Search

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the perceived quality of life, unmet needs and psychological distress in patients with head and neck cancer in a rural setting in New Zealand. Method: Patients presenting with head and neck cancer in Northland, New Zealand, were asked to complete questionnaires on quality of life, unmet needs, and anxiety or depression together with a free-text option. Results: About one quarter of respondents (27 per cent) scored high in the anxiety and depression scale, with corresponding diminished quality of life scores and increased needs. Over half of respondents (54 per cent) found it challenging to travel for treatment. Financial difficulties were encountered more frequently with indigenous patients. Rurality alone does not lead to significant differences in quality of life or needs. Conclusion: After treatment for head and neck cancer, it is important to monitor and manage patients' psychological distress and ease of access to health services to improve quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide, populations are ageing and consequently so are the consumer profiles for most organisations. Understanding how best to ensure satisfaction in interactions with older customers, patients, members of organisations, and so on is therefore increasingly important. This paper examines two research questions: (a) How satisfied or dissatisfied are older people with their customer service experience, and what are the factors associated with dissatisfaction? and (b) What prompts older people to want to change service providers? The research questions are addressed using a mixed-methods approach – quantitative analysis of observation logs, supported by illustrative quotes from focus groups. We find that on the whole older people are generally satisfied with their interactions with organisations, although a substantial minority of interactions lead to dissatisfaction or lower-than-expected satisfaction. Dissatisfaction with interactions is mostly associated with impersonal communications, including interactions that are not conducted face to face, and those that are one-off interactions rather than repeated interactions. Media and communications firms prompted the greatest levels of dissatisfaction among older consumers. Dissatisfied older consumers from our sample are more than 12 times more likely to report an intention to switch providers than satisfied consumers. This highlights the potential costs to organisations of poor customer interactions with older people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The impact of disparities in socio-economic status on the health of older people is an important issue for policy makers in the context of population ageing. As older people live in different types of economic circumstances and because, as people age, their desires and needs are different to those of younger generations, measures of living standards need to be appropriate for older people. This paper reports on the validation of a measure of living standards for older people based on Sen's Capability Approach. Using this approach, living standards are conceptualised as varying from constraint to freedom rather than from hardship to comfort. Using the New Zealand Longitudinal Study of Ageing omnibus survey of 3,923 adults aged 50–87 years, the validity of the measure was assessed. The results indicate that this measure assesses what older people are able to achieve. In addition, this measure discriminates better at the higher end of the living standards spectrum than an existing measure that assesses living standards from hardship to comfort in terms of what people possess. From this, a short form of the measure has been developed which offers a conceptually based and valid measure useful for survey research with older people. This measure of living standards provides future avenues for improved understandings of socio-economic position in later life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background. Previous research has found that mental health is strongly associated with life satisfaction. In this study we examine associations between mental health problems and life satisfaction in a birth cohort studied from 18 to 35 years. Method. Data were gathered during the Christchurch Health and Development Study, which is a longitudinal study of a birth cohort of 1265 children, born in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1977. Assessments of psychiatric disorder (major depression, anxiety disorder, suicidality, alcohol dependence and illicit substance dependence) using DSM diagnostic criteria and life satisfaction were obtained at 18, 21, 25, 30 and 35 years. Results. Significant associations (p < 0.01) were found between repeated measures of life satisfaction and the psychiatric disorders major depression, anxiety disorder, suicidality, alcohol dependence and substance dependence. After adjustment for non-observed sources of confounding by fixed effects, statistically significant associations (p < 0.05) remained between life satisfaction and major depression, anxiety disorder, suicidality and substance dependence. Overall, those reporting three or more mental health disorders had mean life satisfaction scores that were nearly 0.60 standard deviations below those without mental health problems. A structural equation model examined the direction of causation between life satisfaction and mental health problems. Statistically significant (p < 0.05) reciprocal associations were found between life satisfaction and mental health problems. Conclusions. After adjustment for confounding, robust and reciprocal associations were found between mental health problems and life satisfaction. Overall, this study showed evidence that life satisfaction influences mental disorder, and that mental disorder influences life satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This investigation examined the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and their preferences for classroom interventions for behaviours consistent with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Teacher ratings of intervention acceptability, effectiveness, and rate of change were compared across United States and New Zealand samples. Beliefs examined were personal teaching efficacy, general teaching efficacy, and pupil control ideology (PCI). Samples were compared regarding their preferences for the daily report card, response cost technique, classroom lottery, and medication as classroom strategies for managing ADHD-related behavioural concerns. Data were analysed using general linear modelling techniques, and an interaction was demonstrated between ADHD intervention x PCI x nationality. Differences were observed for ADHD interventions across samples based upon pupil control orientations. Implications for educators and their classroom practices are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To determine the prevalence of household food insecurity in New Zealand (NZ), eight food security statements were included in the 1997 National Nutrition Survey of adults. Rasch model analysis was performed to determine whether each food security statement (addressing a food security attribute) was discrete and could be ranked on a unidimensional scale. The NZ model had marginal ‘household’ reliability (0·60–0·66), good item separation (17·20–17·77) and item infit/outfit values between 0·8 and 1·25. Indices could be ranked by level of severity and represent the experience of household food insecurity in NZ. Categories of food security were assigned and used to predict food choice, and energy and nutrient intakes. Compared with fully secure/almost fully secure households, those that were moderately secure or of low security were less likely to consume the recommended daily servings of fruit and vegetables, and more likely to consume fatty meats. Intake of total fat, saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat, cholesterol, lactose and vitamin B12 increased with lower levels of food security. Intakes of glucose, fructose and vitamin C were highest in the fully secure/almost fully secure category. This unique eight-component food security measurement tool has less respondent burden than the US Core Food Security Measure. The relationships between the level of food insecurity and food choice and nutrient intakes illustrate that the most food-insecure households have less healthy diets. This relatively brief population-specific measurement tool is suitable to monitor population food security status, and is a useful marker of nutritional status. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]