Salutogenesis in Prison

This chapter concludes Part VII, with a focus on salutogenesis in prisons. In this chapter, the authors present and debate how prison health rhetoric, policy and practice are influenced by a pathogenic view of prisoner “health.” The authors comment that there is a growing recognition of a salutogenic approach to prison health policy and practice, to help tackle the root causes of health, criminality and inequality. This chapter emphasises that while the health of prisoners is influenced by material and social factors beyond their control, a salutogenic approach offers an alternative way of delivering public health and health promotion in prisons. The chapter concludes noting that the application of salutogenesis in prisons is in its infancy. They call for research, policy and practice framed by a salutogenic orientation, leading to sustained and effective measures to improve the health of people in criminal justice settings, and reducing health inequalities in prisons.

One Health Approach: A Data-Driven Priority for Mitigating Outbreaks of Emerging and Re-Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases

This paper discusses the contributions that One Health principles can make in improving global response to zoonotic infectious disease. We highlight some key benefits of taking a One Health approach to a range of complex infectious disease problems that have defied a more traditional sectoral approach, as well as public health policy and practice, where gaps in surveillance systems need to be addressed. The historical examples demonstrate the scope of One Health, partly from an Australian perspective, but also with an international flavour, and illustrate innovative approaches and outcomes with the types of collaborative partnerships that are required.

Food and nutrition

Nutrition paradigms have shifted in the last few decades, and now there is an urgent need for the policy discourse and public health practice to catch up. Effective public health policy and practice responses to nutrition depend on an accurate understanding of the problem of ‘malnutrition’, its implications for human health, and its underlying causes. They also depend on the political economy of nutrition policy—including policies relating to food environments and the global food system. The aim of this chapter is to map out the public health dimensions of food and nutrition problems that increasingly assail the world as well as to provide some guidance on the population-based interventions necessary for diet-related diseases to be contained.

The World Health Organization’s approach to equity

The World Health Organization (WHO), as the most prominent global health institution as a specialized agency of the United Nations, has expressed concern for health equity as part of its mandate, “the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health”. However, there is a lack of clarity around the WHO’s fundamental definition and conceptualization of equity. Through drawing on the WHO’s Urban Health Equity Assessment and Response Tool (Urban HEART) as an illustrative case, the aim is to determine how the WHO operationalizes equity in practice. Preliminary findings suggest there is no consistent understanding of what the goal of Urban HEART is. This research has direct implications for practice: not only can the findings be applied to other global health work that seeks to improve equity, but the WHO is planning to reinstate Urban HEART. As such, this research may be beneficial in guiding these plans. Further, the findings yield an important consideration for global and public health policy and practice more broadly: the need to clarify objectives around equity (e.g. because how equity is defined determines the work undertaken and the populations served).

A Case-Control Study on the Predictors of Neonatal Near-Miss: Implications for Public Health Policy and Practice

Purpose: Neonatal near miss (NNM) allows for the detection of risk factors associated with serious newborn complications and death, the prevention of which could reduce neonatal mortality. This study was conducted with the objective of identifying predictors for NNM in a tertiary hospital in Bangalore city.Methods: This was an unmatched case-control study involving 120 NNM cases and 120 controls. NNM was determined using Pileggi-Castro’s pragmatic and management criteria. Data was collected from in-patient hospital records and interviews of postpartum mothers. Multiple logistic regression of exposure variables was performed to calculate adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with 95% confidence interval (CI).Results: Significant predictors were maternal age ≥30 years (AOR, 5.32; 95% CI, 1.12 to 9.29; P=0.041), inadequate antenatal care (ANC) (AOR, 8.35; 95% CI, 1.98 to 51.12; P=0.032), <3 ultrasound scans during pregnancy (AOR, 12.5; 95% CI, 1.60 to 97.27; P=0.016), maternal anaemia (AOR, 18.96; 95% CI, 3.10 to 116.02; P=0.001), and any one obstetric complication (hypertensive disorder in pregnancy, diabetes in pregnancy, preterm premature rupture of membranes, prolonged labour, obstructed labour, malpresentation) (AOR, 4.34; 95% CI, 1.26 to 14.95; P=0.02).Conclusion: The predictors of NNM identified has important implications for public health policy and practice whose modifications can improve NNM. These include expanding essential ANC package to include ultrasound scans, ensuring World Health Organization recommendations of eight ANC visits, capacity building at all levels of health care to strengthen routine ANC and obstetric care for effective screening, referral and management of obstetric complications.

The Role of Social Determinants in Mental Health and Resilience After Disasters: Implications for Public Health Policy and Practice

In this general literature review, we will explore the impacts and contribution of social determinants to mental health and resiliency following both natural and man-made disasters. Natural disasters, such as wildfires, earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes, as well as man-made disasters, such as civil wars, have been known to inflict significant damage to the mental health of the victims. In this paper, we mainly explore some most studied vulnerability and protective social determinant factors such as gender, age, ethnicity, socials support and socioeconomic status for the mental health and resiliency in survivors of such disasters. Several other possible factors such as previous trauma, childhood abuse, family psychiatric history, and subsequent life stress that were explored by some studies were also discussed. We conducted a literature search in major scientific databases, using keywords such as: mental health, social determinants, disasters, wildfires, earthquakes, terrorist attacks, and resilience. We discuss the implications for public health policy and practice.

Indigenous methods and knowledge: Maternal health policy and practice in Ethiopia, Africa

This methodological article explores using Indigenous methodologies to elicit, gather, and report Indigenous knowledge as it relates to maternal health and mortality in the North Wollo Zone of Ethiopia. The authors demonstrate how attention to recruitment procedures (i.e. researcher and research assistant familiarity with the zone), data collection (i.e. interviews, visual dialogues, and observations), and data analysis (i.e. Circles and talking pieces) facilitated the elicitation and gathering of Indigenous knowledge. The authors contend using Indigenous methodologies to elicit, gather, and report Indigenous knowledge is essential to developing and implementing effective maternal health and mortality policies and programs in the region.

Artists on the Research Team: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Team Science, Research Rigor, and Creative Dialogue

In an arts in public health research team, artists may be undervalued as key research collaborators because of the difficulties in skillful integration of experts who possess not only different bodies of knowledge but also different ways of examining and valuing the world. Under the stewardship of two Rhode Island state agencies, an innovative research-driven enterprise, comprising researchers, clinicians, and community artists, was brought together to integrate arts-based interventions into statewide public health policy and practice. Here, we examine our work with the Rhode Island Arts and Health Advisory Group as a case study to illuminate our experiences in collaborating with artists on public health policy and practice research. Using existing frameworks from the literature, we define the attributes of, and challenges to, successful research collaborations and identify from our work how these apply to interdisciplinary collaborations between artists and public health practitioners. To support others working at the nexus of arts in public health, we include key experiences that were specific to the engagement of artists in research teams.