The Burkini Buzz: Exploring French National Identity Discourse Through Social Media

In the context of globalization, the question of national identity has increasingly become important when seeking to understand modern international politics. France in particular has experienced tensions of identity politics that are an outcome of its colonial, revolutionary, and republic history. The August 2016 “Burkini Controversy” that occurred in the southern regions of France is one example of this political tension, engaging diverse perspectives and cultures that challenge the dominant narrative of French identity. The platform in which people engage in identity discourse has also moved towards social media, an unprecedented form of communication and resource for information. This thesis analyzes the use of Twitter and tweets in the wake of the “Burkini Controversy” to gauge, and better understand French identity politics

Scoping Review of Experience of People living with Inherited Cardiac Conditions and Congenital Heart Disease. The experience of individuals with inherited cardiac conditions and congenital heart disease and their families throughout the life course: impact, difficulties and resilience

This was a scoping review of the experiences of people with inherited cardiac conditions and congenital heart disease and their families. The Irish Heart Foundation is trying to investigate the issues which these individuals and their families might face throughout the life course. It is hoped that this scoping review will highlight current knowledge, inform potential future studies and also inform the supports provided by the IHF to people with inherited cardiac conditions and their families. As stated, the aim of this report was to explore the experience of individuals with inherited cardiac conditions and their families throughout the life course. Due to the very limited literature available on inherited cardiac conditions (Part I), this report also explored the broader area of congenital heart disease (Part II), which has a lot more literature available. Part I of this report therefore identifies more specific detail in relation to common cardiac conditions which are inherited while Part II provides a summary of the (larger) literature available on congenital heart disease which includes inherited (Brugada syndrome, Long QT Syndrome and Progressive Cardiac Conduction Defect) and other cardiac conditions (i.e. not all congenital heart disease is inherited). Some of the main themes which emerged as important in the literature were: Genetic testing and screening of family members, transition for younger patients, exercise/physical activity, stress and psychological adjustment of individual and their family, feeling normal, education concerning contraception and reproduction including genetic counselling, insurance and employment. There is virtually no Irish research on inherited cardiac conditions and congenital heart disease and the literature on inherited cardiac conditions is in general limited. Many areas of interest in relation to the social consequences, psychological experiences and quality of life associated with inherited cardiac conditions could not be addressed by this review as they simply have not yet been addressed in the literature itself. These knowledge gaps highlight the need for further research in this area. Research in this area might also be limited due to the sometimes invisible nature of these conditions. Not all inherited cardiac conditions are apparent from birth and in some cases the first symptom can actually be sudden death (1). In other cases a condition may go undiagnosed until a relative experiences symptoms or is lost to sudden cardiac death and it is only then that diagnosis is made following screening. Therefore for some, living with inherited cardiac conditions does not affect their lives at all in that they are unaware they have it. The common inherited cardiac conditions included are also quite different and therefore studies tend to look at each individually rather than exploring the experiences of individuals with inherited cardiac conditions as a whole. The exception to this is individuals who have received implantable cardioverter defibrillators. These people are sometimes looked at as a group and therefore different inherited cardiac conditions can sometimes be combined in these studies

Does pain mediate or moderate the relationship between physical activity and depressive symptoms in older people? Findings from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA)

Background. Depression is an increasing problem in older adults, which is exacerbated by under diagnosis and ineffective treatment options. Broadly speaking, as people age, their levels of regular physical activity (PA) decrease, while their experience of chronic pain increases. PA has been shown to be an effective, yet under-utilised, treatment for depression in this age-cohort although the influence of pain on the relationship between PA and depressive symptoms has not been considered. Methods. Secondary analysis of national data from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA, 2011) (n = 8163 participants aged 50 years and older) examined the mediating or moderating role of pain in the relationship between depressive symptoms and PA, and the impact of PA, pain and depressive symptoms on health-care utilisation. Results. Approximately 8.5% TILDA older adults were depressed. No mediating or moderating effects of pain were found in the association between PA and depressive symptoms. Higher levels of PA were found to be independently associated with lower depressive symptoms, while higher levels of pain significantly increased the likelihood of depressive symptoms supporting previous findings. Depressive symptoms and higher levels of pain were also found to significantly increase health-care utilisation. Conclusions. Consistent with previous findings in this field, both PA and pain were found to be independently associated with depressive symptoms in Irish older adults. Furthermore, pain does not play a mediating or moderating role in the relationship between PA and depressive symptoms. Continued support for ongoing initiatives in this area aimed at increasing PA in older adults as a means to improve both physical and mental well-being is advised. The absence of any synergistic effect between PA and pain suggests that clinicians and health service providers should continue to promote PA as a treatment for depression, irrespective of the pain levels of their patients

Review of Health Services Available for Persons who Contracted Hepatitis C through the Administration within the State of Blood or Blood Products. Implementation of Recommendations.

the State of infected blood and blood products. The Report examines progress on the recommendations published in 2000, and recognizes the evolution in service needs since then with the addition of 4 new recommendations. The Report will assist health service providers, the Department of Health and Children and the support groups to continue working together to ensure that the future service needs of this Hepatitis C group are met. It is timely that this review has come at a time when the health services are entering a new phase of restructuring and renewal. The Consultative Council welcomes this process and is confident that it will bring benefits to both service users and service providers. The Council has assured the Health Service Executive and the National Hospitals Office that we will be happy to co-operate with them and to continue playing a positive role in shaping Hepatitis C services for this cohort of patients in the future. As with the first Review the four support groups - Positive Action, Transfusion Positive, the Irish Haemophilia Society and the Irish Kidney Association - all of which are represented on the Consultative Council, are to be commended for the important role they play, and for encouraging their members to participate in this progress report

Long term outcome of stroke: Stroke is a chronic disease with acute events.

Long term outcome of stroke: Stroke is a chronic disease with acute events

Who will care? The role of work role overload and flexstyle boundary control on the relationship between job embeddedness, burnout, and the withdrawal behaviours of aged care workers

For decades scholars have detailed the benefits of having embedded workers in the workplace. Increasing embeddedness reduces the costs workplaces incur from workers’ withdrawal behaviours. In comparison, less is known regarding the costs of high embeddedness. Drawing on conservation of resource theory, this thesis examines the negative effects of embeddedness in conjunction with work role overload on burnout and withdrawal. It further considers the impact of workers’ physical and psychological maintenance of barriers between work and life (i.e., work-life boundary control flexstyles) on the aforementioned effects. The results of two waves of survey data from 243 aged care workers, analysed using a moderated mediation framework, showed work role overload and flexstyle moderate the mediated relationship between job embeddedness, burnout, and withdrawal behaviours (lateness, absenteeism, and turnover). These results underscore the importance of workers’ experience of work overload and their work-life control flexstyles when considering the impact of embeddedness on retaining, expanding, and sustaining the aged care workforce. These findings have important implications for employees, managers, and organisations in the aged care industry

Irish Heart Foundation National Audit of Stroke Care

Stroke is the third leading cause of death and disability worldwide. It constitutes a formidable burden of disability for patients, their families, health professionals and the wider community. It combines aspects of both acute and chronic disease, and there is increasing evidence that those affected by stroke can benefit to a very significant extent from organised stroke care throughout the course of the illness. Delivering this care requires a unique combination of skills, drawing on neurosciences, cardiovascular medicine, general medicine, the science of ageing, rehabilitation, vascular surgery, and public health. Local and timely evidence on the service performance is essential to assess quality of care and to improve services. This has not been available to date in Ireland. The aim of this project was to conduct a national audit of stroke care in hospital and the community in the Republic of Ireland. This was achieved by completing six separate surveys and by drawing conclusions based on complementary information across the studies. The six surveys are described next. Where possible, audit systems used in the UK’s Sentinel audit were used to provide an opportunity for comparison of relative, as well as absolute, levels of achievement of recommended standards of care

Stroke warning campaigns: delivering better patient outcomes? A systematic review.

Background: Patient delay in presenting to hospital with stroke symptoms remains one of the major barriers to thrombolysis treatment, leading to its suboptimal use internationally. Educational interventions such as mass media campaigns and community initiatives aim to reduce patient delays by promoting the signs and symptoms of a stroke, but no consistent evidence exists to show that such interventions result in appropriate behavioral responses to stroke symptoms. Methods: A systematic literature search and narrative synthesis were conducted to examine whether public educational interventions were successful in the reduction of patient delay to hospital presentation with stroke symptoms. Three databases, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO, were searched to identify quantitative studies with measurable behavioral end points, including time to hospital presentation, thrombolysis rates, ambulance use, and emergency department (ED) presentations with stroke. Results: Fifteen studies met the inclusion criteria: one randomized controlled trial, two time series analyses, three controlled before and after studies, five uncontrolled before and after studies, two retrospective observational studies, and two prospective observational studies. Studies were heterogeneous in quality; thus, meta-analysis was not feasible. Thirteen studies examined prehospital delay, with ten studies reporting a significant reduction in delay times, with a varied magnitude of effect. Eight studies examined thrombolysis rates, with only three studies reporting a statistically significant increase in thrombolysis administration. Five studies examined ambulance usage, and four reported a statistically significant increase in ambulance transports following the intervention. Three studies examining ED presentations reported significantly increased ED presentations following intervention. Public educational interventions varied widely on type, duration, and content, with description of intervention development largely absent from studies, limiting the potential replication of successful interventions. Conclusions: Positive intervention effects were reported in the majority of studies; however, methodological weaknesses evident in a number of studies limited the generalizability of the observed effects. Reporting of specific intervention design was suboptimal and impeded the identification of key intervention components for reducing patient delay. The parallel delivery of public and professional interventions further limited the identification of successful intervention components. A lack of studies of sound methodological quality using, at a minimum, a controlled before and after design was identified in this review, and thus studies incorporating a rigorous study design are required to strengthen the evidence for public interventions to reduce patient delay in stroke. The potential clinical benefits of public interventions are far-reaching, and the challenge remains in translating knowledge improvements and correct behavioral intentions to appropriate behavior when stroke occurs

Psychological interventions for women with non-metastatic breast cancer (Review)

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women worldwide. It is a distressing diagnosis and, as a result, considerable research has examined the psychological sequelae of being diagnosed and treated for breast cancer. Breast cancer is associated with increased rates of depression and anxiety and reduced quality of life. As a consequence, multiple studies have explored the impact of psychological interventions on the psychological distress experienced after a diagnosis of breast cancer. Objectives: To assess the effects of psychological interventions on psychological morbidities, quality of life and survival among women with nonmetastatic breast cancer. Search methods: We searched the following databases up to 16 May 2013: the Cochrane Breast Cancer Group Specialised Register, CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and PsycINFO; and reference lists of articles. We also searched the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP) search portal and ClinicalTrials.gov for ongoing trials in addition to handsearching. Selection criteria: Randomised controlled trials that assessed the effectiveness of psychological interventions for non-metastatic breast cancer in women. Data collection and analysis: Two review authors independently appraised and extracted data from eligible trials. Any disagreement was resolved by discussion. Extracted data included information about participants, methods, the intervention and outcome. Main results: Twenty-eight randomised controlled trials comprising 3940 participants were included. The most frequent reasons for exclusion were non-randomised trials and the inclusion of women with metastatic disease. A wide range of interventions were evaluated, with 24 trials investigating a cognitive behavioural therapy and four trials investigating psychotherapy compared to control. Pooled standardised mean differences (SMD) from baseline indicated less depression (SMD -1.01, 95% confidence interval (CI) -1.83 to -0.18; P = 0.02; 7 studies, 637 participants, I2 = 95%, low quality evidence), anxiety (SMD -0.48, 95% CI -0.76 to -0.21; P = 0.0006; 8 studies, 776 participants, I2 = 64%, low quality evidence) and mood disturbance (SMD -0.28, 95% CI -0.43 to -0.13; P = 0.0003; 8 studies, 1536 participants, I2 = 47%, moderate quality evidence) for the cognitive behavioural therapy group than the control group. For quality of life, only an individually-delivered cognitive behavioural intervention showed significantly better quality of life than the control with an SMD of 0.65 (95% CI 0.07 to 1.23; P = 0.03; 3 studies, 141 participants, I2 = 41%, very low quality evidence). Pooled data from two group-delivered studies showed a non-significant overall survival benefit favouring cognitive behavioural therapy compared to control (pooled hazard ratio (HR) 0.76, 95% CI 0.25 to 2.32; P = 0.63; 530 participants, I2 = 84%, low quality evidence). Four studies compared psychotherapy to control with one to two studies reporting on each outcome. The four studies were assessed as high risk of bias and provided limited evidence of the efficacy of psychotherapy. Adverse events were not reported in any of the included studies. Authors’ conclusions: A psychological intervention, namely cognitive behavioural therapy, produced favourable effects on some psychological outcomes, in particular anxiety, depression and mood disturbance. However, the evidence for survival improvement is still lacking. These findings are open to criticism because of the notable heterogeneity across the included studies and the shortcomings of the included studies