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Biomedical subjects

T Hazell

Publications and source records attributed to T Hazell.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Public housing, public health: health needs of public housing tenants.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the health needs of public housing tenants, measured in terms of self-reported health status, health risk factors and expressed need for health risk reduction intervention. METHOD: Face-to-face interviews were conducted with a randomly selected sample of public housing tenants in the Hunter Region of New South Wales. RESULTS: Of 463 contactable tenants, 329 consented to participate in the study. Participants were 2.5 times more likely to rate their health as fair or poor relative to the community generally, and visited a doctor twice as often. The prevalence of smoking was more than twice that of the community generally, and the prevalence of falls was approximately three times greater. Risk of injury due to domestic violence was approximately six times greater, and the risk of injury due to violence in other locations was more than double that in the community. Between a quarter and a half of the participants requested support to reduce their health risks. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that public housing tenants are one of the more severely health-compromised groups in the Australian community. IMPLICATIONS: An urgent need exists for public health initiatives that are directed at improving not only the current markedly poorer health status of public housing tenants, but also the greater prevalence of health risk factors that predict a likely continuation of such differentials into the future.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Increasing the practice of health promotion initiatives by licensed premises.

Licensees of all licensed premises in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, were offered free services to encourage adoption of health promotion initiatives relating to responsible service of alcohol, environmental tobacco smoke, healthy food choices, breast and cervical cancer prevention, and the prevention of HIV/AIDS. A total of 239 premises participated in the follow-up survey. Increases in prevalence ranged between 11% and 59% for alcohol-related initiatives. The prevalence of smoke-free areas and healthy food choices increased from 32% to 65% and 42% to 96%, respectively, and the provision of cancer prevention information increased from 3% to 59%. Licensed premises represent a particularly challenging sector for health promotion practitioners to work in. The results of this study suggest that the adoption of health promotion initiatives by licensed premises can be increased. A considerable opportunity therefore exists for health promotion practitioners to become more actively involved in facilitating the adoption of such initiatives in this setting.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed2000

Youth mental health promotion in the Hunter region.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the work of the Hunter Institute of Mental Health, with special emphasis on its role in mental health promotion and prevention with adolescents. METHOD AND RESULTS: The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion is used as a framework to describe the varied functions of this organisation. Four youth mental health promotion programs are given as examples of the Institute's work. Results of preliminary evaluation of the Youth Suicide Prevention - National University Curriculum Project are provided. CONCLUSION: The Hunter Institute of Mental Health, a self-funding unit of the Hunter Area Health Service, provides innovative health promotion programs as part of its role as a provider of mental health education and training. The model may be particularly applicable to mental health services in regional Australia.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Prevalence and acceptability of public health initiatives in licensed premises.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence and acceptability of public health initiatives in licensed premises. METHODS: Licensees/managers of all 333 licensed premises in the Hunter Region of NSW were interviewed to assess the practice of, and interest in undertaking public health initiatives relating to: responsible service of alcohol; environmental tobacco smoke; healthy-food choices; skin, breast and cervical cancer prevention; and the prevention of HIV/AIDS. RESULTS: Ninety eight percent of contacted premises participated in the study. Approximately two-thirds of premises reported having a responsible service of alcohol policy and training their staff in responsible service. One third of premises reported the provision of healthy food choices and smoke-free areas. Initiatives concerned with the prevention of cancer and HIV/AIDS were practised by less than 25% of premises. Between 41% and 85% of premises expressed an interest in undertaking all but two initiatives. Almost all interested premises accepted the offer of resources to facilitate adoption of public health initiatives. CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that licensed premises are already involved in a number of public health initiatives, and that they appear willing to consider the introduction of a wide range of such initiatives. IMPLICATIONS: The prevalence of public health initiatives in licensed premises, and the extent of interest expressed by licensees/managers in undertaking such initiatives suggests that both a need and an opportunity exist for public health and other agencies to be more actively involved in disseminating appropriate services in this setting.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1999

A survey of suicide prevention curricula taught in Australian universities.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to survey Australian universities to determine the scope of suicide prevention curricula in a range of prevocational courses. METHOD: Coordinators of undergraduate and postgraduate university programs for medicine, nursing, psychology, social work, theology, education, pharmacy, law and journalism were asked to complete a survey instrument to determine whether specific knowledge, attitude and skills items were included in the course content. Additional information was sought concerning the dominant method of teaching. Data were compared by discipline. An arbitrary threshold of 70% of courses within each discipline responding positively to each survey item was established as an adequate level of penetrance of that item into prevocational programs. RESULTS: Overall, knowledge and attitudes related to suicide prevention are taught more comprehensively than are skills. Knowledge and attitude items are taught most comprehensively in medical and nursing schools, somewhat less in psychology, social work, and pharmacy, uncommonly in theology and education. Law and journalism courses currently include very little material related to suicide and suicide prevention. Skills relevant to the management of suicidal individuals and their families are taught most comprehensively in psychology, nursing and medical courses, with low penetrance into other courses. CONCLUSION: The greatest opportunity to increase exposure to knowledge and attitudes relevant to suicide prevention exists within education, theology, law and journalism courses. Programs directed to the development of interpersonal skills relevant to the management of suicidal individuals and their families could be introduced across the board.

Australia↗
PubMed1999

Dentists' attitudes and practice regarding smoking.

Dentists are a potentially valuable source of community education about the health effects surrounding tobacco use. The aims of this study were to provide Australian data on dentists' current practice regarding discussing smoking with patients, dentists' perceptions of the barriers to discussing smoking with patients and dentists' interest in discussing smoking with patients. A postal survey of all dentists who were members of the Hunter Branch of the Australian Dental Association in New South Wales was conducted. Dentists generally reported quite high levels of current activity regarding smoking. The majority of dentists reported asking at least some of their patients whether or not they smoked. Dentists reported that they discussed the possible oral effects of smoking with at least some of their smoking patients. Furthermore, they told at least some of their patients with smoking related disease that smoking may have contributed to their problems. Dentists identified a number of difficulties involved in helping patients quit smoking. These findings may be used to help guide future research and practice in involving dentists further in discussing smoking with patients.

Administration, Cutaneous↗
PubMed1998

The use of an interactive computer program for the education of parents of asthmatic children.

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether an interactive computer program improves the asthma knowledge of parents of asthmatic children attending a respiratory clinic, and to assess the acceptability of this educational method to parents. METHODOLOGY: Parents' knowledge was assessed before and one month after using the computer program. Knowledge scores were compared using paired Student's t-tests. Parents' comments about the program were invited. RESULTS: Whilst knowledge scores improved after exposure to the computer program, the improvement was not statistically significant (P=0.06). However, parents felt subjectively that the program was both enjoyable and useful to them. CONCLUSION: Used as the sole instrument for asthma education, the program did not produce a large increase in asthma knowledge in the study population. It was, however, universally popular and may prove useful in other settings and in combination with other forms of asthma education.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Correlation between the size of the selenite-exchangeable metabolic pool and total body or liver selenium in rats.

This study explored the quantitative relationship between the size of the selenite-exchangeable metabolic pool (WSe-EMP) and total body or liver Se in rats of varying age and past Se intake. We performed four experiments. In one, weanling rats were fed either a Se-deficient or Se-supplemented diet for 30 d, followed by measurement of WSe-EMP and total body Se. For the other experiments, rats were fed natural sources of Se without added selenite until adult age and then either subjected to acute Se restriction during the 7 d of measurements or maintained on a Se-sufficient diet. For the animals fed the selenite diet, the 7-d average ratio of WSe-EMP:total body Se (Se(end),0) was 0.370 +/- 0.009, which was not significantly different from the corresponding value (0.350 +/- 0.018, P greater than 0.05) for the Se-deficient group. When the group mean values of WSe-EMP were correlated with the corresponding mean values of Se(end),0 for all experiments, we obtained highly linear relations (r2 greater than 0.96). When WSe-EMP for each animal was correlated with the corresponding value of total body endogenous Se (Se(end)) or liver Se(end) (for t = 1 or 7 d), we found equally strong linear relations (r2 greater than or equal to 0.99). We concluded that WSe-EMP accurately reflected total body Se content or the Se content of such organs as liver, regardless of past Se intake, chemical form of Se or age and size of the animals.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1988

Relating food composition data to iron availability from plant foods.

Correlation studies were performed relating iron availability estimated in vitro using a simulated digestion system to the concentration of protein, sugar, fibre, phytate, ascorbate and citrate in 33 different plant foods. Protein, sugar and fibre showed no significant correlation with iron availability. Phytate was significantly negatively correlated with diffusible iron in cereals, legumes and nuts. Both ascorbate and citrate were highly positively correlated with diffusible iron in vegetables and fruits. It is concluded that iron availability may be related on a quantitative basis to certain components of plant foods.

Ascorbic Acid↗
PubMed1987

In vitro estimation of iron availability from a range of plant foods: influence of phytate, ascorbate and citrate.

Plant foods were digested in vitro and the proportion of iron which diffused across a semi-permeable membrane was used as an index of Fe availability. The mean (with SEM) Fe diffusibility from a group of eighteen cereals, legumes and nuts was very low, 2.1 (0.25)%, whereas from a group of sixteen fruits and vegetables it was high, 31.7 (1.09)%. The difference between the two food groups was highly significant (P less than 0.001). The results for Fe diffusibility correlated well with literature values for the in vivo absorption of Fe from similar foods (r0.84, P less than 0.01). When phytate, citrate and ascorbate were added to selected foods in amounts corresponding to endogenous levels, only phytate and citrate gave the expected effects on Fe diffusibility. Ascorbate only enhanced Fe diffusibility to the expected extent when it was added in much larger amounts, not normally found in foods. When added to cereal foods, orange juice was found to enhance greatly Fe diffusibility even when its content of ascorbate was completely destroyed by boiling followed by prolonged storage. When citrate and ascorbate were added to cereal foods in amounts equivalent to those found in fresh orange juice, both enhanced Fe diffusibility but citrate was far more effective. It is concluded that phytate is a major inhibitor of Fe diffusibility in cereals, legumes and nuts. However, citrate rather than ascorbate would appear to be the major enhancer of Fe diffusibility from many fruits and vegetables. The implications of the present results are discussed in relation to the relative influence of phytate, citrate and ascorbate on dietary Fe availability.

Ascorbic Acid↗
PubMed1978

Iron availability from meat.

1. The distribution of radioactive iron in 59Fe-labelled rat muscle extract was determined using gel filtration. This showed that most (approximately 70%) of the radioactivity was associated with the heamatin compounds; myoglobin and haemoglobin. 2. Raw beef and freeze-dried rat muscle were digested in vitro, under simulated physiological conditions, and after centrifugation the supernatants fractionated by gel filtration. The soluble products were haematin Fe complexes of molecular weight above 10,000 and non-haematin Fe compounds of molecular weight below 6000, the major products being the non-haematin Fe complexes. The soluble compounds were also separated by dialysis and, in rat muscle, it was found that the low-molecular-weight non-haematin compounds accounted for more than 80% of the total soluble iron. 3. In vivo absorption studies with rats showed the Fe in a digested muscle dialysate to be more readily absorbed than that from an aqueous muscle extract which itself was more readily absorbed than the Fe from whole blood. 4. It may not, therefore, be the haemoproteins per se which are responsible for the high availability of Fe in meat, but rather the nature of their degradation products, formed by digestion within the meat environment.

Animals↗