Predictors of sexually transmitted infection in Australian women : evidence from the Australian longitudinal study on women’s health

This longitudinal study examined characteristics of women diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections (STI) for the first time in their later 20s and early 30s. Participants were 6,840 women (born 1973–1978) from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. Women aged 18–23 years were surveyed in 1996 (S1), 2000 (S2), 2003 (S3), and 2006 (S4). There were 269 women reporting an STI for the first time at S3 or S4. Using two multivariable logistic regression analyses (examining 18 predictor variables), these 269 women were compared (1) with 306 women who reported an STI at S2 and (2) with 5,214 women who never reported an STI across the four surveys. Women who reported an STI for the first time at S3 or S4 were less likely to have been pregnant or had a recent Pap smear compared to women reporting an STI at S2.Women reporting a first STI at S3 or S4 were less likely to have been pregnant or had a recent Pap smear compared to women reporting an STI at S2. Women were more likely to report an STI for the first time at S3 or S4 compared to women not reporting an STI at any survey if they were younger, unpartnered, had a higher number of sexual partners, had never been pregnant, were recently divorced or separated, and reported poorer access to Women’s Health or Family Planning Centres at S2. These findings demonstrate the value of longitudinal studies of sexual health over the life course beyond adolescence.

Reproductive health : findings from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. Chapter 3: Use of contraception

Chapter 3: Use of contraception. p15-32 Key findings: This section examines trends in the use of contraception between 1996 and 2006 by women who participated in the surveys for the 1973-1978 cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. 1. The oral contraceptive pill was the most commonly used method of contraception at each survey, but its use decreased over time. 2.Of women who consistently used contraception, 40% used the oral contraceptive pill as their only method of contraception in at least three out of four surveys. 3. The proportion of women using condoms as their only method of contraception remained steady over time (15-18%) but only 3% of all women used condoms only at every survey. 4. The proportion of women using both condoms and the oral contraceptive pill remained steady at 13-14% of all women from Survey 1 to 3, but decreased to 8% of all women at Survey 4. 5. The use of methods other than the oral contraceptive pill and/or condoms increased at Survey 4. 6. The proportion of women using an implant (e.g. Implanon) remained steady between Surveys 3 and 4, with 3% of women using an implant only. Around one third of implant users at Survey 3 continued to use this method at Survey 4. 7. The main reasons for not using contraception at Surveys 3 and 4 were pregnancy, trying to conceive, or no male sexual partners. 8. Women who used contraception were more likely to be in de facto relationships or single, be up to date with Pap tests and have had two or more births. 9. Women who did not use contraception were more likely to be non-drinkers and/or do low levels of exercise, have had one birth and have experienced miscarriage. 10. Contraception changed in expected ways according to reproductive events: women who reported only miscarriages between surveys also stopped using contraception in the same period; most women who did not report reproductive events continued to use the same method of contraception; and women who had a termination tended to switch methods.

Reproductive health: findings from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. Chapter 5: fertility and infertility

Chapter 5: Fertility and infertility. p52-70. This section describes patterns of fertility across Surveys 1 to 4 among the cohort of women who were born in 1973-1978. This section includes the examination of pregnancy outcomes including both live births and pregnancy losses (stillbirths, miscarriages, terminations and ectopic pregnancies). This section also examines the prevalence of self-reported problems with fertility and whether these women sought advice and/or treatment. As women age they are more likely to experience infertility and, with little other data available, the ALSWH provides an important opportunity to examine this problem and the related use of health services. 1. Pregnancy losses are common. Half of the women who report a pregnancy outcome at Survey 4 have experienced a pregnancy loss. 2. More than one third (39%) of women who have experienced a live birth by Survey 4 have also experienced a pregnancy loss. 3. For every ten women aged 28-33 years in 2006: four women had not had been pregnant, five women had a live birth (with or without a recognised pregnancy loss), and one woman had a recognised pregnancy loss only. 4. Among women who had tried to conceive or had been pregnant, one-in-six had experienced infertility. (i.e. tried unsuccessfully to get pregnant for 12 months or more) 5. The most significant factors associated with having infertility, seeking advice and using treatment were: polycystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis and miscarriage. 6. Of the women who reported infertility, two-thirds sought advice but only half used treatment. 7. Most of the women who used fertility treatment had used low cost and non-invasive methods.

Variability in estimation of self-reported dietary intake data from elite athletes resulting from coding by different sports dietitians

A routine activity for a sports dietitian is to estimate energy and nutrient intake from an athlete's self-reported food intake. Decisions made by the dietitian when coding a food record are a source of variability in the data. The aim of the present study was to determine the variability in estimation of the daily energy and key nutrient intakes of elite athletes, when experienced coders analyzed the same food record using the same database and software package. Seven-day food records from a dietary survey of athletes in the 1996 Australian Olympic team were randomly selected to provide 13 sets of records, each set representing the self-reported food intake of an endurance, team, weight restricted, and sprint/power athlete. Each set was coded by 3-5 members of Sports Dietitians Australia, making a total of 52 athletes, 53 dietitians, and 1456 athlete-days of data. We estimated within- and between- athlete and dietitian variances for each dietary nutrient using mixed modeling, and we combined the variances to express variability as a coefficient of variation (typical variation as a percent of the mean). Variability in the mean of 7-day estimates of a nutrient was 2- to 3-fold less than that of a single day. The variability contributed by the coder was less than the true athlete variability for a 1-day record but was of similar magnitude for a 7-day record. The most variable nutrients (e.g., vitamin C, vitamin A, cholesterol) had approximately 3-fold more variability than least variable nutrients (e.g., energy, carbohydrate, magnesium). These athlete and coder variabilities need to be taken into account in dietary assessment of athletes for counseling and research.

Media pressures and corporate disclosure of social responsibility performance information : a study of two global clothing and sports retail companies

This paper investigates the social and environmental disclosure practices of two large multinational companies, specifically Nike and Hennes&Mauritz. Utilising a joint consideration of legitimacy theory and media agenda setting theory, we investigate the linkage between negative media attention, and positive corporate social and environmental disclosures. Our results generally support a view that for those industry‐related social and environmental issues attracting the greatest amount of negative media attention, these corporations react by providing positive social and environmental disclosures. The results were particularly significant in relation to labour practices in developing countries – the issue attracting the greatest amount of negative media attention for the companies in question.

Understanding Indigenous Australian women’s social and emotional wellbeing and wellness through yarning

This paper explores Indigenous Australian women’s understanding of wellness, through the lens of social and emotional wellbeing. The authors use a “yarning” approach to explore how wellness is important to Indigenous women who live in North Brisbane (Australia). They discuss the benefits of yarning and its strength as a methodology for conducting research and building activism within Indigenous Australian communities. They argue that, for Indigenous Australian women, wellness is linked to a sense of wholeness and strongly related to the feeling of connection that women get from meeting together and having time for women’s business. They describe the way that their research project developed into a community summit focused on Indigenous women’s wellness.

Facilitating lifestyle changes to manage menopausal symptoms in women with breast cancer : delivering the Pink Women’s Wellness Program

Women diagnosed as having breast cancer may experience difficulties with posttreatment effects such as menopausal symptoms. The aims of this pilot study were to (1) evaluate the impact of a multimodal lifestyle program on reducing menopausal symptoms in women with breast cancer and (2) examine the impact of the program on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and adherence to lifestyle recommendations.

Understanding women’s working lives

The last 50 years have produced multiple changes in our understanding of the place of paid and unpaid work in women’s lives. A growing theoretical, research and practical literature attests to the attention being directed to the a broader understanding of women’s working lives. It is more than thirty years since the groundbreaking paper by Fitzgerald and Crites’ (1980) on the career psychology of women. Prior to that time women’s careers were seen as primarily home based or “in relation to” men’s careers. In 1975 Osipow had commented on the lack of usefulness of traditional theories of career behaviour for women in that several basic assumptions on which they were founded were not relevant. For example, traditional career theory is based on the assumption that an array of career choices is available to all individuals, who are in turn motivated to pursue their personal interests in making certain choices. A comment on the state of vocational psychology in relation to class made by Tyler in 1967 highlights the inadequacy of application to women: - "much of what we know about the stages through which an individual passes as he prepares to find his place in the world of work might appropriately be labelled the vocational development of white middle class males" (p. 62; original italics). Gilligan's (1979) classic article entitled "woman's place in man's life cycle" emphasised the restriction of many theories of psychology in understanding women's lives as they implicitly adopted male as norm and failed to account for the unique social and family situation of women and the related demands on them...

Changing the discourse of women’s work : challenges and future directions

Theoretical work on the career development of women has travelled a journey from critique to creation. Early work responded to and criticised a literature that focused on theorising male roles in a workplace that was conceptualised as providing vertical career paths primarily for middle class males. Theorists have criticised the limitations of this theorising on the basis of gender, ability and social class variables - to name just a few. More recently theorists are creating new constructions and frameworks to enable a more holistic understanding of career, applicable to both women and men. This book provides a history of theorising about women's careers, in addition to presenting a focus on current empirical and theoretical work which contributes to current understandings of women's working lives. It has both mapped the current discourse and suggests challenges for future work. This chapter will provide a synthesis of the key issues presented in the book and pose some challenges for future work.

Fourth wall removed : womens' liberation or entrapment?

Australian dramatic literature of the 1950s and 1960s heralded a new wave in theatre and canonised a unique Australian identity on local and international stages. In previous decades, Australian theatre had been abound with the mythology of the wide brown land and the outback hero. This rural setting proved remote to audiences and sat uneasily within the conventions of the naturalist theatre. It was the suburban home that provided the back drop for this postwar evolution in Australian drama. While there were a number of factors that contributed to this watershed in Australian theatre, little has been written about how the spatial context may have influenced this movement. With the combined effects of postwar urbanization and shifting ideologies around domesticity, a new literary landscape had been created for playwrights to explore. Australian playwrights such as Dorothy Hewett, Ray Lawler and David Williamson transcended the outback hero by relocating him inside the postwar home. The Australian home of the 1960s slowly started subscribing to a new aesthetic of continuous living spaces and patios that extended from the exterior to the interior. These mass produced homes employed diluted spatial principles of houses designed by architects, Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe and Adolf Loos in the 1920s and 1930s. In writing about Adolf Loos’ architecture, Beatriz Colomina described the “house as a stage for the family theatre”. She also wrote that the inhabitants of Loos’ houses were “both actors and spectators of the family scene involved”. It has not been investigated as to whether this new capacity to spectate within the home was a catalyst for playwrights to reflect upon, and translate the domestic environment to the stage. Audiences were also accustomed to being spectators of domesticity and could relate to the representations of home in the theatre. Additionally, the domestic setting provided a space for gender discourse; a space in which contestations of masculine and feminine identities could be played out. This research investigates whether spectating within the domestic setting contributed to the revolution in Australian dramatic literature of the 1950s and 1960s. The concept of the spectator in domesticity is underpinned by the work of Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley. An understanding of how playwrights may have been influenced by spectatorship within the home is ascertained through interviews and biographical research. The paper explores playwrights’ own domestic experiences and those that have influenced the plays they wrote and endeavours to determine whether seeing into the home played a vital role in canonising the Australian identity on the stage.

Area of residence is associated with Australian women’s uptake of long-acting contraception

Objective: Several new types of contraception became available in Australia over the last twelve years (the implant in 2001, progestogen intra-uterine device (IUD) in 2003, and vaginal contraceptive ring in 2007). Most methods of contraception require access to health services. Permanent sterilisation and the insertion of an implant or IUD involve a surgical procedure. Access to health professionals providing these specialised services may be more difficult in rural areas. This paper examines uptake of permanent or long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs) among Australian women in rural areas compared to women in urban areas. Method: Participants in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health born in 1973-78 reported on their contraceptive use at three surveys: 2003, 2006 and 2009. Contraceptive methods included permanent sterilisation (tubal ligation, vasectomy), non-daily or LARC methods (implant, IUD, injection, vaginal ring), and other methods including daily, barrier or "natural" methods (oral contraceptive pills, condoms, withdrawal, safe period). Sociodemographic, reproductive history and health service use factors associated with using permanent, LARC or other methods were examined using a multivariable logistic regression analysis. Results: Of 9,081 women aged 25-30 in 2003, 3% used permanent methods and 4% used LARCs. Six years later in 2009, of 8,200 women (aged 31-36), 11% used permanent methods and 9% used LARCs. The fully adjusted parsimonious regression model showed that the likelihood of a woman using LARCs and permanent methods increased with number of children. Women whose youngest child was school-age were more likely to use LARCs (OR=1.83, 95%CI 1.43-2.33) or permanent methods (OR=4.39, 95%CI 3.54-5.46) compared to women with pre-school children. Compared to women living in major cities, women in inner regional areas were more likely to use LARCs (OR=1.26, 95%CI 1.03-1.55) or permanent methods (OR=1.43, 95%CI 1.17-1.76). Women living in outer regional and remote areas were more likely than women living in cities to use LARCs (OR=1.65, 95%CI 1.31-2.08) or permanent methods (OR=1.69, 95%CI 1.43-2.14). Women with poorer access to GPs were more likely to use permanent methods (OR=1.27, 95%CI 1.07-1.52). Conclusions: Location of residence and access to health services are important factors in women's choices about long-acting contraception in addition to the number and age of their children. There is a low level of uptake of non-daily, long-acting methods of contraception among Australian women in their mid-thirties.

Hepatitis C in the workplace : a survey of women’s occupational health and safety in the beauty therapy industry

Objective: To examine current knowledge and practice of occupational health and safety (OH&S) regarding hepatitis C in beauty therapy practice. Methods: A questionnaire was sent to all beauty therapy practices identified through the Telstra Yellow Pages and distributed via beauty therapy product agencies. Results: 119 questionnaires were completed by employers and employees in 99 beauty therapy practices in metropolitan Adelaide. Beauty therapists reported carrying out many practices that had exposed them to blood in the past. More than 80% of the procedures carried out by beauty therapists in the previous week were reported to have led to exposure to blood. 39.5% of respondents had not received information about OH&S practices related to blood spills and 77.5% of respondents had received no OH&S information about hepatitis C. Knowledge of hepatitis C and its transmission was poor, with 62% of respondents incorrectly identifying the prevalence of hepatitis C and respondents incorrectly identifying sneezing (28%), kissing (46%) and sharing coffee cups (42%) as a modes of transmission. 80% of beauty therapy practices had no OH&S representative. Conclusion: Beauty therapy practice can expose both operator and client to blood and is therefore a potential site for the transmission of blood-borne diseases including hepatitis C. OH&S information is inadequate in this industry and knowledge of hepatitis C is poor.