Managing the family`s health: preferences and experiences of women with different work and family arrangements.

Balancing the needs of work and family is a subject of much debate.The purpose of this research was to explore how families manage their children's health within the context of different work and family arrangements.In-depth interviews were conducted with women who were at home full time (8) or in paid work over 30 hours a week (7). Women had at least one child under the five years of age. Findings revealed there was no simple relationship between women's working arrangements and how they managed their children's health. All women, irrespective of their working arrangements, held similar preferences for managing their children's health.However, most women experienced either time or financial constraints that meant they had to compromise their original preferences. In some cases this meant children missed out on receiving health services. Workplace support, extended family support and general satisfaction with work and family arrangements appeared to be important factors for the small number of women who had no problems in managing their children's health. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Relationship between stress, eating behavior and obesity

Stress is thought to influence human eating behavior and has been examined in animal and human studies. Our understanding of the stress-eating relation is confounded by limitations inherent in the study designs; however, we can make some tentative conclusions that support the notion that stress can influence eating patterns in humans. Stress appears to alter overall food intake in two ways, resulting in under- or overeating, which may be influenced by stressor severity. Chronic life stress seems to be associated with a greater preference for energy- and nutrient-dense foods, namely those that are high in sugar and fat. Evidence from longitudinal studies suggests that chronic life stress may be causally linked to weight gain, with a greater effect seen in men. Stress-induced eating may be one factor contributing to the development of obesity. Future studies that measure biological markers of stress will assist our understanding of the physiologic mechanism underlying the stress-eating relation and how stress might be linked to neurotransmitters and hormones that control appetite.

What about the mother and family when an infant doesn`t sleep?

Becoming a new parent is a time of enormous change in the lifestyle of women, particularly as women are expected to take on prime responsibly for caring for the child. Motherhood can be exhausting and lonely as women cope with the demands of a new baby. These demands are exacerbated when infants do not sleep. This causes many parents to seek professional intervention with persistent infant sleep problems. Through focus group interviews, this study sought to understand the experiences of 28 women and families in how they coped with and managed an infant with sleep problems. Results indicated that women experienced major role confusion as they internalised the image that 'a good mother does it all'. Persistent infant crying and their own sleep deprivation exacerbated their loss of identity and shattered their self image, and caused anger and confusion in some partners. Each woman sought primary health care support through a five day residential stay in an Early Parenting Centre in Victoria. The women found that this professional support facilitated confidence building and feelings of normality. Most important, staff encouraged the women to feel good about themselves and their ability to manage future sleep problems.

Behavior and beliefs related to dietary fat are influenced by weight-control status

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Novel 10- and 20- membered tin- and silicon-containing rings: synthesis, complexation behavior and conversion into a lewis acidic polymer

Reaction of the dimethylsilylmethyl-substituted tetraorganotin derivative CH₂[CH₂Sn(Ph₂)CH₂Si(H)Me₂]₂ (1) and CH₂[CH₂Sn(Ph₂)CH₂Si(i-PrO)Me₂]₂ (3), respectively, with mercuric chloride afforded the novel silicon- and tin-containing 10- and 20-membered rings cyclo-CH₂[CH₂Sn(Cl₂)CH₂Si(Me₂)]₂O (4) and cyclo-CH₂[CH₂Sn(Cl₂)CH₂Si(Me₂)OSi(Me₂)CH₂Sn(Cl₂)CH₂]₂CH₂ (5). Both compounds 4 and 5 can be converted into the soluble Lewis acidic polymer poly-[Si(Me₂)CH₂Sn(Cl₂)(CH₂)₃Sn(Cl₂)CH₂Si(Me₂)O] (8). ¹¹⁹Sn NMR studies indicate that 4 acts as a bidentate Lewis acid toward chloride ions, exclusively forming the 1:1 complex [cyclo-CH₂[CH₂Sn(Cl₂)CH₂Si(Me₂)]₂O·Cl]-[(Ph₃P)₂N]⁺ (7). The molecular structures as determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis of 4 and 7 are reported.

The relationship between childhood injuries and family type

This article focuses on the relationship between childhood injuries and family type. Injury is the leading cause of death among children in Australia. While children in sole-parent families were over-represented among the 17 percent of children who sustained an injury in the Growing Up in Australia study, once socio-economic indicators were taken into account, the increased risk for injury for children in a sole-parent family was no longer apparent. The Draft National Injury Prevention Plan was developed by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aging to aid in efforts for the prevention of child injury.

The cost of seasonal respiratory illnesses in Australian children: the dominance of patient and family costs and implications for vaccine use

Respiratory viral infections are one of the next group of diseases likely to be targeted for prevention in childhood by the use of vaccines. To begin collecting necessary epidemiology and cost information about the illnesses caused by these viruses, we conducted a prospective cohort study in 118 Melbourne children between 12 and 71 months of age during winter and spring 2001. We were interested in calculating an average cost per episode of community-managed acute respiratory disease, in identifying the key cost drivers of such illness, and to identify the proportion of costs borne by the patient and family. There were 202 community-managed influenza-like illnesses identified between July and December 2001, generating 89 general practitioner visits, and 42 antibiotic prescriptions. The average cost of community-managed episodes (without hospitalisation) was $241 (95% CI $191 to $291), with the key cost drivers being carer time away from usual activities caring for the ill child (70% of costs), use of non-prescription medications (5.4%), and general practice visits (5.0%). The patient and family met 87per cent of total costs. The lowest average cost occurred in households from the highest income bracket. Acute respiratory illness managed in the community is common, with the responsibility for meeting the cost of episodes predominantly borne by the patient and family in the form of lost productivity. These findings have implications for preventive strategies in children, such as the individual use of, or implementation of public programs using, currently available vaccines against influenza and vaccines under development against other viral respiratory pathogens.

New techniques and issues in assessing walking behavior and its contexts

In the first section of this article, we discuss the metabolic responses to walking by describing the economy of walking during different locomotion velocities. Gender, weight status, and growth effects on metabolic responses to walking are reviewed. In the second section, we examine the use of technology to assess walking patterns and behavior in the community. We use an engineering approach for understanding how to measure objects that move, and these methods are used to assess walking used in transportation. In the third part of the paper, we summarize self-report methods that have been used to assess walking behavior and highlight the strengths and weaknesses of these methods. We illustrate how self-report methods are used to quantify walking behavior in the surveillance systems that are now widely used to ascertain walking prevalence and temporal changes in different populations. In the final section, we discuss ways of measuring the walkability of neighborhoods and the community to understand the influence of the built environment on walking behavior.

Children's after-school activity : associations with weight status and family circumstance

This study investigated children's after-school activity and associations with body mass index (BMI) and family circumstance. One thousand two hundred thirty-four parents and 854 children (age 8-13 years) completed activity diaries for the 2 hours after school. Parents reported children as more active than children reported themselves. Boys were reported to be more active than girls. Activity levels were generally not associated with BMI or family circumstance with the exception of cultural background. Parent-reported mean child METs were higher for mothers born in Australia (3.3 vs. 3.0; p = .02). Child-reported mean METs were higher for fathers born in Australia (2.9 vs. 2.6; p = .04) and where English was their main language (2.9 vs. 2.3, p = .003).