Social science & medicine
-
Social science & medicine · Oct 1999
How stable are people's preferences for giving priority to severely ill patients?
Previous studies have suggested that people favor allocating resources to severely ill patients even when they benefit less from treatment than do less severely ill patients. This study explores the stability of people's preferences for treating severely ill patients. ⋯ People's preferences for allocating resources to severely ill patients can be significantly decreased by subtle wording changes in scenarios. However, this study adds to evidence suggesting that many people place priority on allocating resources to severely ill patients, even when they would benefit less from treatment than others.
-
Social science & medicine · Oct 1999
Problems Tamil asylum seekers encounter in accessing health and welfare services in Australia.
Over the last decade, western countries have reduced their intake of refugees, even though a substantial number of persons continue to be displaced by war and persecution. At the same time, there has been a substantial increase in the number of asylum seekers who apply for refugee status after entering western countries without resettlement documents. Evidence is accruing that asylum seekers are at high risk to trauma-related psychiatric and physical disorders. ⋯ The majority of asylum seekers (>60%) reported serious difficulties accessing medical and dental services and a sizeable minority reported problems obtaining assistance with welfare (40%), counselling (34%), and charity (23%). Difficulties accessing medical and dental services consistently exceeded those reported by refugees and immigrants. In spite of the inevitable sampling limitations, the data support past research as well as clinical impressions in suggesting that asylum seekers are particularly disadvantaged in accessing health care services.
-
Mammography is an important tool in the secondary prevention of breast cancer. However, earlier research has pointed out that an unpleasant experience during a previous mammography can deter women from returning for mammography screening. It is known that mammography can be a painful examination for some women. ⋯ Special attention was paid to the examination context, the mammographic procedure and the screening staff. The research results show that the majority of women experience pain during mammography. With a logistic regression a number of women-related factors, staff-related and procedural factors were found significant in assessing the pain risk during mammography.