The professionalisation of stress management : health and wellbeing as a professional duty of care?

Workplace stress associated with ongoing processes of organizational change is a major occupational and public health concern. It is also a costly economic issue—both public and private. In this paper a framework will be used that draws on Michel Foucault’s genealogies of the Self to suggest that the management of stress by professionals—in a workplace environment increasingly characterized by the practices of risk management—emerges as a key element of the choices and responsibilities that frame what it means to be professional. To be (a) professional means to be a person capable of making choices and accepting responsibilities that are framed by a duty of care to manage one’s health and well-being to maximize organizational performance and effectiveness. The article will examine the ways in which transformations in the organization and practice of teachers’ work have witnessed large numbers of teachers being seen, and seeing themselves, as stressed. These understandings of teacher stress have provoked a number of strategies designed to encourage individuals to take care of themselves—and to take care of themselves in ways that will make schools more effective. The authors are concerned with understanding the processes that are at work which make it possible to imagine that it is a professional duty of care to manage one’s life in such a way as to be both balanced and effective in contexts of uncertainty and risk.

Patterns of alcohol use and associated physical and lifestyle characteristics according to new Australian guidelines

Objective: To describe the pattern of alcohol consumption and associated physical and lifestyle characteristics in a population-based sample of Australian men.
Method: A community-based age-stratifi ed random sample of 1420 men (median age 56 years, range 20 – 93) participating in the Geelong Osteoporosis Study, an epidemiological study set in south-eastern Australia. Daily alcohol intake was ascertained from a detailed food frequency questionnaire and categorized according to the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council 2009 guidelines (non-drinkers, greater than zero but ≤ 2 drinks per day, > 2 drinks per day), with a standard drink equivalent to 10 g of ethanol. Anthropometry was measured and lifestyle factors self-reported. Body composition was determined using dual energy absorptiometry. Socio-economic status was categorized according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics data. Results were age standardized to the Australian male population figures.
Results: The median daily ethanol consumption was 12 g (IQR 2 – 29) per day with a range of 0 – 117 g/day. The age-standardized proportion of non-drinkers was 8.7%, 51.5% consumed up to two drinks per day ( ≤ 20 g ethanol/day), and 39.9% exceeded 2 standard drinks per day ( > 20 g ethanol/day). Alcohol consumption was positively associated with cigarette smoking, weight, higher SES and inversely with age and physical activity.
Conclusions: Approximately, 40% of Australian men consume alcohol at levels in excess of current recommendations, which in combination with other risk factors may adversely impact upon health.

Personal values, vanity, physical health, and perceived body image influences in food-purchasing and consumption decisions

While weight, health, diet, and exercise receive constant media and governmental attention, relatively little is known about the influence of body image in the food consumption process. Moreover, there is general consensus within the literature that the factors that influence consumption behavior can have a different impact on different consumer groups. Body image, for example, is perceived to be a modulating force in the consumption behavior of young women. As a result, there is a need for an empirically based understanding of the factors that influence food-purchasing and consumption behavior among this group. Studies have investigated the links between perceived body image and food-purchasing behavior. In 18- to 30-year-old women, it has been shown that personal values, vanity, physical health, and perceived body image were major factors of influence in the purchasing and consumption decisions of this group. It was also identified that respondents across these studies engaged in healthy and unhealthy consumption practices in order to achieve their perceived body image ideals.

The health and well-being of Sudanese young men in Melbourne

The health and well-being needs of young refugee men from Sudan are not adequately addressed by settlement services. To address this, I recommend using Ubuntu and Afrocentric approaches that emphasise dialogue. I have highlighted the problem areas where attention and action is needed for them to realise their full potential.

Splash!: a prospective birth cohort study of the impact of environmental, social and family-level influences on child oral health and obesity related risk factors and outcomes

Background: Dental caries (decay) is the most prevalent disease of childhood. It is often left untreated and can impact negatively on general health, and physical, developmental, social and learning outcomes. Similar to other health issues, the greatest burden of dental caries is seen in those of low socio-economic position. In addition, a number of diet-related risk factors for dental caries are shared risk factors for the development of childhood obesity. These include high and frequent consumption of refined carbohydrates (predominately sugars), and soft drinks and other sweetened beverages, and low intake of (fluoridated) water. The prevalence of childhood obesity is also at a concerning level in most countries and there is an opportunity to determine interventions for addressing both of these largely preventable conditions through sustainable and equitable solutions. This study aims to prospectively examine the impact of drink choices on child obesity risk and oral health status.
Methods/Design: This is a two-stage study using a mixed methods research approach. The first stage involves qualitative interviews of a sub-sample of recruited parents to develop an understanding of the processes involved in drink choice, and inform the development of the Discrete Choice Experiment analysis and the measurement instruments to be used in the second stage. The second stage involves the establishment of a prospective birth cohort of 500 children from disadvantaged communities in rural and regional Victoria, Australia (with and without water fluoridation). This longitudinal design allows measurement of changes in the child’s diet over time, exposure to fluoride sources including water, dental caries progression, and the risk of childhood obesity.
Discussion: This research will provide a unique contribution to integrated health, education and social policy and program directions, by providing clearer policy relevant evidence on strategies to counter social and environmental factors which predispose infants and children to poor health, wellbeing and social outcomes; and evidence-based strategies to promote health and prevent disease through the adoption of healthier lifestyles and diet. Further, given the absence of evidence on the processes and effectiveness of contemporary policy implementation, such as community water fluoridation in rural and regional communities it’s approach and findings will be extremely
informative.

I don't know anyone that has two drinks a day : young people, alcohol and the government of pleasure

Problematic alcohol consumption is a major public health, health education and health promotion issue in Australia and internationally. In an effort to better understand young people's drinking patterns and motivations we investigated the cultural drivers of drinking in 14–24 year-old Australians. We interviewed 60 young people in the state of Victoria aged 20–24 about their drinking biographies. At the time of interviewing, the draft guidelines on low-risk drinking were released by the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia, and we asked our participants what they knew about them and if they thought they would affect their drinking patterns. Their responses indicate that pleasure and sociability are central to young people's drinking cultures which is supported by a range of research. However, O’Malley and Valverde claim that pleasure is silenced and/or deployed strategically in neo-liberal governance discourses about drugs and alcohol such as these guidelines which raises questions about the limits of such discourses to affect changes in drinking patterns.