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Health Areas (health + area)
Selected AbstractsTHE PROMOTION OF HEALTH CAREERS TO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THE NEW ENGLAND HEALTH AREA: THE VIEWS OF HIGH SCHOOL CAREERS ADVISERSAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 4 2001Christian Alexander ABSTRACT: One way to impact positively on the shortage of health professionals in rural areas is to effectively promote health careers to rural high school students. Rural high school careers advisers play a pivotal role in this. In order to assess how rural health careers advisers working in the north-west of New South Wales currently promote health careers to their students, the New England Area Rural Training Unit carried out a survey of the area's high school careers advisers. Of the 47 high school careers advisers, 38 returned completed questionnaires, yielding a response rate of 81%. While only about one-third of careers advisers use visits by undergraduate students enrolled in tertiary health courses (42%), visits by locally practising health professionals (39%) and/or health careers site visits (27%), all careers advisers consider such promotional activities to be most effective. Improved exposure to such effective health career promotional activities for the area's high school, increasing collaboration between careers advisers and health professionals, as well as renewed efforts to identify and to foster interested students prior to Year 10, should lead to an increasing number of rural high school students enrolling in tertiary health courses. [source] Surgical management of colorectal cancer in south-western Sydney 1997,2001: a prospective series of 1293 unselected cases from six public hospitalsANZ JOURNAL OF SURGERY, Issue 9 2005S. K. Cyril Wong Background: The aim of the present study is to provide local data for the management of colorectal cancers in the south-western Sydney health area from 1997 to 2001. Methods: The data were collected prospectively. Follow up was conducted in late 2001 and early 2002. Data were cross-validated with hospital and area databases and with data from the New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. Results: This was an unselected series of 1293 patients from 36 surgeons; 16.5% of patients presented as emergencies. Only 3% presented as a result of bowel cancer screening. Of the 1293 patients, 1270 received an operation. There were 598 elective colonic resections with the mortality rate of 1.2%, reoperation rate of 2.7% and anastomotic leak rate of 0.8%. For the 410 elective rectal resections, the rates were 2.9%, 2.7% and 1.2%, respectively. For the 290 emergency operations, the rates were much worse at 7.7%, 6.6% and 4.8%, respectively. The corrected overall 3-year survival rate was 64%. For Dukes' A, B, C and D, the figures were 94%, 87%, 61% and 7%, respectively. Conclusions: Colorectal cancer is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in our community. Very few bowel cancers were discovered at the asymptomatic stage. This paper strongly supports community bowel cancer screening and early diagnosis. The local database has provided a rich source of information to benchmark management and outcomes of bowel cancer patients treated in the South Western Sydney Area Health Service. An area-wide computer network with online data input facilities at individual workplaces will improve data integrity and data collection efficiency. [source] Postgrads focus on public health areaAUSTRALIAN VETERINARY JOURNAL, Issue 3 2003Article first published online: 10 MAR 200 No abstract is available for this article. [source] Changes in per capita alcohol sales during the partial privatization of British Columbia's retail alcohol monopoly 2003,2008: a multi-level local area analysisADDICTION, Issue 11 2009Tim Stockwell ABSTRACT Aim To investigate the independent effects on liquor sales of an increase in (a) the density of liquor outlets and (b) the proportion of liquor stores in private rather than government ownership in British Columbia between 2003/4 and 2007/8. Design The British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch provided data on litres of ethanol sold through different types of outlets in 89 local health areas of the province by beverage type. Multi-level regression models were used to examine the relationship between per capita alcohol sales and outlet densities for different types of liquor outlet after adjusting for potential confounding social, economic and demographic factors as well as spatial and temporal autocorrelation. Setting Liquor outlets in 89 local health areas of British Columbia, Canada. Findings The number of private stores per 10 000 residents was associated significantly and positively with per capita sales of ethanol in beer, coolers, spirits and wine, while the reverse held for government liquor stores. Significant positive effects were also identified for the number of bars and restaurants per head of population. The percentage of liquor stores in private versus government ownership was also associated significantly with per capita alcohol sales when controlling for density of liquor stores and of on-premise outlets (P < 0.01). Conclusion The trend towards privatisation of liquor outlets between 2003/04 and 2007/08 in British Columbia has contributed to increased per capita sales of alcohol and hence possibly also to increased alcohol-related harm. [source] Mapping solutions to obesity: lessons from the Human Genome ProjectAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 6 2008Catriona M. F. Bonfiglioli Abstract Objective: To discuss appropriate endpoints for research designed to prevent obesity. Research investigating practical solutions to the complex multi-factorial global obesity epidemic may be stalled by undue emphasis on reduced body weight as the only acceptable endpoint. Approach: Considering prevention research in cardiovascular disease and tobacco control, we contend that investigations of intermediate endpoints make an important contribution to the multi-faceted approach needed to combat the complex problem of obesity. Conclusion: Intermediate endpoints are respected in other public health areas: reductions in risk factors such as high blood cholesterol or smoking are acceptable study endpoints for research aimed at reducing heart disease or lung cancer. Likewise, practical endpoints can be valuable in studies investigating interventions to reduce identified and potential intermediate risk factors for obesity, such as soft drink consumption. Implications: Reduced obesity is the global aim but obesity is not caused by one exposure and will not be solved by a single modality intervention. A wider debate about endpoint selection may assist research which identifies individual building blocks of obesity prevention in the same way as individual gene mapping contributed to the Human Genome Project. [source] AN ASSESSMENT OF FUNDING TO SUPPORT RURAL AND REMOTE HEALTH RESEARCH IN AUSTRALIAAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 5 2000Carla Patterson ABSTRACT: A. systematic search was undertaken to ascertain the nature, source and extent of funding awarded to research projects that were directed specifically at aspects of rural health over the past decade. Comment is also made on the challenge of obtaining such information directly from databases. The sources investigated were the conventional research funding bodies, hospital trusts and foundations, university funding schemes and government sources. The results of these searches revealed a crude average of 3 million dollars per year from conventional research funding with the remaining sources adding a similar amount in total. Analysis of the data using a framework modified from the Strategic Review of Health and Medical Research in Australia shows that funding is concentrated in the health services and public health areas with a preponderance of funding being directed towards the description of conditions and interventions. Significant levels of funding have been directed towards the National Health Priority Areas. [source] Reliability of the SNAP (score of neonatal acute p00hysiology) data collection in mechanically ventilated term babies in New South Wales, AustraliaACTA PAEDIATRICA, Issue 4 2002L Sutton The aim of this population-based, case-control, cohort study was to report inter-rater reliability between the New South Wales Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Data Collection (NICUS) audit nurses' collection of SNAP (OS) and a research nurse's SNAP data as the audit SNAP (AS). The study was carried out in Sydney and four large rural/urban health areas in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The subjects,182 singleton term infants with no major congenital anomalies,were admitted to a tertiary neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for mechanical ventilation. SNAP data were collected on the 182 case infants, born between 1 January and 31 December 1996, by clinical audit officers in the nine tertiary NICUs in NSW. The research officer conducted an audit of the original SNAP score on all infants. The data were examined using Pearson's correlation coefficient, weighted kappa, a plot of difference in SNAP against mean SNAP and Wilcoxon's signed rank sum test. Pearson's correlation coefficient between the OS and AS data was 0.80. Median (interquartile range) SNAP was 13 (9,19) for the OS and 14 (10,20) for the AS. Weighted kappa was highest for highest heart rate, paO2, temperature (°C), oxygenation index, haematocrit, platelet count, lowest serum sodium, lowest blood glucose and seizure. In 17 (9%) infants, OS and AS differed by ,10, 14 because of an original data collection error, 1 data entry error, 1 audit error and 1 for both data collection and data entry errors. Conclusion: If SNAP is to be incorporated into any routine NICU data collection, it should be audited regularly on a sample of records. It is important to standardize and adhere to strict definitions for parameters before the collection of SNAP data. [source] | ||||||||||