Determinants of drink-driving and association between drink-driving and road traffic fatalities in Ghana

Aim The objective is to establish determinants of drink-driving and its association with traffic crashes in Ghana. Methods A multivariable logistic regression was used to establish significant determinants of drink-driving and a bivariate logistic regression to establish the association between drink–driving and road traffic crashes in Ghana. Results In total, 2,736 motorists were randomly stopped for breath testing of whom 8.7% tested positive for alcohol. Among the total participants, 5.5% exceeded the legal BAC limit of 0.08%. Formal education is associated with a reduced likelihood of drink-driving compared with drivers without formal education. The propensity to drink-drive is 1.8 times higher among illiterate drivers compared with drivers with basic education. Young adult drivers also recorded elevated likelihoods for driving under alcohol impairment compared with adult drivers. The odds of drink-driving among truck drivers is OR=1.81, (95% CI=1.16 to 2.82) and two wheeler riders is OR=1.41, (95% CI=0.47 to 4.28) compared with car drivers. Contrary to general perception, commercial car drivers have a significant reduced likelihood of 41%, OR=0.59, (95% CI=0.38 to 0.92) compared with the private car driver. Bivariate analysis conducted showed a significant association between the proportion of drivers exceeding the legal BAC limit and road traffic fatalities, p<0.001. The model predicts a 1% increase in the proportion of drivers exceeding the legal BAC to be associated with a 4% increase in road traffic fatalities, 95% CI= 3% to 5% and vice versa. Conclusion A positive and significant association between roadside alcohol prevalence and road traffic fatality has been established. Scaling up roadside breath test, determining standard drink and disseminating to the populace and formulating policies targeting the youth such as increasing minimum legal drinking age and reduced legal BAC limit for the youth and novice drivers might improve drink-driving related crashes in Ghana.

Alcohol-related violence presenting to the emergency department : is ‘glassing’ the big issue?

Objective Describe the characteristics of patients presenting to Emergency Departments (EDs) within Queensland, Australia with injuries due to assault with a glass implement (‘glassing’) and to set this within the broader context of presentations due to alcohol-related violence. Methods Analysis of prospectively collected ED injury surveillance data collated by the Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit (QISU) between 1999 and 2011. Cases of injury due to alcohol-related violence were identified and analysed using coded fields supplemented with qualitative data contained within the injury description text. Descriptive statistics were used to assess the characteristics of injury presentations due to alcohol-related violence. Violence included interpersonal violence and aggression (verbal aggression and object violence). Results A total of 4629 cases were studied. The study population was predominantly male (72%) and aged 18 to 24 (36%), with males in this age group comprising more than a quarter of the study population (28%). Nine percent of alcohol-related assault injuries were a consequence of ‘glassing’. The home was the most common location for alcohol-related violence (31%) and alcohol-related ‘glassings’ (33%). Overall, the most common glass object involved was a bottle (75%), however, within licensed venues an even mix of a drinking glass (44%) and glass bottle (45%) were identified. Conclusions Contrary to public perception generated by media, ‘glassing’ incidents, particularly at licensed venues, constitute a relatively small proportion of all alcohol-related violence. The current study highlights the predominance of young men injured following alcohol-related violence, demonstrating a key focus area within the population for aiming prevention strategies.

Prevalence and correlates of sleep disturbance in post-menopausal Australian women : the Healthy Aging of Women (HOW) study

Background: Sleep disturbance in midlife women has been studied extensively, although less is known about sleep after menopause. This study examined the relative impact of socio-demographics, modifiable lifestyle factors, and health status on sleep disturbance in post-menopausal women from Queensland, Australia. Methods: The longitudinal Healthy Aging of Women (HOW) study examines health-related quality of life (HRQOL measured by SF-12©), chronic illness, modifiable lifestyle factors such as physical activity, alcohol consumption, smoking, and sleep disturbance (General Sleep Disturbance Scale, GSDS ≥ 43 represent poor sleep) in midlife and older women from low and high socio-economic, rural and urban areas of South-East Queensland, Australia. This paper presents cross-sectional data from the 322 women, aged 60-70 years, participating in the HOW study in 2011. Results: For women in this study, sleep disturbance was relatively common, with 23% (n = 83) reporting poor sleeping (GSDS ≥ 43). Sleep disturbance scores were strongly correlated with being unemployed or on a disability support pension (β = 18.69, P < 0.01), sedentary lifestyle (β = 23.84, P < 0.01), and lower mental (β = -0.60, P <0.01) and physical health-related quality of life scores (β = -0.32, P = 0.01), and these variables explained almost one third of variance in sleep disturbance scores (ηρ² = 29%). Conclusions: Multivariable analysis revealed that sleep disturbance was correlated with physical and mental health-related quality of life, disability, and sedentary lifestyle, but not other lifestyle and socio-demographic characteristics. It may be however, that modifiable lifestyle factors may indirectly impact on sleep by influencing health status.

Design LED innovation to rejuvenate local food systems and healthy communities : an emerging research agenda

Food Sovereignty (food freedom) is about empowering people to develop their own local food system. Food Sovereignty challenges designers to enable people to innovate the local food system, rather than having a food system which is dictated by corporate interests and failed business ethics. Communities are realising the potential for design to assist in the innovation process, and add strategic value to potentially localise the food system. Design Led Innovation (DLI) offers a strategic framework to address large-scale cultural, systemic and economic changes. The DLI approach empowers communities to take organised action to achieve a healthy, prosperous and happy way of life. DLI can assist with business models in the business world and it is evident this approach can assist with creating social change too. This paper presents on an emerging research agenda aimed to assist designer’s focus from individuals and systems to communities and urban problems. This paper also presents the research proposition that DLI and service design coupled with social entrepreneurial ventures such as local food projects and creative community inventions, have the potential to enable social innovation for healthy and happy communities.

Determinants of drink-driving and association between drink-driving and road traffic fatalities in Ghana

Background Drink-driving has been implicated in many road traffic crashes in the world. Consequently, the developed countries have prioritized drink-driving research. Contrary, drink-driving research has not attained any meaningful consideration in many developing countries. It is therefore imperative to intensify drink-driving research so as to provide research driven solutions to the menace. Aims The objective is to establish determinants of drink-driving and its association with traffic crashes in Ghana. Methods A randomized roadside breathalyzer survey was conducted. A multivariable logistic regression was used to establish significant determinants of drink-driving and a bivariate logistic regression to establish the association between drink–driving and road traffic crashes in Ghana. Results In total, 2,736 motorists were randomly stopped for breath testing of whom 8.7% tested positive for alcohol. Among the total participants, 5.5% exceeded the legal BAC limit of 0.08%. Formal education is associated with a reduced likelihood of drink-driving compared with drivers without formal education. The propensity to drink-drive is 1.8 times higher among illiterate drivers compared with drivers with basic education. Young adult drivers also recorded elevated likelihoods for driving under alcohol impairment compared with adult drivers. The odds of drink-driving among truck drivers is OR=1.81, (95% CI=1.16 to 2.82) and two wheeler riders is OR=1.41, (95% CI=0.47 to 4.28) compared with car drivers. Contrary to general perception, commercial car drivers have a significant reduced likelihood of 41%, OR=0.59, (95% CI=0.38 to 0.92) compared with the private car driver. Bivariate analysis conducted showed a significant association between the proportion of drivers exceeding the legal BAC limit and road traffic fatalities, p<0.001. The model predicts a 1% increase in the proportion of drivers exceeding the legal BAC to be associated with a 4% increase in road traffic fatalities, 95% CI= 3% to 5% and vice versa. Discussion and conclusion A positive and significant association between roadside alcohol prevalence and road traffic fatality has been established. Scaling up roadside breath test, determining standard drink and disseminating to the populace and formulating policies targeting the youth such as increasing minimum legal drinking age and reduced legal BAC limit for the youth and novice drivers might improve drink-driving related crashes in Ghana.

Stress, lifestyle and quality of life in midlife and older Australian women : results from the stress and the health of women study

Background Chronic psychological stress may pose a serious threat to health, although the mechanisms are not fully understood. This study examines the impact of stress on modifiable lifestyle factors, depressive symptoms, health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and chronic illness in older Australian women. Methods Cross-sectional data were collected from a random sample of 181 older adults aged 60-70 years from rural and urban areas of South-East Queensland, Australia. We used structural equation modelling to examine associations between stress, modifiable lifestyle factors, HRQoL, and chronic illness. Findings Parameter estimates show that older women who reported life stressors where they felt helpless and feared for their life (high magnitude stressors) also reported higher body mass index (p = 0.03) and more chronic illness (p <0.01). In contrast, duration of exposure to life stressors was associated with higher depressive symptom scores (CES-D, p = 0.02) and sleep disturbance scores (p <0.01). Conclusions Our findings support the link between traumatic personal histories (exposure to high magnitude stressors) and unhealthy lifestyle factors. Findings highlight the need for more research on how stress reduction healthy lifestyle and positive coping strategies can be used to reduce the effects of high magnitude stress on health-related quality of life and chronic illness.

Coordinated control of grid connected photovoltaic reactive power and battery energy storage systems to improve the voltage profile of a residential distribution feeder

Increasing penetration of photovoltaic (PV) as well as increasing peak load demand has resulted in poor voltage profile for some residential distribution networks. This paper proposes coordinated use of PV and Battery Energy Storage (BES) to address voltage rise and/or dip problems. The reactive capability of PV inverter combined with droop based BES system is evaluated for rural and urban scenarios (having different R/X ratios). Results show that reactive compensation from PV inverters alone is sufficient to maintain acceptable voltage profile in an urban scenario (low resistance feeder), whereas, coordinated PV and BES support is required for the rural scenario (high resistance feeder). Constant as well as variable droop based BES schemes are analyzed. The required BES sizing and associated cost to maintain the acceptable voltage profile under both schemes is presented. Uncertainties in PV generation and load are considered, with probabilistic estimation of PV generation and randomness in load modeled to characterize the effective utilization of BES. Actual PV generation data and distribution system network data is used to verify the efficacy of the proposed method.

A comparison of methods to identify alcohol involvement in youth injury-related emergency department presentation data

Aims: To compare different methods for identifying alcohol involvement in injury-related emergency department presentation in Queensland youth, and to explore the alcohol terminology used in triage text. Methods: Emergency Department Information System data were provided for patients aged 12-24 years with an injury-related diagnosis code for a 5 year period 2006-2010 presenting to a Queensland emergency department (N=348895). Three approaches were used to estimate alcohol involvement: 1) analysis of coded data, 2) mining of triage text, and 3) estimation using an adaptation of alcohol attributable fractions (AAF). Cases were identified as ‘alcohol-involved’ by code and text, as well as AAF weighted. Results: Around 6.4% of these injury presentations overall had some documentation of alcohol involvement, with higher proportions of alcohol involvement documented for 18-24 year olds, females, indigenous youth, where presentations occurred on a Saturday or Sunday, and where presentations occurred between midnight and 5am. The most common alcohol terms identified for all subgroups were generic alcohol terms (eg. ETOH or alcohol) with almost half of the cases where alcohol involvement was documented having a generic alcohol term recorded in the triage text. Conclusions: Emergency department data is a useful source of information for identification of high risk sub-groups to target intervention opportunities, though it is not a reliable source of data for incidence or trend estimation in its current unstandardised form. Improving the accuracy and consistency of identification, documenting and coding of alcohol-involvement at the point of data capture in the emergency department is the most desirable long term approach to produce a more solid evidence base to support policy and practice in this field.

The subject and architecture

Invited Presentation on my book Architecture for a Free Subjectivity. In March of 1982, Skyline, the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies serial, published the landmark interview between Paul Rabinow, an American anthropologist, and Michel Foucault, which would only appear two years later under the title “Space, Knowledge, and Power,” in Rabinow’s edited book The Foucault Reader. Foucault said that in the spatialization of knowledge and power beginning in the 18th century, architecture is not a signifier or metaphor for power, it is rather the “technique for practising social organization.” The role of the IAUS in the architectural dissemination of Foucault’s ideas on the subject and space in the North American academy – such as the concept “heterotopia,” and Foucault’s writing on surveillance and Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, subsequently analysed by Georges Teyssot, who was teaching at the Venice School – is well known. Teyssot’s work is part of the historical canalization of Foucauldianism, and French subjectivity more broadly, along its dizzying path, via Italy, to American architecture schools, where it solidified in the 1980s paradigm that would come to be known as American architecture theory. Foucault was already writing on incarceration and prisons, from the 1970s. (In the 1975 lectures he said “architecture was responsible for the invention of madness.”) But this work was not properly incorporated into architectural discussion until the early ’80s. What is not immediately apparent, what this history suggests to me is that subjectivity was not a marginal topic within “theory”, but was perhaps a platform and entry point for architecture theory. One of the ideas that I’m working on is that “theory” can be viewed, historically, as the making of architectural subjectivity, something that can be traced back to the Frankfurt School critique which begins with the modern subject...

Understanding the implications of digital interactions on the design of public urban spaces

This study investigated the impact of digital networked social interactions on the design of public urban spaces. Urban informatics, social media, ubiquitous computing, and mobile technology offer great potential to urban planning, as tools of communication, community engagement, and placemaking. The study considers the function of public spaces as 'third places,' that is, social places that are familiar, comfortable, social and meaningful for everyday life outside the home and work. Libraries were chosen as the study's focus. The study produced findings and insights at the intersection of urban planning (place), cultural geography and urban sociology (people), and information communication technology (technology) – the triad of urban informatics.

Comparing female victims of separation/divorce assault across geographical regions

Recent analyses of National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) data show that male-to-female separation/divorce assault varies across geographic regions in the United States, with rural rates of such woman abuse being higher than those for suburban and urban areas. Using the same data set, the main objective of this paper is to present the results of an investigation into whether characteristics of female victims of separation/divorce assault also differ across urban, suburban, and rural communities.