Purpose
The current longitudinal study examines the temporal association between different types of intimate partner violence (IPV) at early adulthood (21 years) and subsequent depression and anxiety ...disorders in young adulthood (30 years).
Methods
Participants were from the Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy. A cohort of 1529 was available for analysis. IPV was measured using the Composite Abuse Scale at 21 years. At the 21 and 30-year follow-ups, major depression disorder and anxiety disorders were measured using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview.
Results
We found a temporal relationship between almost all forms of IPV at 21 years and females’ new cases of major depression disorder at 30 years. This association was not found for females who had previously been diagnosed with depression disorder. IPV did not predict the onset of new anxiety disorders, but it had a robust association with anxiety disorders in females with a previous anxiety diagnosis. We observed no significant link between IPV and males’ subsequent major depression disorder. Interestingly, the experience of emotional abuse was a robust predictor of new cases of anxiety disorders but only for males.
Conclusion
Our results suggest the need for sex-specific and integrated interventions addressing both IPV and mental health problems simultaneously. IPV interventions should be informed by the extend to which pre-existing anxiety and depression may lead to different psychological responses to the IPV experience. Increased risk of anxiety disorders predicted by emotional abuse experienced by males challenges beliefs about invulnerability of men in the abusive relationships and demands further attention.
Although much available research indicates that intimate partner violence (IPV) is male perpetrated, growing recent evidence suggests a gender symmetry model of family violence. This article examines ...gender differences in IPV in current and prior relationships reported by young adults. Data comprised 2,060 young adults (62.1% females) who participated in the 30-year follow-up of the Mater Hospital and University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy (MUSP) in Brisbane, Australia. The Composite Abuse Scale was used to measure IPV during the last 12 months in the respondents’ most recent relationship. Similar proportions of males and females reported leaving their prior relationships. Both males and females who were not currently in a relationship reported experiencing much higher rates of IPV than those who were in a relationship. There were no differences in the past experience of IPV between males and females who were not currently in a relationship, but males in a current relationship reported they experienced most forms of IPV more often than did females. IPV typically involves both male and female perpetrators and victims. It does appear that the majority of relationships involving higher rates of IPV were dissolved. IPV was more likely to have occurred in relationships that ended than in relationships that persisted. Males more often remain in an abusive relationship and report experiencing higher rates of IPV in their current relationships compared with females.
Queensland's B.strong brief intervention training program was a complex intervention developed for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers to assist clients address multiple health risks ...of smoking, poor nutrition and physical inactivity. This study evaluates program effectiveness by applying the Kirkpatrick four-level evaluation model: (1) Reaction, participants' satisfaction; (2) Learning, changes in participants' knowledge, confidence, attitudes, skills and usual practice; (3) Behaviour, application of learning to practice; and (4) Results, outcomes resulting from training. A retrospective analysis was conducted on data for respondents completing pre-training, post-workshop and follow-up surveys. Changes in domains such as training participant knowledge, confidence, attitudes, and practices between survey times were assessed using paired-samples t-tests. From 2017-2019, B.strong trained 1150 health professionals, reaching targets for workshop and online training. Findings showed statistically significant improvements from baseline to follow-up in: participants' knowledge, confidence, and some attitudes to conducting brief interventions in each domain of smoking cessation, nutrition and physical activity; and in the frequency of participants providing client brief interventions in each of the three domains. There was a statistically significant improvement in frequency of participants providing brief interventions for multiple health behaviours at the same time from pre-workshop to follow-up. Indigenous Queenslander telephone counselling referrals for smoking cessation increased during the program period. B.strong improved practitioners' capacity to deliver brief interventions addressing multiple health risks with Indigenous clients.
Issues addressed: Little research has been conducted on the impact of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brief intervention training programs on health staff participants' own health behaviours. ...Through the Queensland B.strong program (2017- 2020), brief intervention training in smoking cessation, nutrition and physical activity was provided to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce and other health and community professionals. This study examined the program's impact on participants' own health behaviours. Methods: Data were collected through four surveys (pre- and post-training workshop, and 3-month and 6-month follow-up) of the 1131 participants in B.strong training workshops from June 2017 to August 2019. Surveys included items on participants' own health behaviours. Pre- and post-workshop surveys were paper-based, and follow-up surveys were completed online. For the analysis of data reported in this paper, paired-samples t tests were used to assess changes between pre-workshop and 3-month follow-up. Results: Statistically significant improvements were found between pre-workshop and 3-month follow-up in the number of serves of vegetables or legumes/beans eaten per day, the number of serves of fruit eaten per day, and in time spent in physical activity. However, there was: no statistically significant change in smoking status, with baseline rates being relatively low; a statistically significant increase in consumption of sugary drinks, and of takeaway foods; a nonsignificant increase in consumption of snack foods; and no significant change in sedentary behaviour of participants. Conclusion: While some positive changes in participants' own health behaviours in nutrition and physical activity were associated with the B.strong program, there was no change in their smoking behaviour. So what?: This study found that some improvements in participants' own health behaviours were associated with the B.strong program. This research may inform future Indigenous brief intervention training programs and health services on how to promote healthy behaviours for health staff themselves.
Introduction
The Australian guidelines to reduce health risks from drinking alcohol were released in 2020 by the National Health and Medical Research Council. Based on the latest evidence, the ...guidelines provide advice on how to keep the risk of harm from alcohol low. They refer to an Australian standard drink (10 g ethanol).
Recommendations:
•Guideline 1: To reduce the risk of harm from alcohol‐related disease or injury, healthy men and women should drink no more than ten standard drinks a week and no more than four standard drinks on any one day. The less you drink, the lower your risk of harm from alcohol.
•Guideline 2: To reduce the risk of injury and other harms to health, children and people under 18 years of age should not drink alcohol.
•Guideline 3: To prevent harm from alcohol to their unborn child, women who are pregnant or planning a pregnancy should not drink alcohol. For women who are breastfeeding, not drinking alcohol is safest for their baby.
Changes as result of the guideline
The recommended limit for healthy adults changed from two standard drinks per day (effectively 14 per week) to ten per week. The new guideline states that the less you drink, the lower your risk of harm from alcohol. The recommended maximum on any one day remains four drinks (clarified from previously “per drinking occasion”). Guidance is clearer for pregnancy and breastfeeding, and for people aged less than 18 years, recommending not drinking.
This paper investigates gender differences in persistence of intimate partner violence (IPV), for those remaining or leaving an abusive relationship. We followed a sample of males and females to ...examine whether leaving an abusive partner may alter the continuity of victimization.
Data were taken from the 21 and 30-year follow-ups of the Mater Hospital and University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy (MUSP) in Australia. A cohort of 1265 respondents, including 874 females and 391 males, completed a 21-item version of the Composite Abuse Scale.
We found proportionally similar rates of IPV victimization for males and females at both the 21 and 30 year follow-ups. Females who reported they had an abusive partner at the 21 year follow-up were more likely to subsequently change their partner than did males. Harassment and then emotional abuse appeared to have a stronger association for females leaving a partner. For males, a reported history of IPV was not significantly associated with leaving the partner. There was no significant association between leaving (or not) a previous abusive relationship and later victimization, either for male or female respondents.
Changing a partner does not interrupt the continuity of victimization either for male or female respondents, and previous IPV victimization remained a determining factor of re-abuse, despite re-partnering.
To evaluate a 12‐month trial of an evidence‐based non‐residential treatment program for Indigenous clients with alcohol problems, offering three streams of care: pharmacotherapy, psychological and ...social support.
Process evaluation of program implementation; outcome evaluation of client outcomes.
Implementation: despite constraints of time and remoteness, the trial demonstrated the feasibility of implementing such a program. The medical stream generated fewer pharmacotherapy prescriptions than expected. The most active stream was the psychological therapy stream. Outcomes: between March 2008 and April 2009, 129 clients were referred to the program, of whom 49 consented to have de‐identified data used for the evaluation. Of these, 19 clients received one or more streams of care, 15 of whom (78.9%) subsequently stopped or reduced drinking. However, among the remaining 30 consenting clients who had not received an intervention, 70.0% also reported stopping or reducing drinking. The evidence of program effectiveness is therefore equivocal and evaluation over a longer period is required.
The trial demonstrated the viability of, and demand for, evidence‐based non‐residential treatment for Indigenous clients with alcohol problems. Reasons behind an apparent reluctance among GPs to prescribe pharmacotherapy for Indigenous clients, and steps to overcome this, need further attention.
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