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We used a retrospective cohort study to measure the impact of caring for children on female Australian researchers. Our aim was to see whether caring for children was associated with reduced outputs and collaboration. Women were randomly selected for inclusion if they published a first author paper in one of three Australian journals during 2007 to 2015, women who did not publish during this time were not included. One-hundred and sixty women were approached and 95 (59%) completed a survey on their history of caring for children. Two key outcomes were the women's publication and citation counts, which were accessed from Scopus. We also examined the number of authors, affiliations and countries on their published papers, as a reduction in these numbers could indicate an impaired ability to collaborate. We examined the probability of being first or last author as a measure of esteem. There was a small increase in publication counts after the first child that was reversed after the second child. Average citations counts declined after children, particularly after the second child. There was some evidence of a reduced collaboration with overseas collaborators after the first child. The probability of being the last author increased after the second child. Three women were identified as statistically influential and all three had children and were in the top 10% of overall publications and citations. After removing these women the estimated changes in outcomes were noticeably different for most of the outcomes. The repeated presence of statistically influential women shows that it may be impossible to find an "average impact" of caring for children when considering research output. Adjustments may need to be made individually, with women explaining how caring for children has altered their career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding what people like about birds can help target advocacy for bird conservation. However, testing preferences for characteristics of birds is methodologically challenging, with bias difficult to avoid. In this paper we test whether preferred characteristics of birds in general are shared by the individual bird species the same people nominate as being those they consider most attractive. We then compare these results with the birds which appear most frequently in the imagery of conservation advocates. Based on a choice model completed by 638 general public respondents from around Australia, we found a preference for small colourful birds with a melodious call. However, when the same people were asked which five birds they found most attractive, 48% named no more than three, mostly large well-known species. Images displayed by a leading Australian bird conservation organisation also favoured large colourful species. The choice model results suggest conservation advocates can promote a much wider range of bird types as flagships, particularly smaller species that might otherwise be neglected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth alcohol consumption has been steadily declining in Australia, as in other countries; fewer young people are drinking and the age of initiation is increasing. However, young people, their parents and others in their communities continue to believe that adolescent (excessive) drinking is the norm. This perception, and the concurrent misperception that the majority of parents are happy to provide their underage children with alcohol, creates a perceived culture of acceptance of youth alcohol consumption. Young people believe that it is accepted, and even expected, that they will drink; and parents perceive that not providing their adolescent children with alcohol will lead to social exclusion. There is evidence that shifting social norms can have an immediate and lasting effect adolescents’ (and adults’) alcohol related attitudes and behaviors. This paper reports on a novel, community based social marketing intervention designed to correct misperceptions of alcohol related social norms in an Australian community. The project utilized a social marketing approach, informed by the full complement of Andreasen’s social marketing benchmarking criteria, and concurrently targeted adolescents, parents of adolescents and the broader community. Using extensive formative research and multiple evaluation techniques, the study demonstrates that shifts in community social norms are possible and suggests that this approach could be used more widely to support the positive trends in youth alcohol consumption and parental supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years policy makers and social scientists have devoted considerable attention to wellbeing, a concept that refers to people’s capacity to live healthy, creative and fulfilling lives. Two conceptual approaches dominate wellbeing research. The objective approach examines the objective components of a good life. The subjective approach examines people’s subjective evaluations of their lives. In the objective approach how subjective wellbeing relates to objective wellbeing is not a relevant research question. The subjective approach does investigate how objective wellbeing relates to subjective wellbeing, but has focused primarily on one objective wellbeing indicator, income, rather than the comprehensive indicator set implied by the objective approach. This paper attempts to contribute by examining relationships between a comprehensive set of objective wellbeing measures and subjective wellbeing, and by linking wellbeing research to inequality research by also investigating how subjective and objective wellbeing relate to class, gender, age and ethnicity. We use three waves of a representative state-level household panel study from Queensland, Australia, undertaken from 2008 to 2010, to investigate how objective measures of wellbeing are socially distributed by gender, class, age, and ethnicity. We also examine relationships between objective wellbeing and overall life satisfaction, providing one of the first longitudinal analyses linking objective wellbeing with subjective evaluations. Objective aspects of wellbeing are unequally distributed by gender, age, class and ethnicity and are strongly associated with life satisfaction. Moreover, associations between gender, ethnicity, class and life satisfaction persist after controlling for objective wellbeing, suggesting that mechanisms in addition to objective wellbeing link structural dimensions of inequality to life satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: A Job Exposure Matrix (JEM) for psychosocial job stressors allows assessment of these exposures at a population level. JEMs are particularly useful in situations when information on psychosocial job stressors were not collected individually and can help eliminate the biases that may be present in individual self-report accounts. This research paper describes the development of a JEM in the Australian context. Methods: The Household Income Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey was used to construct a JEM for job control, job demands and complexity, job insecurity, and fairness of pay. Population median values of these variables for all employed people (n = 20,428) were used to define individual exposures across the period 2001 to 2012. The JEM was calculated for the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) at the four-digit level, which represents 358 occupations. Both continuous and binary exposures to job stressors were calculated at the 4-digit level. We assessed concordance between the JEM-assigned and individually-reported exposures using the Kappa statistic, sensitivity and specificity assessments. We conducted regression analysis using mental health as an outcome measure. Results: Kappa statistics indicate good agreement between individually-reported and JEM-assigned dichotomous measures for job demands and control, and moderate agreement for job insecurity and fairness of pay. Job control, job demands and security had the highest sensitivity, while specificity was relatively high for the four exposures. Regression analysis shows that most individually reported and JEM measures were significantly associated with mental health, and individually-reported exposures produced much stronger effects on mental health than the JEM-assigned exposures. Discussion: These JEM-based estimates of stressors exposure provide a conservative proxy for individual-level data, and can be applied to a range of health and organisational outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While drink driving continues to be significantly more common among male drivers, there is evidence from many countries that shows a growing trend of women engaging in this risky behaviour. The aims of the current study were threefold: (i) determine to what extent a sample of women drivers reported engaging in drink driving behaviour by expanding the construct into a range of definitions, (ii) determine if there were significant differences in self-reported engagement in drink driving behaviours in accordance with hazardous drinking behaviour, and (iii) identify which situational or personal factors would increase women drivers’ likelihood to engage in drink driving through presenting a range of scenarios. Method: Data were collected using an on-line, purpose-designed survey and promoted to reach women aged 17 years and older, living in Queensland, Australia. In addition to questions relating to demographic characteristics, participants completed items relating to engagement in seven drink driving related behaviours in the previous 12-month period, hazardous drinking as measured by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, and likelihood of driving when unsure if over the legal limit for licence type across a range of scenarios manipulating different situational factors. A total of 644 valid responses were received in the two-week period the study was advertised. Results: The results demonstrate women’s self-reported engagement in drink driving behaviour ranged from 12.6% (driving when they believed they were over the legal limit) to over 50.0% (driving when unsure if over the legal limit the morning after drinking alcohol) and was significantly more likely among those who reported hazardous levels of alcohol use. Circumstances in which women reported they would drive when unsure if over the legal BAC limit were when they were a few blocks from home, if they subjectively felt they were not too intoxicated, or if they needed their car to get somewhere the next morning. Conclusion: Examining drink driving behaviour by way of responses to nuanced definitions provided valuable insight into self-reported engagement in the behaviour and highlights the usefulness of multi-measure dependent variables in order to illuminate a more accurate acknowledgement into both the type (and extent) of drink driving behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Why are neurotypicals so pig-ignorant about autism?” an autistic person wrote on the Curtin Autism Research Group’s on-line portal as a response to a call for research questions. Co-produced with an autistic researcher, knowledge about and attitudes towards autism were analysed from 1,054 completed surveys, representing the Australian neurotypical adult population. The majority, 81.5% of participants had a high level of knowledge and 81.3% of participants had a strong positive attitude towards autism. Neither age, nor education level had an impact on attitudes. However, attitudes were influenced by knowledge about ‘Societal Views and Ideas’; ‘What it Could be Like to Have Autism’; and the demographic variables ‘Knowing and having spent time around someone with autism’; and gender (women having more positive attitudes than men). Thus, targeted interventions, geared more towards men than women, to increase knowledge about autism could further improve attitudes and increase acceptance of the autistic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of domestic money goes at the heart of debates about independence and equality in intimate relationships. It provides an important window on the individualization of family life and how couples reconcile ideals around egalitarian marriage ideologies with enduring gender inequality in society and the labor market. This study approaches these issues from the prism of couples’ banking arrangements (separate vs. joint accounts), an aspect of financial organization that approximates the executive management of household resources and which has received comparatively little attention. As such, it is amongst the first to deploy large-scale, household panel data (Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, n = 15,379 observations from 7,054 couples) and binary and multinomial random-effect logistic regression models to examine trends over time in couples’ banking arrangements and their socio-demographic predictors. Key findings indicate that a large share of couples in Australia favors ‘mixed’ bank account strategies (i.e., holding both joint and separate accounts), but ‘egalitarian’ choices (i.e., dual separate accounts) are prevalent and on the rise. Couples’ bank account choices are influenced in theoretically-meaningful ways by economic resources, transaction costs, relationship history, gender-role attitudes, and family background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The importance of adolescent engagement in health decisions and public health programs such as immunisation is becoming increasingly recognised. Understanding adolescent preferences and further identifying barriers and facilitators for immunisation acceptance is critical to the success of adolescent immunisation programs. This study applied a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to assess vaccination preferences in adolescents. Methods: This study was conducted as a cross-sectional, national online survey in Australian adolescents. The DCE survey evaluated adolescent vaccination preferences. Six attributes were assessed including disease severity, target for protection, price, location of vaccination provision, potential side effects and vaccine delivery method. A mixed logit model was used to analyse DCE data. Results: This survey was conducted between December 2014 and January 2015. Of 800 adolescents aged 15 to 19 years, stronger preferences were observed overall for: vaccination in the case of a life threatening illness (p<0.001), lower price vaccinations (p<0.001), mild but common side effects (p = 0.004), delivery via a skin patch (p<0.001) and being administered by a family practitioner (p<0.001). Participants suggested that they and their families would be willing to pay AU$394.28 (95%CI: AU$348.40 to AU$446.92) more for a vaccine targeting a life threatening illness than a mild-moderate illness, AU$37.94 (95%CI: AU$19.22 to AU$57.39) more for being vaccinated at a family practitioner clinic than a council immunisation clinic, AU$23.01 (95%CI: AU$7.12 to AU$39.24) more for common but mild and resolving side effects compared to rare but serious side effects, and AU$51.80 (95%CI: AU$30.42 to AU$73.70) more for delivery via a skin patch than injection. Conclusions: Consideration of adolescent preferences may result in improved acceptance of, engagement in and uptake of immunisation programs targeted for this age group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An online survey was conducted to determine associations between transport management and transport-related injuries and diseases in horses in Australia. The survey was composed of three sections: respondents’ demographic information, transport management strategies or procedures (before, during and after transportation) and transport diseases experienced in the previous two year period. Univariate and multivariate modelling was performed exploring associations between variables (respondents’ details and transport management strategies) and the following transport-related diseases as outcomes: traumatic injuries, diarrhoea, heat stroke, muscular problems, laminitis, transport pneumonia and colic. The survey generated 797 responses. Traumatic injuries were the most common transport-related problem, with a reported incidence of 45.0%. Younger respondents (<40 years old) caring for large numbers of horses (>30 in a week) were more likely to report transport-related injuries. Injury risk was also linked to the use of protections and tranquilizers prior to transport, and checking horses after the journey. Diarrhoea (20.0%) and heat stroke (10.5%) were reported more by amateur than professional horse carers. Increased risk of heat stroke was linked to the restriction of hay and water prior to transportation. Muscular problems (13.0%) appeared to be exacerbated when horse health was not assessed before journey; whilst the risk of laminitis (2.9%) was around three fold greater when post transport recovery strategies were not applied. Associations were made between transport pneumonia (9.2%) and duration of journey, and with activity (horses involved in racing at greater risk). No associations were seen between the incidence of colic (10.3%) and the variables examined. Study findings should be interpreted with caution as they represent participant perceptions and recall. Nevertheless, results support many current recommendations for safe transportation of horses. They also highlight the need to further investigate many of identified management factors to refine existing policies and practices in equine transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Some researchers have raised concerns that pictorial health warning labels (HWLs) on cigarette packages may lead to message rejection and reduced effectiveness of HWL messages. This study aimed to determine how state reactance (i.e., negative affect due to perceived manipulation) in response to both pictorial and text-only HWLs is associated with other types of HWL responses and with subsequent cessation attempts. Methods: Survey data were collected every 4 months between September 2013 and 2014 from online panels of adult smokers in Australia, Canada, Mexico, and the US were analyzed. Participants with at least one wave of follow-up were included in the analysis (n = 4,072 smokers; 7,459 observations). Surveys assessed psychological and behavioral responses to HWLs (i.e., attention to HWLs, cognitive elaboration of risks due to HWLs, avoiding HWLs, and forgoing cigarettes because of HWLs) and cessation attempts. Participants then viewed specific HWLs from their countries and were queried about affective state reactance. Logistic and linear Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) models regressed each of the psychological and behavioral HWL responses on reactance, while controlling for socio-demographic and smoking-related variables. Logistic GEE models also regressed having attempted to quit by the subsequent survey on reactance, each of the psychological and behavioral HWL responses (analyzed separately), adjustment variables. Data from all countries were initially pooled, with interactions between country and reactance assessed; when interactions were statistically significant, country-stratified models were estimated. Results: Interactions between country and reactance were found in all models that regressed psychological and behavioral HWL responses on study variables. In the US, stronger reactance was associated with more frequent reading of HWLs and thinking about health risks. Smokers from all four countries with stronger reactance reported greater likelihood of avoiding warnings and forgoing cigarettes due to warnings, although the association appeared stronger in the US. Both stronger HWLs responses and reactance were positively associated with subsequent cessation attempts, with no significant interaction between country and reactance. Conclusions: Reactance towards HWLs does not appear to interfere with quitting, which is consistent with its being an indicator of concern, not a systematic effort to avoid HWL message engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Children with severe obesity have greater risk of adverse health outcomes. The purpose of this study was to assess trends in the prevalence of morbid and severe obesity in Australian children between 1985 and 2012. Methods: Secondary analysis of four national Australian cross-sectional surveys of measured height/weight in 7–15 year olds: Australian Health and Fitness Survey 1985 (n = 8,486), National Nutrition Survey 1995 (n = 1,541), the National Children’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey 2007 (n = 2,585) and the National Health Survey 2012 (n = 2,940). International Obesity Taskforce cut-point was used for morbid obesity (equivalent to a BMI ≥35kg/m2 at age 18 years). Severe obesity class 2 was defined as BMI ≥120% and <140% of the 95th percentile of the CDC 2000 growth charts or a BMI ≥35 and <40, and severe obesity class 3 as BMI ≥140% of the 95th percentile or a BMI ≥40. Results: Between 1985 and 2012 the prevalence of morbid obesity increased from 0.2% to 1.8%, class 2 severe obesity from 0.3% to 2.0%, and class 3 from 0.1% to 0.5%. Children with morbid obesity represented 11.3% of children with obesity in 1985 and increased to 22.5% in 2012 (P = 0.005). Children with severe obesity represented 19.3% of children with obesity in 1985 and increased to 32.0% in 2012 (P = 0.016). The greatest increase was observed between 1995 and 2007. The proportion of children who were classified as morbidly or severely obese was not significantly different between 2007 and 2012, nor was it significantly different between age and sex groups. Conclusion: Prevalence of morbid and severe obesity among children is low, but has significantly increased between 1985 and 2012. In contrast to overweight and obese children, children with morbid obesity require tertiary intervention. Failure to treat these children will have significant implications for the individual child and community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Menopausal Hormone Therapy (MHT) use in Australia fell by 55% from 2001 to 2005, following the release of large-scale findings on its risks and benefits. Comprehensive national data, including information on overall prevalence of MHT use as well as information on duration of use in Australia have not been reported since the 2004–5 National Health Survey, when 11% of women aged 45+ years were estimated to be current MHT users. No national data are available on prevalence of use of “bioidentical” hormone therapy (BHT). The objective of this study was to determine recent prevalence of MHT and BHT use. A cross-sectional, national, age-stratified, population survey was conducted in 2013. Eligible women, aged 50–69 years, resident in Australia were randomly sampled in 5-year age groups from the Medicare enrolment database (Australia’s universal health scheme). The response rate was 22% based on return of completed questionnaires, and analyses were restricted to 4,389 women within the specified age range. The estimated population-weighted prevalence of current use of MHT was 13% (95%CI 12–14), which was broadly similar to the previously reported national figures in 2004–5, suggesting that the use of MHT in Australia has largely stabilised over the past decade. A total of 39% and 20% of current-users with an intact uterus reported use of oestrogen-progestagen MHT and oestrogen-only MHT, respectively, whereas 77% of hysterectomised current-users used oestrogen-only MHT. Almost three-quarters of current-users [population-weighted prevalence 9% (95%CI 8–10)] had used MHT for ≥5 years. In regard to BHT, estimated population-weighted prevalence of ever use was 6% (95%CI 6–7) and 2% (95%CI 2–3) for current use. The population-weighted prevalence of MHT and BHT combined, in current users in their fifties and sixties was 15% (95%CI 14–16). These data provide a recent national “snapshot” of Australian women’s use of both conventional MHT and of BHT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile telephone numbers are increasingly being included in household surveys samples. As approach letters cannot be sent because many do not have address details, alternatives approaches have been considered. This study assesses the effectiveness of sending a short message service (SMS) to a random sample of mobile telephone numbers to increase response rates. A simple random sample of 9000 Australian mobile telephone numbers: 4500 were randomly assigned to be sent a pre-notification SMS, and the remaining 4500 did not have a SMS sent. Adults aged 18 years and over, and currently in paid employment, were eligible to participate. American Association for Public Opinion Research formulas were used to calculated response cooperation and refusal rates. Response and cooperation rate were higher for the SMS groups (12.4% and 28.6% respectively) than the group with no SMS (7.7% and 16.0%). Refusal rates were lower for the SMS group (27.3%) than the group with no SMS (35.9%). When asked, 85.8% of the pre-notification group indicated they remembered receiving a SMS about the study. Sending a pre-notification SMS is effective in improving participation in population-based surveys. Response rates were increased by 60% and cooperation rates by 79%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]