Severely compromised quality of life in women and those of lower socioeconomic status waiting for joint replacement surgery

Objective
To determine health-related quality of life (HRQOL), psychological distress, physical function, and self efficacy in persons waiting for lower-limb joint replacement surgery.

Methods
A total of 214 patients on a waiting list for unilateral primary total knee or hip replacement at a large Australian public teaching hospital completed questionnaires after entry to the list. HRQOL and psychological distress were compared with available population norms.

Results
Average HRQOL was extremely poor (mean ± SD 0.39 ± 0.24) and much lower (>2 SD) than the population norm. Near death-equivalent HRQOL or worse than death-equivalent HRQOL were reported by 15% of participants. High or very high psychological distress was up to 5 times more prevalent in the waiting list sample (relative risk 5.4 for participants ages 75 years and older; 95% confidence interval 3.3, 9.0). Women had significantly lower HRQOL, self efficacy, and physical function scores than men. After adjusting for age and sex, significant socioeconomic disparities were also found. Participants who received the lowest income had the poorest HRQOL; those with the least education or the lowest income had the highest psychological distress. Low self efficacy was moderately associated with poor HRQOL (r = 0.49, P < 0.001) and more strongly associated with high psychological distress (r = -0.55, P < 0.001).

Conclusion
Patients waiting for joint replacement have very poor HRQOL and high psychological distress, especially women and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Lengthy waiting lists mean patients can experience extended and potentially avoidable morbidity. Interventions to address psychological distress and self efficacy could reduce this burden and should target women and lower socioeconomic groups.

Fragments of a map ; an exegesis concerning the novel, Fragments of a map

The novel explores the journey towards completion for two women and, through its concerns and structure, plays with the notion of research in the creative arts. The exegesis comments upon the concerns of the novel, and the writing and research processes.

Physical activity for mothers of young children : perceptions of women and health-related professionals

This research develops understanding of women's perceptions and practices around physical activity when they are mothers of young children. The findings inform current approaches to promoting physical activity, helping to bring about better health outcomes for women, their families and the wider community.

A narrative study of migrant women and Australian law

This thesis found that the migrant women it studied experienced everyday, discrimination-related hardships and legal problems which the law only partially resolved. It concluded that discrimination was an invisible issue with serious personal consequences for these migrant women.

Serving the community : a biography of two primary teachers in rural Victoria 1922-1970

This biographical history investigates the formative influences, motivations and professional lives of wife and husband Ellen Cahalane Jennings (nee Murray) and Joseph Kevin Jennings in the context of their career as employees of the Victorian Education Department.

Painful wrench for a European mind : land claims and representations of history and aboriginal tradition in the Darwin hinterland

The first longitudinal study of the way the statutory recognition of Aboriginal traditional rights to land has affected Aboriginal groups in the north western Northern Territory. An interdisciplinary approach is used drawing on methods from both history and anthropology.

"We've got a problem!" women and prenatal diagnosis

This feminist qualitative research addresses the lack of women's voices in the ethical debates surrounding prenatal diagnosis (PD). The conclusions reached challenge current ethical debates around PD programmes which, through the exclusion of groups intimately affected by PD, remain partial and inadequate.

Aeromedical evacuation nurses in the Korean war

This phenomenological research project explores the feelings and experiences of the few RAAF nurses stationed in Korea for aeromedical evacuation duties from 1952-1953.

Maternal realms : an exegesis and novel

Combines a novel and exegesis. The fictional autobiography, "The wardrobe drawer", describes a girl's prepubescent experiences in a dysfunctional family. The exegesis explores the process of life writing and renegotiates terms for motherhood and femininity by drawing from feminism, autobiography, queer theory and psychanalytic theory.

Older women and sternotomy

Explores the experiences of older women having a sternotomy incision following cardiac surgery. Older women account for a large proportion of patients undergoing cardiac surgery each year in Australia. The context from which they face cardiac surgery is unlike that of men and of younger women, and there has been limited exploration of their experiences.

Multicentric carpal-tarsal osteolysis with nephropathy treated successfully with cyclosporine A : a case report and literature review

Multicentric carpal-tarsal osteolysis is a rare skeletal disorder characterized by osteolysis of the metacarpal, carpal, and tarsal bones and leading to crippling joint deformities. Progressive nephropathy occurs in more than half the cases. All previously reported series with renal biopsies showed only end-stage renal disease on histological examination because of the late presentation to nephrologists. Accurate diagnosis of the underlying renal pathological state therefore has not been possible. We report the first case in which early and sequential renal biopsies were performed. These show the renal lesion to be focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis, which was treated successfully with cyclosporine A.

Re-presenting women and leadership : a methodological journey

Research on women's leadership has tended to focus upon detailed micro studies of individual women's identity formation or, alternatively, to conduct macro studies of its broader discursive constructions within society. Both approaches, although providing helpful understandings of the issues surrounding constructions of women's leadership, are inadequate. They fail to deal with the ongoing dilemma raised in both Cultural Studies and studies of discourse and identity, in relation to the negotiation of subjectivity and representation, that is, how broader societal discourses and media representations of women's leadership both inform, and are informed by, the lived experiences of individual women. In this article, a range of methodological approaches are outlined that were drawn upon in a study of a small group of senior women academics from ethnically and socioeconomically diverse origins. The authors examine how the women negotiated the frequent mismatch that arose between, on the one hand, societal discourses and media representations which often reproduced narrow and highly stereotypical accounts of women's leadership, and on the other hand, the individual women's subjective experiences of leadership which challenged such representations. It is contended that it is necessary to draw on a number of methodological perspectives in ways which trouble and unsettle homogenized versions of women's leadership in order to fully explicate more nuanced and complex ways of understanding how women's leadership identity is formed.

Aboriginal women and reconciliation in Australia : communication strategies and symbolism

This thesis explores the voices of Aboriginal women in the Reconciliation movement from 1991to 2001. It charts their success and failure, the power of the media and Reconciliation symbolism. Some of these women leaders retain a passionate commitment to Reconciliation while others have totally withdrawn from the process.