The inclusion of parents or carers in the consultation process of developing health-promotion activities in the Australian context.
by Paul Bennett
Co-authored with - Gladman, J.
(2012) Health Education Journal, in Print
Objective: Patterns of health behaviour and lifestyle established in childhood carry on into adulthood.
Parents... more
Objective: Patterns of health behaviour and lifestyle established in childhood carry on into adulthood.
Parents and carers have strong influences on the establishment of these patterns. Despite such influences,
parents and carers are often omitted from the planning process in health-promotion and early intervention
activities. This paper examines the literature to quantify the amount of consultation that occurs.
Method: A systemic review of the available literature was conducted of papers published in English
between 1998 and 2008 using OVID, Medline, CIAP, CINAHL, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus, INFORMET and
PubMed databases. The search was not limited to age; however, some papers indicted that their research
were restricted to children over the age of five.
Results: Three hundred and thirty one articles were retrieved of which 32 met the inclusion criteria. It
was found that parents and carers are reliable and accurate reporters of the objective components of their
child’s health, such as physical functioning, but unreliable when it comes to subjective components including
pain and emotional psychosocial functioning of their children. However, parents and carers are often omitted
or at best superficially included in the development of health-promotion and early intervention programmes
in Australia.
Conclusions: The lack of consultation with parents and carers in health-promotion and early interventions
programmes by policy makers, programme developers and health advocates results in decreased consumer
ownership, dissatisfaction with service delivery and creates barriers to engagement. Without adequate and
appropriate engagement of parents and carers, early interventions and health-promotion programmes will
result in superficial and short-term health outcomes.
Keywords
carers and children, health promotion, parents, perception
Download (.rtf) Web Searching for Health: Theoretical Foundations and Connections to Health Related Outcomes
by Graham Bodie
Published as Dutta, M. J., & Bodie, G. D. (2008). Web searching for health: Theoretical foundations and connections to health related outcomes. In A. Spink & M. Zimmer (Eds.), Web Searching: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (pp. 235-254). Dordrecht: Springer.
I'm not ill, it's just this back: osteopathic treatment, responsibility and back problems
Health: an interdisciplinary journal (London) January 2001 vol. 5 no. 1 31-49
Personal responsibility has become a central focus for British health policy, professional ideologies and lay ideas... more Personal responsibility has become a central focus for British health policy, professional ideologies and lay ideas around health. This article focuses upon the issue of personal responsibility and long-standing back problems. It uses material from interviews with osteopathic patients to illustrate the ways that patients’ ideas about responsibility for and control over their symptoms are often moulded by their interactions with health care practitioners. Such interactions often lead to contradictions in patients’ attitudes to their health: passive acceptance of treatment on the one hand and desperate attempts to re-establish some control through self-blame on the other (Taussig, 1992). The article ends by arguing that the osteopathic profession needs to critically evaluate its role in encouraging such contradiction and confusion in patients’ understandings of their health states.
Hunt K. Adamason J. and Galdas P.M. (2010) Gender and help-seeking: towards gender comparative studies Chapter In: Kuhlmann E. and Annandale E. (Eds) Palgrave Handbook of Gender and Healthcare London; Palgrave-MacMillan
by Paul Galdas
This authoritative, state-of-the-art reference collection addresses the main issues and core debates related to gender... more
This authoritative, state-of-the-art reference collection addresses the main issues and core debates related to gender and healthcare in one accessible volume. Mapping the field, and drawing together cutting-edge research on gender and healthcare, this essential guide to an area of increasing interest provides a critical overview of debates as well as practical guidance on how to bring gender perspectives to the heart of international health policy, practice and research.
Providing an integrated and context-sensitive approach that focuses on men's and women's health, actor-centred and institutional approaches to healthcare, as well as to the needs of service users and professionals, this comprehensive and innovative overview examines both the developed and developing world, and explores intersections between gender and a wide range of social inequalities.
Divided into five parts this panoramic survey covers
• The gendering of healthcare and policy
• The social patterning of health by gender
• Equity and access to healthcare
• The organization and delivery of healthcare
• Health professions and gender
Offering an impressive range of international world class expertise and insight, each chapter includes a chapter summary and an overview of key reading, making this Handbook an invaluable companion for a wide range of academics, researchers, practitioners and policymakers.
Galdas P.M. (2010) The Influence of Masculinity on Men Seeking Medical Help for Chest Pain. In: Robertson S. and Gough B. (Eds) Men, Masculinities and Health: Critical Perspectives London; Palgrave-MacMillan
by Paul Galdas
Men drink too much alcohol, eat unhealthy food and avoid going to the doctors until they are seriously ill. Indeed,... more
Men drink too much alcohol, eat unhealthy food and avoid going to the doctors until they are seriously ill. Indeed, some say being masculine is bad for men's health. But is the situation so simple?
This deeply engaging book explores both the psychological and sociological factors that affect men and their health. It investigates how notions of 'maleness' impact on the individual's approach to health and take-up of services, and provides clear foundations for best practice in care.
Part 1 of the book explores and sets the theoretical scene. It asks why disparate fields have not previously been brought together and what theoretical frameworks could be utilised to assist in this process. Parts 2 and 3 consider empirical work in relation to men, health and illness, providing critical rather than simply descriptive accounts.
Bringing together an international collection of contributors, Men, Masculinities and Health provides fresh ideas for practice; creating a fertile terrain for future debate that will excite all those interested in gender issues.
Galdas P.M. and Cheater F.M. (2010) Indian and Pakistani men’s accounts of seeking medical help for angina and myocardial infarction in the UK: Constructions of marginalised masculinity or another version of hegemonic masculinity? Qualitative Research in Psychology 7; 122-139
by Paul Galdas
In this article we present findings from 20 in-depth interviews with Indian and Pakistani men diagnosed with angina or... more In this article we present findings from 20 in-depth interviews with Indian and Pakistani men diagnosed with angina or myocardial infarction that explored their experiences of interpreting, and acting upon, their cardiac symptoms. By employing a social constructionist gender analysis, we explore the extent to which social constructions of masculinity intersected with men's help-seeking decision-making process, and how these were played out in relation to dominant Western versions of masculinity that emphasise the need for men to be stoical and self-reliant in the face of illness. Contrary to current empirical evidence, most participants in this study talked of their decision to seek medical help promptly and most distanced themselves from Western masculine stereotypes. The categories we identified contrast with previous hypotheses that ethnic minority men use constructs of Western masculinity to protect and defend a compromised masculine identity. This study highlights the need for health professionals to be aware of the complexity of male gender so as to avoid universalising, essentialist assumptions about the influence of masculinities on men's help-seeking behaviours.
Can the Behavioral Model Explain Immigrant Status and Ethnic Differences In US Adults' COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE (CAM) Use?
Published in Vol. 28 of Research in the Sociology of Health Care
Immigrants’ access to health services is a widely researched topic, yet few studies examine
immigrants’ use of... more
Immigrants’ access to health services is a widely researched topic, yet few studies examine
immigrants’ use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). This study uses the
Behavioral Model to compare overall CAM use and use of acupuncture, chiropractic, herbs,
yoga, and relaxation by immigrant status (nativity and time in the U.S.). It then explains the
nativity gap in use by assessing knowledge, cost, and need as potential reasons for not using
these modalities. Results show that controlling for predisposing, enabling and need factors,
recent immigrants use CAM less than the U.S.-born. Lack of knowledge of CAM modalities
partially explains why some recent immigrants do not use acupuncture, chiropractic, or
relaxation, while established immigrants cite lack of need as a reason for not using yoga. Cost
does not explain immigrants’ lower use of these five modalities. Finally, ethnicity moderates the
association between immigrant status and reasons for not using CAM.