Toward an Understanding of the Poor Health Status of Indigenous Australian Men

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (14) ◽  
pp. 1949-1960 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Mellor ◽  
Marita McCabe ◽  
Lina Ricciardelli ◽  
Alex Mussap ◽  
Matthew Tyler
Keyword(s):  
Health Behaviors ◽  
Health Beliefs ◽  
Perceived Barriers ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Poor Health Status ◽  
Indigenous Status ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
The Poor

The purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions of health and health behaviors among Indigenous Australian men. Using a participatory action research (PAR) framework, we conducted two focus groups and 40 individual semi-structured interviews with men between the ages of 18 and 35 years in each of three locations across Australia. We used the health beliefs model to provide a framework for the analyses. Participants recognized that their Indigenous status placed them in a vulnerable position with regard to health, and that there might be serious consequences of failing to follow a good diet and engage in appropriate exercise. However, they delineated a number of barriers to engaging in such health behaviors. These perceived barriers require addressing at a range of policy levels within government, with a focus on social structures and institutionalized discrimination, as well as unemployment, poverty, dispossession, and cultural oppression.

Health Beliefs Associated with Preventive Health Behaviors for COVID-19: Findings in a Sample Drawn from a Major City in Iran (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marzieh Araban ◽  
Mehdi Mesri ◽  
Mahmood Karimy ◽  
Mohammad Rreza Rouhani ◽  
LAR Stein
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Behaviors ◽  
Marital Status ◽  
Health Beliefs ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Smoking Status ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Perceived Barriers ◽  
Perceived Susceptibility ◽  
Randomized Sampling

BACKGROUND Background: To date, in the absence of effective treatment and successful vaccines, the COVID-19 pandemic has become the most important threat to public health. OBJECTIVE Objectives: This study was conducted in Saveh city, of Iran, in 2020. Of interest were how health beliefs (taken from the Health Belief’s Model [HBM]), demographic characteristics, and general health behaviors (e.g., smoking) relate to COVID-19 preventative behaviors (e.g., hand-washing). METHODS Methods: In this descriptive-analytic study, a multi-stage randomized sampling method was used and 486 people (250 males and 236 females) recruited from health centers in Saveh city, Iran, participated. Data were collected through a self-administered multi‑part questionnaire, which included sociodemographic information, health behaviors, and constructs associated with HBM. Data were analyzed using independent t-tests, ANOVA, and multiple regression in SPSS version 21. RESULTS Results: Perceived disease susceptibility (β=0.44, p<0.001), self-efficacy to enact preventative behaviors (β=0.24, p<0.01), education (β=0.20, p<0.001), non-smoking status (β=0.14, p<0.01), marital status (β=0.10, p<0.03), and perceived barriers to disease preventative behaviors (β=-0.10, p<0.04) were important predictors of prevention practices for COVID-19. Perceived susceptibility, self-efficacy, barriers, and socio-demographic constructs (education, smoking, and marital status) accounted for 61.4% (adjusted R2) of the variance associated with preventive behavior for COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS Conclusion: To improve control strategies for the COVID-19 pandemic, public health initiatives are needed to enhance perceived susceptibility to the disease and improve self-efficacy to perform preventative behaviors in spite of perceived barriers.

scholarly journals In Their Own Words: Parents and Key Informants’ Views on Nutrition Education and Family Health Behaviors

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (15) ◽  
pp. 8155
Author(s):  
Katherine E. McManus ◽  
Adrian Bertrand ◽  
Anastasia M. Snelling ◽  
Elizabeth W. Cotter
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Health Behaviors ◽  
Nutrition Education ◽  
Stress Reduction ◽  
Family Health ◽  
High Body Mass Index ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Poverty Level ◽  
Black African ◽  
Key Informants

Parents, health professionals, and communities are integral in the development of nutrition behaviors that reduce children’s risk for high body mass index (BMI) and chronic disease. The aim of this study was to conduct formative evaluations with key health informants and parents to understand the specific strategies that families use at mealtimes to promote their family’s health, along with the barriers they face in attending current nutrition education programming. Focus groups (in English and Spanish) were conducted with parents (n = 22; 63.64% Black/African American, 13.64% Black but not African American, 18.18% Hispanic/Latinx) whose household was located in a community where 50% of residents’ gross income was ≤185% of the federal poverty level. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six key informants with expertise in family health and nutrition. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify themes across interviews. Six general themes emerged from the interviews including perceptions of health, relationships, health behaviors, facilitators, barriers, and desired changes. Across the six themes, participants responded with suggestions for community-based health promotion programs such as incorporating a broader definition of health to better address the individual and systemic barriers that perpetuate health inequities and make healthy eating difficult. Participants identified stress reduction, health literacy, and cooking knowledge as areas of interest for future programming.

scholarly journals Nonattendance at Scheduled Appointments in Outpatient Clinics Due to COVID-19 and Related Factors in Taiwan: A Health Belief Model Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 4445
Author(s):  
Yi-Ping Hsieh ◽  
Cheng-Fang Yen ◽  
Chia-Fen Wu ◽  
Peng-Wei Wang
Keyword(s):  
Health Behaviors ◽  
Health Belief Model ◽  
Health Beliefs ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Health Belief ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Outpatient Clinics ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Belief Model

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of hospital visits and attendance at scheduled appointments have dropped significantly. We used the health belief model (in three dimensions) to examine the determinants of non-attendance of scheduled appointments in outpatient clinics due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants in Taiwan (n = 1954) completed an online survey from 10 April 10 to 23 April 2020, which assessed how people perceived and responded to the outbreak of a fast-spreading infectious disease. We performed both univariate and multivariate logistic regression to examine the roles of cognitive, affective, and behavioral health belief constructs in nonattendance at scheduled appointments. The results indicated that individuals who perceived high confidence in coping with COVID-19 were less likely to miss or cancel their doctor’s appointments, whereas individuals who reported high anxiety and practiced more preventive health behaviors, including avoiding crowded places, washing hands more often, and wearing a mask more often, were more likely to miss or cancel their appointments due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Non-heterosexual participants had a lower rate of nonattendance at scheduled appointments compared with heterosexual ones. The study results increase our understanding of the patients’ cognitive health beliefs, psychological distress, and health behaviors when assessing adherence to medical appointments during a pandemic.

scholarly journals What Support? Foucault, Power, and the Construction of Rape

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliraza Javaid
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Male Rape ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Voluntary Agency ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cultural Constructions ◽  
Voluntary Agencies

This paper is concerned with the social and cultural constructions of male rape in voluntary agencies, England. Using sociological, cultural, and post-structural theoretical frameworks, mainly the works of Foucault, I demonstrate the ways in which male rape is constructed and reconstructed in such agencies. Social and power relations, social structures, and time and place shape their discourses, cultures, and constructions pertaining to male rape. This means that constructions of male rape are neither fixed, determined, nor unchanging at any time and place, but rather negotiated and fluid. I theorize the data—which was collected through semi-structured interviews and qualitative questionnaires—including male rape counselors, therapists, and voluntary agency caseworkers. The theoretical and conceptual underpinnings that frame and elucidate the data contribute to sociological understandings of male rape.

scholarly journals Factors That Prevent Mosquito-Borne Diseases among Migrant Workers in Taiwan: Application of the Health Belief Model in a Church-Based Health Promotion Study

2022 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 787
Author(s):  
Yu-Shan Tai ◽  
Hao-Jan Yang
Keyword(s):  
Health Education ◽  
Health Beliefs ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Intervention Program ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Health Belief ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Perceived Barriers ◽  
Perceived Severity ◽  
Preventive Practices

Background: Southeast Asian countries have long been considered epidemic areas for mosquito-borne diseases (MBDs), and most imported cases of infectious diseases in Taiwan are from these areas. Taiwanese migrant workers are mainly of Southeast Asian nationality, and of these, 22% are Filipino. Migrant workers’ knowledge of MBDs and self-protection behaviors are beneficial to disease prevention and treatment. This study aims to understand the effectiveness of a health education intervention (HEI) for Filipino migrant workers in Taiwan and explores the factors affecting preventive practices. Methods: The study was conducted between May to September 2018. Participants were recruited from two Catholic churches in Taichung City. A professional delivered a 30 min HEI in person, and a structured questionnaire was used to acquire and assess participants’ knowledge, health beliefs, and preventive behaviors for MBDs before and after the intervention. Results: A total of 291 participants were recruited. The intervention program showed a positive impact on the migrant worker’s knowledge and the perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and preventive practices. Knowledge, perceived severity, and perceived barriers were factors influencing preventive practices in Filipino migrant workers. Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrated that we can direct our efforts towards three areas: improving foreign migrant workers’ awareness of diseases, emphasizing the severity of the disease, and eliminating possible hindrances in the future. As one example, migrant workers could be proactively provided with routine medical examinations and multilingual health education lectures to improve knowledge and preventive practices to contain the spread MBDs.

scholarly journals (The) Margin(s) Speak! A Multifaceted Examination of Practising ‘Men who have Sex with Men’ Development in Bangkok

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
James Burford
Keyword(s):  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Search Performance ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Performative Writing ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Development Interventions ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Sex With Men ◽  
Development Literature

<p>In this study, I explore the experiences and understandings of twenty-seven participants involved with ‘men who have sex with men’ (MSM) development interventions in Bangkok, seeking to better understand the complex realities that emerge in practising MSM development. I endeavor to interrogate the development field’s limited understandings of sexuality as well as the discourses present (and absent) in existing Queering Development research. By acknowledging my personal journey in and through this re-search, I also examine authentic ways-of-being a queeresearcher, noting the challenges I faced and power I discovered in re-searching and re-presenting my own work. Ultimately, I explore the link between the paucity of local developing queer narratives in Queering Development and the limited space students have, to be visibly queer in mainstream theses – to do this I use the metaphor of ‘the margins’. In framing this re-search, I draw nourishment from queer, critical, poststructural and Participatory Action Research epistemologies. Methodologically, I carried out semi-structured interviews and focus groups, as well as using other tools such as mapping and story writing. I also spent time ‘hanging out’ at both Rainbow Sky and Bangkok Rainbow, enabling both a deeper appreciation of the work carried out by the organisations as well as providing an opportunity to gather materials. The generation of data did not cease once I left ‘the field’; I continued to produce autoethnographic texts including poetry and a re-search performance which I used both as a method of enquiry and re-presentation of this study. This multifaceted approach enabled diverse questions (emerging across disciplines) to be addressed in my work. To re-present my analyses of participants’ accounts I have celebrated different ways-of-knowing re-search. I have used poetry and consciously performative writing, visual art (including graffiti) and performance alongside traditional scholarly prose. This approach enables multiple voices to emerge all over the page, questioning the hegemony of the bound, straight-lined thesis and the ‘legitimate’ knowledges it generally contains. I argue that queer postgraduate students may be able to open spaces to produce authentic work, despite pressures to perform straight research texts. Yet, pressures to conform to traditional understandings of theses may be painful reminders of their own positions in academia and society. Overall, my study offers intimate, multifaceted perspectives on the agency of MSM development practitioners in Bangkok and my own experience of finding power through queeresearch. I hope it will contribute to more nuanced understandings of local practitioners of MSM development in Queering Development literature, and to scholarship on queer postgraduate students’ experience of re-search more generally.</p>

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