Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health organisations

The Australian Institute of Health & Welfare has released Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health organisations: online services report - key results 2013-14, providing an overview of 269 Australian Government-funded organisations that aim to improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including the health services and activities provided by these organisations, staffing levels and client numbers, as well as health service gaps and challenges faced by the communities they serve.

In 2013-14, 62% of these organisations were Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, 14% were other non-government organisations and 24% were government-run organisations.  76% provided primary health-care services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and they employed 7,108 full-time equivalent staff with 53% being Indigenous.

61% of all organisations reported a service delivery gap in their communities for mental health and social and emotional health and wellbeing. 

Annual Alcohol Poll 2015

The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education has released the Annual Alcohol Poll, 2015  which aims to assess Australians’ attitudes towards alcohol, alcohol consumption behaviours and various alcohol policies. 79% of those surveyed indicated that they consume alcohol.  34% of these drink to get drunk and 33% choose wine as their preferred alcoholic drink.   

The Poll has indicated that 75% of the almost 2000 respondents agreed that Australia has a problem with excess drinking or alcohol abuse, with 71% believing that alcohol-related problems in Australia will get worse or remain the same over the next five to ten years and 73% believing that more needs to be done to reduce the harm caused by alcohol.

Community perceptions about the alcohol industry indicated that the majority of Australians believe that the alcohol industry targets people under 18 (59%), that it has too much influence with governments (51%) and that it makes political donations to influence policy (54%).   

Pressure injury in Australian public hospitals

Pressure injuries are largely preventable within hospitals, and an adverse outcome of healthcare, but they affect millions of people.  This study, published in Australian Health Review, sought to examine in detail the economic costs of pressure injuries. In 2012–13, treatment for pressure injuries in Australian public hospitals cost A$983 million.  The severe cases (Stages III and IV) accounted for 12% of the cases and 30% of the total cost.

The authors concluded that there is an enormous economic waste for the Australian health system associated with this largely avoidable injury. One way wastage can be reduced is by preventing moderate injuries from developing into severe cases.

Pressure injury in Australian public hospitals: a cost-of-illness study
Nguyen K-H, Chaboyer W, Whitty JA Australian Health Review. 2015 [epub]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/AH14088
Contact your health library for the full text of this article.

Respiratory medication use in Australia 2003-2013

A report just published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare describes the patterns of dispensing of respiratory medications in Australia through a detailed analyses of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) data, as well as other sources, to draw inferences about respiratory medication use among patients with asthma and COPD. 

Respiratory medication use in Australia 2003-2013: treatment of asthma and COPD provides evidence of "substantial over- and under-use of certain classes of medications for management of asthma and COPD. ...Our findings indicate the potential both for better health outcomes and for cost savings to patients and governments by better targeting of treatment for asthma and COPD."

Polypharmacy in older Australians

A study just published in Medical Journal of Australia has revealed that about 24% of patients aged 70 years or over had 10 or more routinely prescribed medicines on hospital admission.  The authors of Polypharmacy among inpatients aged 70 years or older in Australia examined records from 2005 to 2010 and compared the number of medicines recorded at hospital admission to the number recorded at hospital discharge.  They found there was no change in either the number or type of medicines prescribed to the patient. The authors concluded that treating clinicians could be doing more to rationalise the number of drugs prescribed during that patient's hospital stay.

Polypharmacy among inpatients aged 70 years or older in Australia.
Ruth E Hubbard, Nancye M Peel, Ian A Scott, Jennifer H Martin, Alesha Smith, Peter I Pillans, Arjun Poudel and Leonard C Gray

Med J Aust 2015; 202 (7): 373-377. doi:10.5694/mja13.00172

Communicating public health messages

Public Health Research & Practice is the first online open access public health journal.  It was launched by the Sax Institute in November 2014 and the second issue is now out and focusing on communicating public health messages to a society inundated with information. 

The guest editor for the new issue is Professor Simon Chapman, a public health advocate well known for his work in tobacco control, gun control and wind farms. His editorial gives practical advice on being an effective advocate.  There are also articles on vaccination, foetal alcohol spectrum disorders, hepatitis C and steroids, using various promotional methods.

iMedicalApps

iMedicalApps is an online publication for medical professionals, patients, and analysts interested in mobile medical technology and health care apps. Reviews, research and commentary on the mobile medical technology is provided by a team of physicians, allied health professionals, medical trainees, and mHealth analysts.

Violence Against Women and Children

The Lancet has published a number of articles on violence against women in the issue April 25, 2015. Every day, millions of women and girls worldwide experience violence. This abuse takes many forms, including intimate physical and sexual partner violence, female genital mutilation, child and forced marriage, sex trafficking, and rape.

• Prevention of violence against women and girls: what does the evidence say?  p. 1555-1566; Mary Ellsberg, Diana J Arango, Matthew Morton, Floriza Gennari, Sveinung Kiplesund, Manuel Contreras, Charlotte Watts.

• The health-systems response to violence against women, p. 1567-1579; Claudia Garcia-Moreno, Kelsey Hegarty, Ana Flavia Lucas d'Oliveira, Jane Koziol-McLain, Manuela Colombini, Gene Feder 

• From work with men and boys to changes of social norms and reduction of inequities in gender relations: a conceptual shift in prevention of violence against women and girls, p. 1580 - 89; Rachel Jewkes, Michael Flood, James Lang.

 The Lancet Series on Violence against women and girls shows that such abuse is preventable (published 2014). Five papers cover the evidence base for interventions, discuss the vital role of the health sector in care and prevention, show the need for men and women to be involved in effective programs, provide practical lessons from experience in countries, and present a call for action with five key recommendations and indicators to track progress.

The most recent issue May 1, 2015, also includes articles on violence against women and girls.

TheLancet Volume 385, Issue 9977 ,  Pages1477-1590, 18–24 April 2015

The Lancet Series on Violence against women and girls 

NSW Health staff can access the full text articles via CIAP. Otherwise check with your library.

Australian Health Survey: Nutrition - Supplements, 2011-12

This publication from the Australian Bureau of Statistics presents a selection of results from the 2011-12 National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey (NNPAS), with the focus on the use of dietary supplements and their contribution to nutritional status. The National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey contains a sample of approximately 9,500 private dwellings across Australia.

4364.0.55.010 - Australian Health Survey: Nutrition - Supplements, 2011-12 

Gynaecological Cancer Virtual Issue

This virtual issue has been collated to showcase review articles on gynaecological cancer. It is a collection of articles from the journal The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist.

Click here to read the articles for free.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Organisations report

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has released a new report today titled Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health organisations: Online Services Report - key results 2013-14.

The report includes details on:

• 203 organisations provided primary health-care services to around 419,000 clients through 4.6 million client contacts
• 189 counsellors provided social and emotional wellbeing or Link Up counselling services to around 16,600 clients through 88,200 client contacts
• 56 organisations provided substance-use rehabilitation and treatment services to around 43,000 clients through 371,000 episodes of care.    

Download the full report for free online. 

MMR vaccination and autism

A recent retropective cohort study published in JAMA looked at 95,000 American children with older siblings, some of whom had autism. The idea was to see whether vaccines could make autism more likely in children whose siblings had autism.

Autism Occurrence by MMR Vaccine Status Among US Children With Older Siblings With and Without Autism by Dr Anjali Jain and others, found "no association between MMR vaccination and increased ASD risk... These findings indicate no harmful association between MMR vaccine receipt and ASD even among children already at higher risk for ASD."

JAMA. 2015;313(15):1534-1540. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.3077.  Available in fulltext through CIAP for NSW Health Employees

Mental health services review

The National Mental Health Commission has conducted a review of mental health programs and services, focusing on assessing their efficiency and effectiveness in supporting individuals experiencing mental ill-health and their families and other support people to engage productively in the community. The Report of the National Review of Mental Health Programmes and Services is now available.

The Review provides 25 recommendations across nine strategic directions which guide a detailed implementation framework of activity over the next decade.

Medical Journal of Australia ANZAC edition

The Medical Journal of Australia's ANZAC Day Commemorative Edition has been published with an editorial by Brendan Nelson. Issues covered include PTSD, 100 years of military medicine, the gastrointestinal woes of the men in the trenches at Gallipoli and the doctors who treated them and an article on abolishing nuclear weapons.

Many articles are open access, and others may be obtained through CIAP for NSW Health employees.

Chronic disease and evidence based practice

The authors of a recently published paper, Improving Chronic Diseases Management Through the Development of an Evidence-Based Resource, found a large gap between evidence and practice in the field of chronic disease. To improve the management of chronic disease, a collaborative partnership was established between a large university, a large regional rural hospital and a rural community health centre in rural Victoria.  The aim was to develop easily accessed, evidence-based
resources for clinicians to inform practice and support clinical decision making.

By mid-2014, 109 new evidence summaries and 25 recommended practices had been developed, detailing the best available evidence on topics related to chronic disease management including asthma, diabetes, heart failure, dementia, and others. Training sessions were provided for clinicians, and a newsletter published to notify them of updates.

Hanan Khalil, Helen Chambers, Zachary Munn, Kylie Porritt.  Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, Epub ahead of print, 1-5 2015.  dx.doi.org/10.1111/wvn.12087.  Please contact your health library for the fulltext of this article.