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Health Situation (health + situation)
Selected AbstractsSeeing America,diary of a drug-focused study tour made in 1967ADDICTION, Issue 6 2010Griffith Edwards ABSTRACT In 1965 the British government was forced to admit that the country had an escalating heroin problem, with the supply coming mainly from prescribing by private practitioners. Within the official responses to what was seen at that time as a very worrying public health situation was the decision to fund the setting-up of the Addiction Research Unit (ARU) at the Institute of Psychiatry, London. The US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) generously sponsored a study tour for the nominated director of the ARU shortly before the opening of the British research centre. Extensive contemporaneous diary notes of a visit included contact with administrators, researchers, clinicians, parish priests, narcotic agents and addicts themselves. From a mass of often conflicting advice, some insights could be derived. In particular, these included the need for an awareness of any country's way of dealing with drug problems as a dynamic, multi-factorial total system,a holistic ,national response'. A further conclusion was to see policy itself as a complex subject for analysis: drug policy should be as much an issue for research as drug taking. Besides these broad conclusions, the experience provided many specific leads to development of a British addiction research programme, and fostered professional friendships of immeasurable worth. [source] New plant protection information system in Hungary,EPPO BULLETIN, Issue 1 2000A. Pákozdi Data on the occurrence and spread of pests has been supplied by the Hungarian Plant Protection Organization for over 40 years. Since the 1970s, this service has been operated by the central station and the 20 county stations of the Plant Protection Organization. Data recorded on pest occurrence and developmental stage of pests and plants has been used to run a forecasting system at local and national levels. However, because of significant staff reductions in the Plant Protection Organization and the disappearance of independent forecasting groups, the reliability of the system, which was based on very specific data, has decreased. It has become necessary to develop a more reliable and flexible computer-aided system (Plant Protection Information System, PPIS), better adjusted to the political and economic changes that have occurred. A major element of the new system, introduced in 1997, is that excessively detailed recording was replaced by a more practical general approach with fewer subjective errors. Specialists from the county stations of the Plant Protection Organization monitor infestation levels of 73 pests in 20 crops using five qualification categories. The results obtained are input into the PPIS program, which processes them into user-friendly charts and maps showing the plant health situation in each county and in the country as a whole, as a basis for taking decisions on plant protection measures. [source] Eating fast food: attitudes of high-school studentsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 1 2007Jan Mattsson Abstract Alarmingly consistent recent research shows that industrially produced foods such as fast food contain compounds that add to obesity and high cholesterol among young people. Less physical activity and a higher propensity to eat ready-made food (in Sweden and internationally) have aggravated the health situation for the young generation. They also have become ,addicted' to sugar by the consumption of lemonade and other sweet drinks that are often served in conjunction with fast food. Food consumption patterns are highly cultural, and, once formed in early years, they become difficult to change. The findings of this study, which was based on a small sample of written accounts and transcribed interviews, indicate that high-school students in Sweden are well aware of the good and bad attributes of fast food, such as: speed, convenience, fat and sugar. Clear differences in attitude were found between male and female students: female students view fast food in a broad food chain context, whereas male students concentrate on fast eating and satiety. [source] Attitudes and opinions of oral health and oral care among community-dwelling elderly subjects in Sweden: an interview studyINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DENTAL HYGIENE, Issue 1 2004K Andersson Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate attitudes and opinions of old, independently living people about their oral health and how it has affected them through life. Material and methods: A random selection of 12 individuals was made in a group of 79 individuals who earlier participated in a study about self-reported oral health. The average age was 78.4 years. An interview guide was used as support to focus on oral health. The respondents themselves decided what was important within the topics. The respondents were encouraged to speak freely about their childhood, family, social relations, memories from early dental care, general health situation, experience from health care, life and their future. The interviews were recorded and extended from 60 to 90 min. All of them were transcribed and analysed with phenomenological method inspired by Giogi. The analysis was made by two researchers independently. After 11 interviews, no new information was found; similar opinions, answers and stories recurred. Results: Seven of 11 respondents were born and grown up in the countryside and had moved to Stockholm in the forties. Awareness about dental care was generally low. Many of them have terrible memories from early dental visits, and the dentist was authoritarian and rough. Many had no memories of brushing their teeth as a child. Most of the respondents went to dentists as adults and when they could afford to pay by themselves. After retirement, all have continuous dental care and have visited a dental hygienist during the last 20 years. Nine of 11 have regular contact with a dental hygienist. Most of them are satisfied with their oral health and want to continue being clean and healthy in the mouth. Conclusions: Most of the respondents experienced an improved oral health, information and instructions from the dental hygienist have affected their self-care. Many tell that they have become more aware and carry out the oral hygiene more carefully after retirement. All of them experience that oral health affects the quality of life. [source] The Global Health Situation in the 21st Century: Aspects from the Global Forum on Health Research and the World Health Organization in Geneva,INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF MISSION, Issue 376-377 2006Louis J. Currat The objective of this paper is, in a first part, to give an overview of the main health problems in the world today and of their main causes. Then an attempt is made to compare the financial and human resourced available today to solve these problems with the resources which would be needed if we are to achieve the Health Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Given the fact that the available resources are limited, the question is then raised as to the selection of the strategies which would contribute the most to an improvement of the health situation in the world. To conclude on a positive note, a few examples are then given of great achievements in the health field over the past 50 years, but attention is drawn to the tremendous challenges remaining if the health MDGs are to be reached by 2015, particularly in Africa. [source] Reconstruction of paleodemographic characteristics from skeletal age at death distributions: Perspectives from Hitotsubashi, JapanAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2007Tomohito Nagaoka Abstract This is a demographic exploration of the city of Edo, which reveals the changes that accompanied its urbanization and analyzes the skeletal remains of 207 individuals from a specific site in Tokyo (Hitotsubashi), using several paleodemographic approaches. A comparison of the three methods employed herein suggests that the Bayesian and maximum likelihood estimation techniques provide more plausible mortality patterns than the direct method of age estimation because the direct method of age estimation relies on published age intervals for the auricular surface and that would account for the underestimation of old people relative to the other two methods. Analyses using these new approaches indicate a short life span tendency for the people of Hitotsubashi. Although we cannot rule out methodological problems of adult-age estimation, one plausible interpretation of that life expectancy is an inadequate food supply and a poor public health situation. This study suggests that, in Tokugawa Japan, urbanization might have imposed health risks, increasing the risk of mortality. Analysis of demographic data from Hitotsubashi has refined our understanding on the impact of urbanization on the Edo period, and presents new perspectives on paleodemography in Japan. Am J Phys Anthropol 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] | |||||||||||||