Prevalence of and risk factors for erectile dysfunction in Hong Kong diabetic patients

Aim To estimate the prevalence of erectile dysfunction (ED) in Chinese diabetic men and to identify its risk factors, we carried out a cross-sectional survey of 500 Chinese diabetic men attending a community hospital diabetic clinic in Hong Kong.
Methods Patients were interviewed and asked to report on their experience of ED as defined in the National Institutes of Health Consensus Conference 1993. Diabetic complications and patient clinical data were obtained from patients' medical records.
Results Of the 486 patients studied, the prevalence of ED was 63.6% (95% confidence interval 59.3–67.9%). The prevalence of ED increased with age, from 33.3% to 73.8% for diabetic men aged between 21 and 80 years (P = 0.001). Severity of ED also increased with age. Among diabetic men with ED, there was no report of complete ED for diabetic men aged 40 years and below, whereas the proportion of patients with complete ED increased from 7.4% to 71.1% between the ages of 41 and 80 years. ED occurred early in the course of the disease, with a prevalence increasing from 56.0% in men with diabetes mellitus (DM) for < 5 years to 72.0% in those with DM for > 20 years (P = 0.038). Duration of DM was also associated with severity; the proportion of patients with complete ED increased from 30.8% for those with DM for < 5 years to 72.2% for those with DM for ≥ 20 years (P < 0.001). Using logistic regression analysis, DM duration, diabetic complications including retinopathy, abnormal albuminuria and sensory neuropathy, and higher level of education were associated with a higher risk of ED. By polychotomous logistic regression, age was the only factor found to be associated with the severity of ED, after adjusting for other variables.
Conclusions Chinese diabetic patients have a prevalence of self-reported ED that appears to be higher than that of Western populations. This may be due to cultural differences and the association of abnormal albuminuria and hypertension.

Risk factors for coronary heart disease among Asian Indians living in Australia

The aim of this study was to assess the coronary heart disease risk factors in the Asian Indian community living in a large city in Australia. A cross-sectional survey was conducted at the Australia India Friendship Fair in 2010. All people of Asian Indian descent who attended the Fair and visited the health promotion stall were eligible to participate in the study if they self-identified as of Asian Indian origin, were aged between 18 and 80 years, and were able to speak English. Blood pressure, blood glucose, waist circumference, height, and weight were measured by a health professional. Smoking, cholesterol levels, and physical activity status were obtained through self-reports. Data were analyzed for 169 participants. More than a third of the participants under the age of 65 years had high blood pressure. Prevalence of diabetes (16%) and obesity (61%) was significantly higher compared with the national average. Ten women identified themselves as smokers. Physical activity patterns were similar to that of the wider Australian population. The study has provided a platform for raising awareness among nurses and promoting advocacy on the cardiovascular risk among Asian Indians. Strategies involving Asian Indian nurses and other Asian Indian health professionals as well as support from the private and public sectors can assist in the reduction of the coronary heart disease risk factors among this extremely susceptible population.

Poster presentation for the 7th Australian Women's Health Conference

This poster presentation demonstrates the significant impact Intimate Partner Violence is having on health outcomes in Australia.  One in three Australian women will experience Intimate Partner Violence within their lifetime. Despite nurses and midwives being in an ideal position to care for women who have expereinced Intimate Partner Violence, they have not been trained to do so.  This poster outlines the issue of Intimate Partner Violence in Australia and highlights how imprtant it is that nurses and midwives are able to assess and care for women who have been victimised.  This poster also provides information about a national Australian study which commences in 2014 with the aim to promote the ability for Australian nurses and midwives to be able to assess and care for women experiencing Intimate Partner Violence. 

"It's about freedom": contesting dominant representations of devout Muslim women in the space of the nation

Since September 11 there has been a rise of Islamophobia in Australian public discourse, matched by a growth of racialised attacks on visibly identifiable Muslims in public space. These cultural racisms have arisen in a context where Islamic religious signifiers and practices have come to be read as signs of fundamentalism, terrorism and threat to national political traditions and cultural values. In particular, the hijab has become a symbol of these tensions, with the veiled woman being read as the embodiment of a ‘repressive and fundamentalist religion’. However, as some Muslim and feminist scholars have proposed, these readings rob Muslim women of their ability to articulate the reasons why wear the veil or engage in gendered religious practices. This paper argues that this enacts a form of disembodiment, whereby Muslim womens’ ability to comfortably inhabit their bodies and assert themselves in the public sphere is limited. In particular the paper draws upon two case studies which express this disembodiment, whilst highlighting the counter-strategies that devout Muslim women are adopting to reinsert their bodies and narratives in the national frame. The first refers to the recent media backlash which followed a public lecture held at Melbourne University by Islamic organization Hikmah Way, where the audience was segregated along gender lines. The second draws upon interviews conducted with veiled Muslim women in Sydney, following the Cronulla riot. These interviews show how Muslim women are contesting dominant representations of the hijab in western popular discourse by recoding it as a signifier of religious and national identity, and as an expression of democratic freedom.

The First International Conference of the Nobel Women's Initiative : women redefining peace in the Middle East and beyond

The Nobel Women&rsquo;s Initiative (NWI) was formed in August 2006. It was a response to a suggestion by Iranian laureate Shirin Ebadi that women recipients of the Peace Prize should collectively endeavor to use the power and influence concomitant with being Nobel laureates to advance the cause of women internationally, by bringing their voices and experiences to the direct attention of the international community and media sources. NWI represents an attempt to help fill a gap that mars the present system of international relations. Over the past half-century, global standards have developed in earnest. One of these standards is women&rsquo;s equality with men. Despite the codification of this precept in international law, gender discrimination against women remains a globally unresolved problem. Women are seriously underrepresented at local, national, regional, and international levels of governance, and their voices and experiences remain marginalized from negotiations toward conflict resolution and the formation of viable democratic institutions.

Cannabilsm and imperial violence in Furphy`s The Buln-buln and the Brolga : metafiction and the national conference

Book review

Building a culture

This study provides a case study of two higher educational institutions and their built environment discipline academic culture, with a specific focus on the impact of culture on the participation of females in the subject area. The two institutions, whilst both delivering built environment programmes, are very different. One is in the UK and is a new university, and the other is in Australia and in the top 200 universities of the world (THES, 2004). Comparative studies have become fashionable as a way of determining policy (Broadfoot, 2001) yet it is still important to acknowledge the character of the national policy within which the culture exists. Culture is a concept used to try and indicate the "climate and practices" developed within an organization to handle people, together with the values of the organization (Schein, 1997, p 3). The academic tribes have been described by Becher and Trowler (2001) in some detail, and they acknowledge the huge range of external forces now acting on academic cultures including a diversification of subject areas and the impact of gender on subject areas. Built environment education has traditionally been a gendered (male dominated) subject area and is making efforts to change (Greed, 1999; Turrell, Wilkinson, Astle and Yeo, 2002). The study will try to identify the cultural attributes that exist in each of the two built environment departments and programmes drawing on the signs and symbols that indicate the culture as well as drawing on staff / student experience. A comparative study will be carried out to determine differences and similarities, and potential lessons to be learned by each institution .