Abstract
Informed by a critical turn underway in rural gerontology, this article explores how the intersection of global and local trends relating to population aging and rural change create ...contested spaces of rural aging. The aim is to build our understanding of rural as a dynamic context within which the processes, outcomes, and experiences of aging are created, confronted, and contested by older adults and their communities. A review of key developments within gerontology and rural studies reveals how competing policies, discourses, and practices relating to healthy aging and aging in place, rural citizenship and governmentality, and social inclusion and inequality combine in particular ways to empower or disempower a diverse range of older rural adults aging in a diverse range of rural communities. The article provides a contextually sensitive perspective on potential sources of conflict and exclusion for older adults in dynamic rural spaces and further enhances our understanding of how rural physical and social environments are constructed and experienced in older age. A framework for interrogating emergent questions about aging in rural contexts is developed and implications for advancing research, policy, and practice are discussed.
This paper contributes to the literature on Indigenous health, human dimensions of climate change, and place-based dimensions of health by examining the role of environment for Inuit health in the ...context of a changing climate. We investigated the relationship between one key element of the environment – sea ice – and diverse aspects of health in an Inuit community in northern Canada, drawing on population health and health geography approaches. We used a case study design and participatory and collaborative approach with the community of Nain in northern Labrador, Canada. Focus groups (n = 2), interviews (n = 22), and participant observation were conducted in 2010–11. We found that an appreciation of place was critical for understanding the full range of health influences of sea ice use for Inuit. Negative physical health impacts were reported on less frequently than positive health benefits of sea ice use, which were predominantly related to mental/emotional, spiritual, social, and cultural health. We found that sea ice means freedom for sea ice users, which we suggest influences individual and collective health through relationships between sea ice use, culture, knowledge, and autonomy. While sea ice users reported increases in negative physical health impacts such as injuries and stress related to changing environmental conditions, we suggest that less tangible climate change impacts related to losses of health benefits and disruptions to place meanings and place attachment may be even more significant. Our findings indicate that climate change is resulting in and compounding existing environmental dispossession for Inuit. They also demonstrate the necessity of considering place meanings, culture, and socio-historical context to assess the complexity of climate change impacts on Indigenous environmental health.
•Sea ice use means Inuit autonomy, plus mental, cultural, and social health benefits.•Changing environment is altering place meanings, reducing access to health benefits.•Climate change is an agent of environmental dispossession for Inuit.•Need to consider place meanings to understand climate influences on Indigenous health.
Dance, Ageing and Collaborative Arts-Based Research contributes a critical and comprehensive perspective on the role of the arts –specifically dance – in enhancing the lives of older people. The book ...focuses on the development of an innovative arts-based program for older adults and the collaborative process of exploring and understanding its impact in relation to ageing, social inclusion, and care. It offers a wide audience of readers a richer understanding of the role of the arts in ageing and life enrichment, critical contributions to theories of ageing and care, specific approaches to arts-based collaborative research, and an exploration of the impact of Sharing Dance from the perspective of older adults, artists, researchers, and community leaders. Given the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of this book, it will be of interest across health, social science, and humanities disciplines, including gerontology, sociology, psychology, geography, nursing, social work, and performing arts. Licence line: Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
For 50 years, the World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) has been working globally to close the gap in care and to achieve Treatment for All patients, men and women, with haemophilia and other ...inherited bleeding disorders, regardless of where they might live. The WFH estimates that more than one in 1000 men and women has a bleeding disorder equating to 6,900,000 worldwide. To close the gap in care between developed and developing nations a continued focus on the successful strategies deployed heretofore will be required. However, in response to the rapid advances in treatment and emerging therapeutic advances on the horizon it will also require fresh approaches and renewed strategic thinking. It is difficult to predict what each therapeutic advance on the horizon will mean for the future, but there is no doubt that we are in a golden age of research and development, which has the prospect of revolutionizing treatment once again. An improved understanding of “optimal” treatment is fundamental to the continued evolution of global care. The challenges of answering government and payer demands for evidence‐based medicine, and cost justification for the introduction and enhancement of treatment, are ever‐present and growing. To sustain and improve care it is critical to build the body of outcome data for individual patients, within haemophilia treatment centers (HTCs), nationally, regionally and globally. Emerging therapeutic advances (longer half‐life therapies and gene transfer) should not be justified or brought to market based only on the notion that they will be economically more affordable, although that may be the case, but rather more importantly that they will be therapeutically more advantageous. Improvements in treatment adherence, reductions in bleeding frequency (including microhemorrhages), better management of trough levels, and improved health outcomes (including quality of life) should be the foremost considerations. As part of a new WFH strategic plan (2012–2014) the WFH has identified several key initiatives for particular emphasis – continuation of the Global Alliance for Progress (GAP) program, a new initiative to address underserved countries and regions (The Cornerstone Initiative), enhancing health outcomes research and analysis, and a new research mentorship program. Despite our progress to date in closing the global gap in care, our work is not complete. Too many patients remain undiagnosed and too few receive adequate treatment. This paper will also discuss historical, present and future challenges and opportunities to close the gap in care and achieve Treatment for All.
Age-friendly initiatives often are motivated by a single funding injection from national or sub-national governments, frequently challenging human and financial resources at the community level. To ...address this problem, this paper examines the challenges and opportunities to sustaining age-friendly programs in the context of a Canadian age-friendly funding program. Based on a qualitative thematic content analysis of interview data with 35 age-friendly committee members drawn from 11 communities, results show that age-friendly sustainability may be conceptualized as an implementation gap between early development stages and long-term viability. Consistent over-dependence on volunteers and on committees' limited capacity may create burnout, limiting sustainability and the extent to which communities can truly become "age-friendly". To close this implementation gap while still remaining true to the grass-roots intention of the global age-friendly agenda, sustainable initiatives should include community champions, multi-disciplinary and cross-sector collaborations, and systemic municipal involvement.
Ciguatera is a type of fish poisoning that occurs throughout the tropics, particularly in vulnerable island communities such as the developing Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs). After ...consuming ciguatoxin-contaminated fish, people report a range of acute neurologic, gastrointestinal, and cardiac symptoms, with some experiencing chronic neurologic symptoms lasting weeks to months. Unfortunately, the true extent of illness and its impact on human communities and ecosystem health are still poorly understood.
A questionnaire was emailed to the Health and Fisheries Authorities of the PICTs to quantify the extent of ciguatera. The data were analyzed using t-test, incidence rate ratios, ranked correlation, and regression analysis.
There were 39,677 reported cases from 17 PICTs, with a mean annual incidence of 194 cases per 100,000 people across the region from 1998-2008 compared to the reported annual incidence of 104/100,000 from 1973-1983. There has been a 60% increase in the annual incidence of ciguatera between the two time periods based on PICTs that reported for both time periods. Taking into account under-reporting, in the last 35 years an estimated 500,000 Pacific islanders might have suffered from ciguatera.
This level of incidence exceeds prior ciguatera estimates locally and globally, and raises the status of ciguatera to an acute and chronic illness with major public health significance. To address this significant public health problem, which is expected to increase in parallel with environmental change, well-funded multidisciplinary research teams are needed to translate research advances into practical management solutions.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
A geographically and temporally widespread pattern of repetitive episodes of developmental stress, recorded as furrows of linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) in most recent and fossil apes, requires ...explanation. I compared observations of LEH recurrence among museum specimens of
Pan troglodytes
and
Pan paniscus
with historical weather records of seasonally recurrent combinations of lower temperature, higher rain and wind (“cold discomfort”). I imaged samples of 34 canine teeth (
N
= 20 animals, 54 independent LEH) from
P. troglodytes
from Fongoli, Senegal, and Taï Forest, Côte d’Ivoire and
P. paniscus
from the Democratic Republic of Congo with a scanning electron microscope and counted perikymata between and within LEH events. I converted counts to time using published Retzius periodicities (the number of days taken to form enamel layers, visible in thin sections) and compared their recurrence and duration to seasonal peaks of incidence and the intensity of cold discomfort. Using the longest Retzius periodicity (9 days), chimpanzees and bonobos show LEH lasting about 7–9 weeks, respectively, recurring annually. Most bonobos also show just-under semiannual recurrence of LEH. “Colder, wetter, windier” weeks recur annually at the
P. troglodytes
locations and semiannually at
P. paniscus
sites. When the combination of “below median temperatures, above median rain and winds” peaks in intensity and incidence over a 7-week period, daily “minimum hourly” temperatures average 20–21°C (7–9°C below lower critical body temperature for chimpanzees) with wind 3 times and rainfall 30 times higher than usual. These findings suggest that seasonal cold discomfort may be an important factor in episodic enamel hypoplasia in many nonhuman primates.
Rural fire services increasingly rely on older volunteers, providing an opportunity to examine the challenges of the ageing volunteer base that is underway in rural communities. To advance knowledge ...on the phenomena of ‘older voluntarism’, a case study of a rural volunteer fire department in Ontario, Canada was undertaken, drawing on semi-structured interviews with 24 fire service members. Findings from an iterative collaborative qualitative analysis demonstrate that the dynamics and intergenerational challenges of ageing volunteers and rural interconnectedness and cohesion combine to influence the experiences and sustainability of older volunteers, volunteer-based services and ageing rural places. The discussion advances a framework for understanding personal, program and community sustainability of rural ageing, and highlights emergent questions for research, policy and practice to guide further research into the sustainability of older voluntarism in ageing rural communities.
•Rural volunteer fire departments act as catalyst for rural community sustainability.•Experiences of volunteer firefighters provide insights into the challenges of older voluntarism in ageing rural places.•The dynamics of age within the department pose challenges for the sustainability of rural volunteer fire departments.•Challenges of older voluntarism are mitigated through cohesion of volunteer-based programs and ageing rural communities.•Age and the nature of rural communities raise important questions regardings the sustainability of older voluntarism.
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