Depressive symptoms and adverse outcomes from hospitalization in older adults : secondary outcomes of a trial of falls prevention education

Depression is common in older people and symptoms of depression are known to substantially increase during hospitalization. There is little known about predictors of depressive symptoms in older adults or impact of common interventions during hospitalization. This study aimed to describe the magnitude of depressive symptoms, shift of depressive symptoms and the impact of the symptoms of depression among older hospital patients during hospital admission and identify whether exposure to falls prevention education affected symptoms of depression. Participants (n = 1206) were older adults admitted within two Australian hospitals, the majority of participants completed the Geriatric Depression Scale – Short Form (GDS) at admission (n = 1168). Participants’ mean age was 74.7 (±SD 11) years and 47% (n = 551) were male. At admission 53% (619 out of 1168) of participants had symptoms of clinical depression and symptoms remained at the same level at discharge for 55% (543 out of 987). Those exposed to the low intensity education program had higher GDS scores at discharge than those in the control group (low intensity vs control n = 652, adjusted regression coefficient (95% CI) = 0.24 (0.02, 0.45), p = 0.03). The only factor other than admission level of depression that affected depressive symptoms change was if the participant was worried about falling. Older patients frequently present with symptoms of clinical depression on admission to hospital. Future research should consider these factors, whether these are modifiable and whether treatment may influence outcomes.

The impact of relaxing music on insomnia-related thoughts and behaviours

Insomnia is a pervasive problem involving poor sleep quality and quantity. Previous research has suggested that music listening can help alleviate insomnia, but exactly how music helps sleep problems has not been determined. A greater understanding of these processes could help practitioners to design more effective music-based insomnia treatments. This randomised controlled trial was designed to assess the influences of nightly music listening on the sleep-related thoughts and behaviours described in Harvey’s (2002) cognitive model of insomnia maintenance. University students, including a range of good and poor sleepers, were randomly assigned to a music listening group or a control group and were assessed before and after a two-week music listening intervention. Measures included a range of self-report scales, each assessing an element of Harvey’s cognitive model. During the intervention, the music listening group was asked to listen to provided music for at least 20 minutes each night. The control group was asked to maintain their regular nightly routines. Results indicated that the music listening group significantly improved on most of the factors theorised to influence sleep quality, although their actual sleep quality did not significantly improve. The control group did not change significantly on any measures. The results of this study suggest that music listening can have positive impacts on a range of factors theorised to influence sleep quality. However, as the music was not shown to actually improve sleep quality, Harvey’s cognitive model explanation of music’s effect on sleep quality may require further investigation.

Aerothermal-strucutral analysis of a rocket launched Mach 8 scramjet experiment : ascent

This paper reports on the methodology and results of a weak-coupled aerothermalstructural analysis on the ascent phase of the SCRAMSPACE Mach 8 scramjet flight experiment. This vehicle was essentially un-shrouded during the flight trajectory, relying on the thin, 5mm thick aluminium external shell of the payload to maintain structural integrity and protect the flight experiment. As such, understanding the thermal-structural response of the vehicle was imperative to mission success. Using two- and three-dimensional models, an iterative procedure was employed to compute the flowfield, convective heating, wall temperatures and structural coupling at flight times covering both peak heating and peak surface temperature. Accounting for such coupling resulted in a 150K reduction in wall temperature compared to the more conservative cold wall assumption. Despite this, peak temperatures remained of the order of 550 K. Further, thermally induced stresses within these regions were in excess of four times the material failure limits. Irreversible material failure during ascent was therefore concluded likely to occur on the external shell. Two alternate materials, steel 1006 and copper, were therefore assessed with the results indicating that steel sections on the external shell resulted in the best thermal-structural response of the payload.

The Healthy Living after Cancer Partnership Project [Conference Abstract]

There is considerable evidence for the efficacy of physical activity, diet and weight loss interventions in improving health outcomes for cancer survivors, but limited uptake into practice. Healthy Living after Cancer (HLaC) is an evidence-based, telephone-delivered lifestyle intervention targeting cancer survivors. This paper describes the translation of HLaC into practice in partnership with Australian state-based Cancer Councils.

A stakeholder process evaluation of a social marketing walking intervention targeting children

One quarter of Australian children are overweight or obese (ABS, 2010), putting them at increased risk of physical and psychological health problems (Reilly et al., 2003). Overweight and obesity in childhood tends to persist into adulthood and is associated with premature death and morbidity (Reilly & Kelly, 2011). Increases in Australian children’s weight have coincided with declines in active transportation, such as walking, to school (Salmon et al., 2005). To address this problem, the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth), which is an independent statutory authority which advises government and contributes to promoting good health in Victoria (VicHealth, 2014), developed the Walk to School program. Walk to School aims to encourage primary school children in Victoria to walk to and from school more often. Walking to school is a low cost and effective means of reducing excess weight (Rosenberg et al., 2006) that can be easily integrated into daily routine (Brophy et al., 2011). The purpose of this paper is to present the results of the stakeholder process evaluation of Walk to School 2013, which forms part of a broader outcome evaluation that is currently in field. Although there is an emphasis on outcome evaluation of programs, process evaluation can be equally important in determining program success (Saunders et al., 2005). Further, process evaluation to assess program delivery and utilization is explicitly recommended by two social marketing frameworks (see Lefebvre et al., 1988; Walsh et al., 1993).

Racism, Representation and Photography

Representation of Aborigines by Aborigines and non -Aborigines; articles by Andrew Dewdney, Mervyn Biship, Alana Harris, Sandy Edwards, Rea Saunders, Ricky Maynard , Brenda Croft, Ruth Braunstein, Michael Riley, Huw Davies, Penny Taylor, Darlene McKenzie, Kurt Brereton and Eric Michaels, annotated separately.

Lifesaver

Lifesaver is an installed object as well as a performance aid. A re-contextualised life jacket has been adapted to include soothing sounds of a beach landscape. The work aims to provide a reprieve from the stresses of everyday life to the wearer and their surrounds. It explores the relationship between the outside world and the gallery, the performer and the viewer and the role of art in contemporary society. This work was included in the group exhibitions 'Conversation Pieces' at Boxcopy Contemporary Art Space (2014) and 'Extended Conversation Pieces' curated by Boxcopy as part of the Melbourne Art Fair (2014).

The role of affect in consumer evaluation of health care services

Health care services are typically consumed out of necessity, typically to recover from illness. While the consumption of health care services can be emotional given that consumers experience fear, hope, relief, and joy, surprisingly, there is little research on the role of consumer affect in health care consumption. We propose that consumer affect is a heuristic cue that drives evaluation of health care services. Drawing from cognitive appraisal theory and affect-as-information theory, this article tests a research model (N = 492) that investigates consumer affect resulting from service performance on subsequent service outcomes.

'I wonder what you know...': Teachers designing requests for factual information

The early years are significant in optimising children’s educational, emotional and social outcomes and have become a major international policy priority. Within Australia, policy levers have prioritised early childhood education, with a focus on program quality, as it is associated with lifelong success. Longitudinal studies have found that high quality teacher-child interactions are an essential element of high quality programs, and teacher questioning is one aspect of teacher-child interactions that has been attributed to affecting the quality of education, linking open ended questioning to higher cognitive achievement. Teachers, however, overwhelmingly ask more closed than open questions. In the classroom, like everyday interaction, questions in interaction require answers. They are used to request, offer, repair, challenge, seek agreement (Curl & Drew, 2008; Enfield, Stivers, & Levinson, 2010; Hayano, 2013; Schegloff, 2007). Teachers use questions to set agendas and manage lessons (McHoul, 1978; Mehan, 1979; Sacks, 1995), and to gauge students’ knowledge and understanding (Lerner, 1995; McHoul, 1978; Mehan, 1979). Drawing on data from the Australian Research Council project Interacting with Knowledge: Interacting with people: Web searching in early childhood, this paper focuses on an extended sequence of talk between a teacher with two students aged between 3.5 and 5 years in a preschool classroom. The episode, drawn from a corpus of over 200 hours of video recorded data, captures how the teacher and children undertake an online search for images of lady beetles and hairy caterpillars on the Web. Ethnomethodological and conversation analysis approaches examine how the teacher asks questions, which call on the children to display their factual knowledge about the search topic. The fine grained analysis shows how teachers design their interactions to prompt children’s displays of factual knowledge, and how the design of factual questions affect a student’s response in terms of what and how they respond. In focussing on how the teacher designs factual questions and how children respond to these questions it shows that question design can close down a student’s reply; or elicit a range of answers, from one word to extended more detailed responses. Understanding how the design of teachers’ questions can influence students’ responses has pedagogic implications and may support educators to make intentional decisions regarding their own questioning techniques.

Reggae borderzones, reggae graveyards: Bob Marley fandom in Bali

The road from Bali’s international airport to the island’s most renowned tourist area, Kuta Beach, leads past a number of establishments claiming affiliation to reggae music and Rastafarianism in large, appropriately coloured billboards. A sign outside a tee shirt shop bears the words RASTA MANIA within a green, yellow and red border, and a stick figure caricaturing negritude, the logo of this clothing label. In the window display hangs a tee shirt, and upon it Bob Marley’s wizened face. His lips pinch a cone-shaped spliff, and he squints behind a veil of airbrushed smoke. A leanto sign on the sidewalk outside Apache Bar announce REGGAE BANDS NIGHTLY. This barn of coconut wood and thatch nestles behind Wendy’s Ice Cream Parlour and Chi Chi’s Mexican Bar. Its timber walls emulate a rustic, spaghetti Western aesthetic and are adorned with portraits of native Americans. In addition to the reggae bands, nightly, Apache bar unites young Japanese women with local ‘guides’.2

Oral liquid nutritional supplements for people with dementia in residential aged care facilities

AIM: This systematic review investigated the prescription, administration and effectiveness of oral liquid nutritional supplements (OLNS) for people with dementia in residential aged care facilities (RACF). METHODS: A comprehensive search of relevant databases, hand searching and cross-referencing found 15 relevant articles from a total of 2910 possible results. Articles which met the inclusion criteria were critically appraised by two independent reviewers using the relevant Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) appraisal checklist. Data were extracted using the relevant JBI extraction instruments. No data synthesis was possible due to clinical and methodological heterogeneity. RESULTS: Included studies examined a range of strategies, issues and results related to OLNS for persons with dementia in RACFs; however there appear to be significant gaps in the current body of research, particularly in relation to examinations of effectiveness. CONCLUSIONS: This review was unable to produce a definitive finding regarding effectiveness. OLNS may improve the nutritional state of residents with dementia and help prevent weight loss, and there is some suggestion that it may slow the rate of cognitive decline. However, in order for OLNS to be effective, nursing and care staff need to ensure that sufficient attention is paid to the issues of prescription and administration.

Barriers to entering affordable home ownership for young people: A preliminary study from university students’ perspectives

Over the last two decades, housing affordability has been a problem for young people, and identified as factor leading to youth homelessness. The National Youth Commission Inquiry into Youth Homelessness developed a roadmap for preventing this problem (National Youth Commission, 2008). The roadmap recommends increasing the supply of affordable housing for young people as an important strategy to reduce the risk of homelessness problems. In addition, understanding the barriers and the needs of young people is a significant part of the development of a national affordable housing strategy. This paper explores issues encountered by young people when they enter the housing market as first home buyers. A short survey was conducted to review the barriers to entry, classified by income levels, housing cost and availability of affordable housing. In the current competitive job market, young people have minimal work experience, relatively low job security and low income. In addition to these barriers, participants also suggested other barriers towards the purchase of their first home, such as lack of knowledge of legal issues and lack of government funding. This study suggests the need for both government and educational support for young people around housing choices and the development of financial strategies to manage barriers towards owning their first home.

Effective communication during disasters: What effects community decision making & action?

Study/Objective This paper describes a program of research examining emergency messaging during the response and early recovery phases of natural disasters. The objective of this suite of studies is to develop message construction frameworks and channels that maximise community compliance with instructional messaging. The research has adopted a multi-hazard approach and considers the impact of formal emergency messages, as well as informal messages (e.g., social media posts), on community compliance. Background In recent years, media reports have consistently demonstrated highly variable community compliance to instructional messaging during natural disasters. Footage of individuals watching a tsunami approaching from the beach or being over-run by floodwaters are disturbing and indicate the need for a clearer understanding of decision making under stress. This project’s multi-hazard approach considers the time lag between knowledge of the event and desired action, as well as how factors such as message fatigue, message ambiguity, and the interplay of messaging from multiple media sources are likely to play a role in an individual’s compliance with an emergency instruction. Methods To examine effective messaging strategy, we conduct a critical analysis of the literature to develop a framework for community consultation and design experiments to test the potential for compliance improvement. Results Preliminary results indicate that there is, as yet, little published evidence on which to base decisions about emergency instructional messages to threatened communities. Conclusion The research described here will contribute improvements in emergency instructional message compliance by generating an evidence-based framework that takes into account behavioural compliance theory, the psychology of decision making under stress, and multiple channels of communication including social media.