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1 – 10 of 351It is generally agreed that social environments influence the success of health education but there is less agreement about what constitutes a health‐enabling community context…
Abstract
It is generally agreed that social environments influence the success of health education but there is less agreement about what constitutes a health‐enabling community context. Focuses on the processes underlying successful peer education. Outlines a case study conducted by the author of a schools‐based peer education and condom distribution programme for HIV prevention in a school setting. Identifies a number of obstacles to the development of new peer norms, youth empowerment and critical thinking that are essential preconditions for programmes success. Notes that the research concluded that one important reason for the failure of HIV‐prevention programmes lies in the over‐optimism of those who believe that peer education programmes can change behviour in marginalized communities in the absence of appropriate partnerships. Programme success is unlikely without parallel efforts to create supportive social environments, through building alliances between peer educators and more influential groups.
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Catherine Campbell, Vivien Carver, Bonita Reinert, Lillian M. Range and Matthew T. Hollimon
The purpose of this research is to assess whether differences occurred between directors and staff in community tobacco use prevention coalitions in Mississippi. Community…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to assess whether differences occurred between directors and staff in community tobacco use prevention coalitions in Mississippi. Community coalitions, which are organizations working together for a common purpose involve representatives of diverse institutions focusing on issues in a local community. Because of their different roles, directors and support staff may view their coalition differently.
Design/methodology/approach
Thirty directors and 14 support staff of tobacco use prevention coalitions anonymously answered a lengthy questionnaire about their coalition personnel and functioning.
Findings
Both coalition directors and support staff agreed that their coalition had formal rules and effective management, reduced tobacco use, and benefited their region. In addition, directors and support staff reported high ownership, and positive opinions of member and personnel expertise. Further, directors and support staff favored taking tobacco industry money for themselves or their coalition. However, directors and support staff were neutral in satisfaction and in difficulty managing their coalition, and slightly negative in ratings of member‐member and member‐personnel communication, directors more negative than support staff on member‐personnel communication.
Practical implications
Strengthening communication seems to be a place where there is room for improvement in the present tobacco use prevention coalitions.
Originality/value
Presently, those actually working in a tobacco use prevention coalition were still idealistic about their efforts, but continued frustrations with communication may dampen their enthusiasm in the future.
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Vivien Carver, Bonita Reinert, Lillian M. Range and Catherine Campbell
To examine a tobacco prevention elementary school project completed in 2000 in one rural state in the southeastern USA.
Abstract
Purpose
To examine a tobacco prevention elementary school project completed in 2000 in one rural state in the southeastern USA.
Design/methodology/approach
Initially, 721 public school fourth through sixth grade teachers across Mississippi attended (for reimbursement) a tobacco prevention workshop that included curriculum‐integrated material; 658 completed a follow‐up questionnaire (91.3 percent return rate). In addition, 1,762 of their students completed an anti‐tobacco pre‐test and 1,723 (868 girls, 853 boys) completed an anti‐tobacco post‐test (97.8 percent return rate).
Findings
Students improved from pre‐ to post‐test; girls scored better than boys. African American students and teachers completed more lessons than White students and teachers. Sixth graders completed fewer lessons and scored lower than fourth and fifth graders.
Research limitations/implications
The test had a yes‐no format and a low ceiling, so many students answered correctly at pretest. Also, teachers were mostly white women, though they were demographically similar to teachers across the state, other groups would expand generalizability. Further, a true control group could evaluate the possibility that results were due to a secular trend.
Practical implications
Not only were teachers positive about a tobacco prevention workshop that included curriculum integrated materials, but also their students scored healthier after having tobacco prevention lessons. Further, those who received the most lessons improved the most, indicating a dose‐specific learning curve.
Orginality/value
A challenge for the future would be to assess whether these improvements continue over the long term, and translate into less willingness to experiment with and use tobacco.
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The question of ethics has accompanied all discussion of male circumcision and HIV: How can trials be run ethically? How could circumcision be promoted and provided ethically? Is…
Abstract
The question of ethics has accompanied all discussion of male circumcision and HIV: How can trials be run ethically? How could circumcision be promoted and provided ethically? Is it ethical to provide medical circumcision and payment to under-resourced test subjects? Would it be ethical to not do so? Two comprehensive and widely read papers (“Circumcision and HIV prevention research: An ethical analysis,” Lancet, 2006, and “The first randomised trial of male circumcision for preventing HIV: What were the ethical issues?,” PLoS Medicine, 2005) addressed the ethical issues of these investigations from the perspective of scientific liability, and many of the opponents of male circumcision, for this or other reasons, call their viewpoint a human rights matter. In this paper, I draw from social science and from the harm reduction movement to propose an ethic of wellness, built on causing the least harm and contributing to the most knowledge. This approach to the ethical question is linked to, but distinct from and sometimes at odds with, the traditional canon of medical ethics or bioethics.
Kerry Scott, Catherine Campbell, Morten Skovdal, Claudius Madanhire, Constance Nyamukapa and Simon Gregson
The purpose of the paper is to provide recommendations for medium- and large-sized workplaces on how to support HIV-positive employees. Supporting HIV-positive workers is an issue…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to provide recommendations for medium- and large-sized workplaces on how to support HIV-positive employees. Supporting HIV-positive workers is an issue of social responsibility and an economic necessity for employers. HIV-positive workers can remain productive and healthy for many years if able to access appropriate HIV management support.
Design/methodology/approach
Recent (2000-2010) academic and grey literature on HIV workplace management was reviewed and a qualitative study of nine workers receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART) in Zimbabwe was conducted by the authors. Results from both the literature review and qualitative study were used to develop recommendations.
Findings
Carefully considered organizational support is of primary importance in the following areas: workplace HIV policy, voluntary testing and counselling, HIV management, HIV treatment uptake and adherence, day-to-day assistance, peer education, nutrition support, opportunistic infection (OI) monitoring and support to temporary/contract workers. Confidentiality is a key element in achieving positive outcomes in all areas of organizational support for HIV-positive workers.
Practical implications
The paper provides a source of information and concrete advice for workplaces seeking to implement or augment HIV management and support services for their employees. The paper offers vital insight into workplace intervention strategies shown work best for workplaces and employees.
Originality/value
The paper fills a need for comprehensive documentation of strategies for effective HIV management at medium- and large-sized workplaces.
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Virginia M. Miori, Kathleen Campbell Garwood and Catherine Cardamone
This is the second in a series of papers focused on alcohol and substance abuse rehabilitation centers. Centers face the ongoing challenge of validating outcomes to meet the…
Abstract
This is the second in a series of papers focused on alcohol and substance abuse rehabilitation centers. Centers face the ongoing challenge of validating outcomes to meet the burden of evidence for insurance companies. In the first paper, data mining was used to establish baseline patterns in treatment success rates, for the Futures: Palm Beach Rehabilitation Center, that have a direct impact on a client’s ability to receive insurance coverage for treatment programs. In this paper, we examine 2016 outcomes and report on facility efficacy, alumni progression and sobriety, and forecast treatment success rates (short and long term) in support of client insurability. Data collection has been standardized and includes admissions data, electronic medical records data, satisfaction survey data, post-discharge survey data, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data, and demographic data. Clustering, partitioning, ANOVA, stepwise regression and stepwise Logistic regression are applied to the data to determine statistically significant drivers of treatment success.
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Feminist theory is concentrated on androcentric interpretations and the patriarchal status quo, with conflicts among feminists taking a definite second place to the concern with…
Abstract
Feminist theory is concentrated on androcentric interpretations and the patriarchal status quo, with conflicts among feminists taking a definite second place to the concern with uniting women in the face of their oppression under patriarchy. Recently, however, and especially in the United States, controversy among feminists has acquired a new intensity, with influential theorists like Gayatri Spivak and Trinh T. Minh‐ha challenging the limitations of dominant feminist paradigms.
The long controversy that has waxed furiously around the implementation of the EEC Directives on the inspection of poultry meat and hygiene standards to be observed in poultry…
Abstract
The long controversy that has waxed furiously around the implementation of the EEC Directives on the inspection of poultry meat and hygiene standards to be observed in poultry slaughterhouses, cutting‐up premises, &c, appears to be resolved at last. (The Prayer lodged against the Regulations when they were formally laid before Parliament just before the summer recess, which meant they would have to be debated when the House reassembled, could have resulted in some delay to the early operative dates, but little chance of the main proposals being changed.) The controversy began as soon as the EEC draft directive was published and has continued from the Directive of 1971 with 1975 amendments. There has been long and painstaking study of problems by the Ministry with all interested parties; enforcement was not the least of these. The expansion and growth of the poultry meat industry in the past decade has been tremendous and the constitution of what is virtually a new service, within the framework of general food inspection, was inevitable. None will question the need for efficient inspection or improved and higher standards of hygiene, but the extent of the organization in the first and the enormous cost of structural and other alterations to premises in the second, were seen as formidable tasks, and costly. The execution and enforcement of the new Regulations is assigned to local authorities (District, Metropolitan and London Borough Councils), who are empowered to make charges for inspection, licences, etc., to recoup the full costs of administration. The Government had previously promised that the cost of this new service, which when fully operative, will be significant, would not fall upon the already over‐burdened economies of local authorities. The figure of a penny per bird is given; in those areas with very large poultry processing plants, with annual outputs counted in millions of birds, this levy should adequately cover costs of enforcing the Regulations, but there are many areas with only one of a few small concerns with annual killings of perhaps no more than 200,000 birds—this much we know from perusing annual health reports received at the offices of this Journal—and the returns from charges will certainly be inadequate to cover the cost of extra staff. The Regulations require the appointment of “official veterinary surgeons” and “poultry meat inspectors”, both new to local government.
It was expected that the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998 would promote a human rights culture in public services and beyond. This paper seeks to focus on the Act's impact on minority…
Abstract
Purpose
It was expected that the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998 would promote a human rights culture in public services and beyond. This paper seeks to focus on the Act's impact on minority, ethnic users of health and social care services.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviewed recent policy and academic papers as well as legislative and government initiatives since the Act's implementation in 2000. It also looked at user surveys and evidence submitted to Parliament and public inquiries. A critical synthesis and analysis of the data was attempted.
Findings
The paper makes the argument that the original intentions behind the HRA have not been materialised. The paper attributes this failure to issues of misunderstanding around the Act and human rights. The paper also argues that by focusing more on mainstreaming the principles underlying the Act and less on its legalistic interpretation, human rights will be seen more relevant by both users and providers of health and social care services.
Originality/value
An original analysis and interpretation of what these principles encompass is attempted whilst brief recommendations for policy and practice are posited.
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Charles H. Cho and Dennis M. Patten
This investigation/report/reflection was motivated largely by the occasion of the first Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR) “Summer School” in North…
Abstract
This investigation/report/reflection was motivated largely by the occasion of the first Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR) “Summer School” in North America.1 But its roots reach down as well to other recent reflection/investigation pieces, in particular, Mathews (1997), Gray (2002, 2006), and Deegan and Soltys (2007). The last of these authors note (p. 82) that CSEAR Summer Schools were initiated in Australasia, at least partly as a means to spur interest and activity in social and environmental accounting (SEA) research. So, too, was the first North American CSEAR Summer School.2 We believe, therefore, that it is worthwhile to attempt in some way to identify where SEA currently stands as a field of interest within the broader academic accounting domain in Canada and the United States.3 As well, however, we believe this is a meaningful time for integrating our views on the future of our chosen academic sub-discipline with those of Gray (2002), Deegan and Soltys (2007), and others. Thus, as the title suggests, we seek to identify (1) who the SEA researchers in North America are; (2) the degree to which North American–based accounting research journals publish SEA-related research; and (3) where we, the SEA sub-discipline within North America, might be headed. We begin with the who.