of these changes on the health of northern individuals and communities can be understood only within the broader context of social, economic, political, and environmental changes occurring in the Arctic today. Results of this study help inform ongoing efforts by those in Behchokǫ  and the Northwest Territories to monitor the effects of diamond mining and maximize the potential benefits for local people, including youth.En ce moment, on compte dans les territoires du nord du Canada trois mines de diamants actives, une mine en construction et une mine dont la fermeture est récente. En raison d’inquiétudes exprimées par les gens de la région, et en partenariat avec les membres de la Première Nation Tłįchǫ, la présente étude ethnographique se penche sur les incidences favorables et défavorables de l’extraction des diamants chez les jeunes de Behchokǫ , dans les Territoires du Nord-Ouest, à partir de données recueillies dans le cadre de travaux intensifs sur le terrain et d’observation des participants, de groupes de discussion, d’entrevues et de documents archivés. L’étude des incidences de l’exploitation minière constitue toujours un domaine complexe et contesté. À Behchokǫ, l’exploitation minière a des conséquences négatives et positives chez les jeunes. Les sociétés d’extraction de diamant constituent à la fois des employeurs et des ressources communautaires. L’expansion de ces sociétés a amené des personnes transitoires dans la région, en plus d’avoir des effets sur l’identité et le rôle des aidants membres de la famille, sur la motivation des élèves, sur l’utilité d’une formation scolaire et sur le degré de prospérité économique de certaines familles (mais pas toutes). Les diverses incidences découlant de ces changements sur la santé des personnes et collectivités du nord ne peuvent se comprendre que dans le plus grand contexte des changements d’ordre social, économique, politique et environnemental qui s’exercent dans l’Arctique de nos jours. Les résultats de cette étude aident à informer les efforts qui sont déployés en permanence à Behchokǫ  et dans les Territoires du Nord-Ouest, efforts visant à surveiller les effets de l’extraction des diamants et à maximiser les retombées éventuelles sur les gens de la région, dont les jeunes

Using social network analysis to identify key child care center staff for obesity prevention interventions: a pilot study

Introduction. Interest has grown in how systems thinking could be used in obesity prevention. Relationships between key actors, represented by social networks, are an important focus for considering intervention in systems. Method. Two long day care centers were selected in which previous obesity prevention programs had been implemented. Measures showed ways in which physical activity and dietary policy are conversations and actions transacted through social networks (interrelationships) within centers, via an eight item closed-ended social network questionnaire. Questionnaire data were collected from (17/20; response rate 85%) long day care center staff. Social network density and centrality statistics were calculated, using UCINET social network software, to examine the role of networks in obesity prevention. Results. “Degree” (influence) and “betweeness” (gatekeeper) centrality measures of staff inter-relationships about physical activity, dietary, and policy information identified key players in each center. Network density was similar and high on some relationship networks in both centers but markedly different in others, suggesting that the network tool identified unique center social dynamics. These differences could potentially be the focus of future team capacity building. Conclusion. Social network analysis is a feasible and useful method to identify existing obesity prevention networks and key personnel in long day care centers

Friendship networks and physical activity and sedentary behavior among youth: a systematized review

BACKGROUND: Low levels of physical activity and increased participation in sedentary leisure-time activities are two important obesity-risk behaviors that impact the health of today’s youth. Friend’s health behaviors have been shown to influence individual health behaviors; however, current evidence on the specific role of friendship networks in relation to levels of physical activity and sedentary behavior is limited. The purpose of this review was to summarize evidence on friendship networks and both physical activity and sedentary behavior among children and adolescents. METHOD: After a search of seven scientific databases and reference scans, a total of thirteen articles were eligible for inclusion. All assessed the association between friendship networks and physical activity, while three also assessed sedentary behavior. RESULTS: Overall, higher levels of physical activity among friends are associated with higher levels of physical activity of the individual. Longitudinal studies reveal that an individual’s level of physical activity changes to reflect his/her friends’ higher level of physical activity. Boys tend to be influenced by their friendship network to a greater extent than girls. There is mixed evidence surrounding a friend’s sedentary behavior and individual sedentary behavior. CONCLUSION: Friends’ physical activity level appears to have a significant influence on individual’s physical activity level. Evidence surrounding sedentary behavior is limited and mixed. Results from this review could inform effective public health interventions that harness the influence of friends to increase physical activity levels among children and adolescents

Theorising Interventions as Events in Systems

Abstract Conventional thinking about preventive interventions focuses over simplistically on the ''package'' of activities and/or their educational messages. An alternative is to focus on the dynamic properties of the context into which the intervention is introduced. Schools, communities and worksites can be thought of as complex ecological systems. They can be theorised on three dimensions: (1) their constituent activity settings (e.g., clubs, festivals, assemblies, classrooms); (2) the social networks that connect the people and the settings; and (3) time. An intervention may then be seen as a critical event in the history of a system, leading to the evolution of new structures of interaction and new shared meanings. Interventions impact on evolving networks of person-time-place interaction, changing relationships, displacing existing activities and redistributing and transforming resources. This alternative view has significant implications for how interventions should be evaluated and how they could be made more effective. We explore this idea, drawing on social network analysis and complex systems theory

Exploring the use of economic evidence to inform investment in disease prevention - a qualitative study

Objective: In the context of growing financial pressures on health budgets, cost‐effective prevention strategies are needed to address the burden from non‐communicable disease in Australia. We explored how decision makers use economic evidence to inform such investment and how such evidence generated can more effectively meet the needs of end users.Methods: Thematic analysis of in‐depth interviews with 15 high level stakeholders (Treasury, state health departments and the insurance industry), supplemented by documentary analysis.Results: Types of prevention approaches and economic evidence relevant to decision makers differed by organisational perspective. Capacity building in understanding economic evaluations and research evidence that addresses the differing criteria for investment used by different organisations is needed. The task of determining investment priorities in disease prevention comes with significant challenges including ideological barriers, delayed outcome measures, and implementation uncertainties.Conclusions and Implications for public health: Promoting the greater use of economic evidence in prevention requires more work on two fronts: tailoring the methods used by economists to better match the organisational imperatives of end users; and promoting greater consideration of broader societal and health sector perspectives among end users. This will require significant infrastructure development, monitoring and evaluation, stronger national leadership and a greater emphasis on evidence coproduction.<br /

A typology of practice narratives during the implementation of a preventive, community intervention trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Traditional methods of process evaluation encompass what components were delivered, but rarely uncover how practitioners position themselves and act relative to an intervention being tested. This could be crucial for expanding our understanding of implementation and its contribution to intervention effectiveness.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We undertook a narrative analysis of in-depth, unstructured field diaries kept by nine community development practitioners for two years. The practitioners were responsible for implementing a multi-component, preventive, community-level intervention for mothers of new babies in eight communities, as part of a cluster randomised community intervention trial. We constructed a narrative typology of approaches to practice, drawing on the phenomenology of Alfred Schutz and Max Weber's Ideal Type theory.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Five types of practice emerged, from a highly 'technology-based' type that was faithful to intervention specifications, through to a 'romantic' type that held relationships to be central to daily operations, with intact relationships being the final arbiter of intervention success. The five types also differed in terms of how others involved in the intervention were characterized, the narrative form (<it>e.g</it>., tragedy, satire) and where and how transformative change in communities was best created. This meant that different types traded-off or managed the priorities of the intervention differently, according to the deeply held values of their type.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The data set constructed for this analysis is unique. It revealed that practitioners not only exercise their agency within interventions, they do so systematically, that is, according to a pattern. The typology is the first of its kind and, if verified through replication, may have value for anticipating intervention dynamics and explaining implementation variation in community interventions.</p

Small area contextual effects on self-reported health: Evidence from Riverside, Calgary

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We study geographic variation within one community in the City of Calgary using a more fine-grained geographic unit than the Census tract, the Census Dissemination Area (DA). While most Riverside residents consider their neighbourhood to be a fairly cohesive community, we explore the effect of socio-economic variation between these small geographic areas on individuals' self-reported health, net of individual level determinants.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We merge data from the 2001 Census for Riverside, Calgary with a 2004 random telephone survey of Riverside residents. Our data are unique in that we have information on individuals from every DA wholly contained in the Riverside community. These data enable us to conduct multinomial logistic regression analyses of self-reported health using both individual-level and DA-level variables as predictors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We find significant variation in measures of DA socio-economic status within the Riverside community. We find that individual self-reported health is affected by variation in an index of DA-level socio-economic disadvantage, controlling for individual variation in gender, age, and socio-economic status. We investigate each aspect of the DA index of disadvantage separately, and find that average education and the percent of households that are headed by a lone parent are most important.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These findings demonstrate that, even within a cohesive community, contextual effects on health can be located at a smaller geographic level than the Census tract. Research on the effects of local area socio-economic disadvantage on health that combines administrative and survey data enables researchers to develop more comprehensive measures of social and material deprivation. Our findings suggest that both social and material deprivation affect health at the local level.</p