Social science & medicine
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Social science & medicine · Jan 2010
Spatial analysis of heat-related mortality among the elderly between 1993 and 2004 in Sydney, Australia.
This study analyzed the geographical patterns of heat-related mortality among the population aged 65 and over within the metropolitan area of Sydney, Australia between 1993 and 2004, and evaluated the role of some physical and socio-demographic risk factors associated with it. The effect of temperature on all-cause mortality during unusually hot days was investigated using spatial analytic techniques, such as cluster analysis and spatial regression analysis. Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) were used to investigate the role of daily average temperature, ozone (O(3)) and particulate matter of diameter less than 10 microm (PM(10)) at the regions that showed a significant increase in mortality on unusually hot days. ⋯ A combination of social and environmental factors may be at play. Our results suggest an effect of temperature on mortality of the elderly population in Sydney Statistical Division at the SLA level. More spatially-based research would be beneficial once climate datasets with improved spatial coverage become available.
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Social science & medicine · Jan 2010
Right and access to healthcare for undocumented children: addressing the gap between international conventions and disparate implementations in North America and Europe.
Limited access to healthcare for vulnerable immigrant children in Europe and North America is increasingly worrisome as immigration policies harden. This paper analyzes the gap between States' obligations under international human rights law and the disparate local implementations in diverse countries. ⋯ It is argued that the lack of available data on the magnitude of the problem and on its individual and public health consequences stems from the conflicting situation faced by health institutions required to simultaneously protect the best interest of each child and allocate limited resources. Collaboration in research is urgently needed to assist policy-makers and institutions make informed decisions.
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Social science & medicine · Jan 2010
Responses to intimate partner violence in Kakuma refugee camp: refugee interactions with agency systems.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been recognised as a significant problem amongst forcibly displaced communities, and great progress has been made by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in responding to IPV and other forms of sexual and gender based violence. However, they have not always effectively engaged refugee communities in these activities, with potentially negative consequences for the health and protection of women. This study was conducted in Kakuma refugee camp, north-west Kenya. ⋯ Whilst community responses to IPV might often be appropriate and helpful, the findings of the current study suggest that in Kakuma they do not necessarily result in the protection of women. Yet women in Kakuma are reported to be reluctant to report their cases to UNHCR and its implementing agencies. A more effective protection response from UNHCR might involve closer co-operation with individuals and structures within the refugee communities to develop a co-ordinated response to IPV.
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Social science & medicine · Jan 2010
Incarcerated sex workers and HIV prevention in China: social suffering and social justice countermeasures.
Sex workers in China are routinely coercively detained through administrative mechanisms outside of legal procedures, but very little is known about the anthropologic and public health context of these policies. This biosocial analysis of female Chinese sex worker detention uses ethnographic, legal, and public health data to describe social suffering and countervailing social justice responses among incarcerated sex workers (ISW) in China. Compared to sex workers not detained in China, ISW face substantive inequalities inscribed in physical and psychological suffering. ⋯ A limited empiric analysis of Guangxi Province STI clinic data shows that cities detaining sex workers have higher mean HIV prevalence compared to cities that do not detain sex workers. While incipient medical and legal movements in China have generated momentum for expanding ISW services and resources, there is still substantial variation in the implementation of laws that ensure basic life-saving medical treatments. Post-incarceration social justice programs for sex workers linking women to essential STI/HIV resources, reconnecting broken social lives, and helping restore interpersonal relationships are urgently needed.
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Social science & medicine · Dec 2009
Uptake of a team briefing in the operating theatre: a Burkean dramatistic analysis.
Communication among healthcare professionals is a focus for research and policy interventions designed to improve patient safety, but the challenges of changing interprofessional communication patterns are rarely described. We present an analysis of 756 preoperative briefings conducted by general surgery teams (anesthesiologists, nurses, and surgeons) at four urban Canadian hospitals in the context of two research studies conducted between August 2004 and December 2007. We ask the questions: how and why did briefings succeed, how and why did they fail, and what did they mean for different participants? Ethnographic fieldnotes documenting the coordination and performance of team briefings were analyzed using Kenneth Burke's concepts of motive and attitude. ⋯ They were contingent on the organizational, medical and social scenes in which the briefings took place and on participants' multiple perceived purposes for participating (protecting patient safety, exchanging information, engaging with the team, fulfilling professional commitments, participating in research, and meeting social expectations). Participants' attitudes reflected their recognition (or rejection) of specific purposes, the briefings' perceived effectiveness in serving these purposes, and the briefings' perceived alignment (or conflict) with other priorities. Our findings illustrate the intrinsically rhetorical and variable nature of change.