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Purpose – We designed a community-based participatory research project to investigate a perceived cluster of lupus in a historically contaminated African-American neighborhood. The purpose of the Buffalo Lupus Project was to investigate the high prevalence of lupus in the East Buffalo area and whether cases of disease were linked to chemicals found at a nearby New York State Superfund site.

Methods – The project's research activities consisted of a registry to assess the city-wide prevalence of lupus and other autoimmune diseases and a survey to investigate common environmental factors. Lupus prevalence in the area of concern corresponded to seven times greater risk of the disease compared with the general population. The majority of survey participants were African-American women. Almost all survey participants reported some type of potentially harmful residential exposure.

Results – The Buffalo Lupus Project identified an excessive number of people with lupus and other autoimmune diseases residing in an area plagued with multiple sources of toxic waste exposure.

Social implications – As shown by this project, engaging the community in research and involving the community members in actions to improve their neighborhood can positively impact environmental quality. This study also played a leadership role in advocating for site cleanup and continuing legislation to support lead screening.

This study was conducted to find out the association between estrogen exposure and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in Bangladeshi women.

A case-control study was carried out from January to December 2015 among 128 intervention cases and 128 age-matched control group participants to find out the association with estrogen exposure and development of SLE.

Case group participants were five times (OR 5.14, 95% CI 2.14–12.33), three times (OR 3.40, 95% CI 1.25–9.21) and four times (OR 4.00, 95% CI 1.45–11.00) more likely to receive different higher levels of education compared to the control group. Exposure to estrogen showed a positive association with the development of SLE. The case group (12.63 ± 1.61 years) had a lower age at menarche than that of the control group (13.31 ± 1.47 years; p < 0.001) and their proportion (62.6%) of using oral contraceptive pills were more than that of the control group (45.6%; p < 0.01). After controlling the effect of the positively associated variables, SLE patients were found two times (adjusted OR 2.26; 95% CI 1.29–3.95) more likely to use oral contraceptive pills than the control group. The case group was more (adjusted OR 0.771; 95% CI 0.642–0.927) prone to have an earlier age at menarche compared to the control group.

This study identified the association between estrogen exposure and SLE. Contraceptive pills should be used cautiously and both consumers and service providers need to be aware of their effects.

The purpose of this paper is to re‐examine the views of Freud in his Civilization and its Discontents and compare his idea of civilization with that of other scholars in order to determine if we will ever be able to create a society which will endure in these days of nuclear power. The dangers to humanity are great, the solution difficult to see. Freud emphasized self‐interest and aggressiveness as the failings in man which would lead to the collapse of civilization, summed up in the Latin tag: homo homine lupus. Freud rejected out of hand religion as a remedy for man’s aggressiveness. This view of civilization is compared with that of Albert Schweitzer in his The Philosophy of Civilization. Schweitzer sees the enduring society as one in which man has become ethical and thereby dedicated himself to the good of society and in so doing shows a reverence for life. This study then examines the view of Ortega y Gasset, who finds in The Revolt of the Masses the success of society to lie in the efforts of men of talent, select men who have dedicated themselves to the advancement of society in accordance with the old adage, noblesse oblige. Finally we examine the Civilisation of Kenneth Clark, which is concerned with man’s development in the arts as he removes himself farther and farther from the state of the savage. The views of Arnold Toynbee on civilization are examined. Toynbee finds that our civilization, Western Christendom, will play an ever decreasing role in the global society. Toynbee also fears the coming of a nuclear holocaust but is confident there will be survivors. The possibility of a nuclear war attests the aggressiveness of man. Finally, to illustrate the evil effects of nuclear power, a brief glance is taken at the horrors that overtook the citizens of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when they were the targets of the atomic bomb in 1945. The only feasible solution to this grave problem appears to be a nuclear‐weapon‐free world. Even then the world is not safe from the aggressive nature of some rogue nation which seeks to take advantage of such a situation and dominate the world. This contingency is commonly referred to as the genie is out of the bottle. The number of genies increased when North Korea, India and Pakistan claimed the addition of nuclear weapons to their arsenal. Man has to control his fellow man’s urge to advance his self‐interest at any cost, if we are to endure. As Freud in his perspicacity put it: homo homine lupus.

Arthritis is the most prevalent chronic condition in persons ages 65 and older and is projected to increase substantially as the population ages. The purpose of this research is to assess if age, duration of arthritis, and severity of arthritis exert independent effects on various aspects of the disability process: functional limitations, activities of daily living (ADL) limitations, and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) limitations. Type of arthritis, socio-demographic factors, behavioral factors, and additional health statuses are also examined. Using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement study, results show age and severity of arthritis are related to the number of functional limitations one has and to the odds of having ADL and IADL limitations. Duration of arthritis is positively related to functional limitations and to the odds of reporting ADL limitations. Duration of arthritis is not significantly related to IADL limitations, which are strongly linked to performing social roles and have less to do with physical functioning compared to ADL tasks and functional tasks. There is no difference between those with established arthritis compared to those who have had it for a shorter time period, suggesting those with arthritis adapt to social tasks better than physical tasks. The resources used to cope with IADL limitations may be more effective over time compared to those used to cope with functional limitations and ADL disability. Understanding the context of functional limitations and disability among those with arthritis may lead to improved support and care for those living with arthritis.

African American men and women suffer from health problems such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, AIDS, sickle cell anemia, and various forms of cancer, often at a higher rate than the rest of the population. There is a need for information about these and other health problems affecting this particular community. This annotated bibliography includes recent articles, books, Internet resources, and Web sites. The audience for this essay includes the layperson, health‐care professionals, and information specialists who wish to provide information to patrons on these important health issues.

The purpose of the paper is to outline some new approaches to information literacy instruction for health librarians and other information professionals.

In the context of the increasing amount of health information on the internet, the paper outlines a changing attitude to health care that is based on shared decision making and informed consent. Health and other information professionals have a responsibility to promote health information literacy among health consumers. This includes mastering the basic principles of teaching and learning, and the evaluation of health information, including the techniques of critical thinking.

The paper summarises some criteria for evaluating health information sources and applies these to four well‐known health web sites, and concludes that all provide valuable and reliable consumer health information, but that none meets all the criteria advocated.

There is an ongoing need for education of information professionals and health consumers to ensure that the potential benefits of health information on the world wide web are maximised.

The paper offers new information and techniques for information literacy training to health information and other information professionals.

This study aims to map the information landscape as it unfolds to users when they search for health topics on general search engines. Website sponsorship, platform type and linking patterns were analysed in order to advance the understanding of the provision of health information online.

The landscape was sampled by ten very different search queries and crawled with VOSON software. Drawing on Roger's framework of information politics on the web, the landscape is described on two levels. The front-end is examined qualitatively by assessing website sponsorship and platform type. On the back-end, linking patterns are analysed using hyperlink network analysis.

A vast majority of the websites have commercial and organisational sponsorship. The analysis of the platform type shows that health information is provided mainly on static homepages, informational portals and general news sites. A comparison of ten different health domains revealed substantial differences in their landscapes, related to domain-specific characteristics.

The size and properties of the web crawl were shaped by using third party software, and the generalisability of the results is limited by the selected search queries. Further research exploring how specific characteristics of different health domains shape provision of information online is suggested.

The demonstrated method can be used by organisations to discern the characteristics of the online information landscape in which they operate and to inform their business strategies.

The study examines health information landscapes on a large scale and makes an original contribution by comparing them across ten different health domains.

There is increasing interest in long-term conditions experienced singly and in combination. This paper aims to address this by considering the impact of long-term conditions on female labour market participation in later life.

This literature review considers a variety of evidence and policy related to long-term conditions as experienced by women.

The review suggests the importance of gender when considering long-term conditions and when considering employment because this is often gendered. There are several long-term conditions affecting women in particular that need to be considered by employers and policy makers.

This review scopes the literature offering some illustrative examples of long-term conditions.

The review encourages practitioners and policy makers to include long-term conditions, as people age in thinking about ways to prevent, alleviate and respond to long-term conditions and to consider them in age-related initiatives in employment.

The review addresses long-term conditions among women in later life, suggesting that multiple policy and practice responses may need to be considered together in the development of any strategies and guidance.