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The considerable focus on capturing the 'student experience' has not been matched by investigations into the views and experiences of those teaching and managing programmes. This study aims to contribute to redressing the balance. An online survey of staff responsible for Postgraduate Taught (PGT) programmes in the UK elicited 382 responses from staff in 60 different institutions. Findings relating to perceptions of challenges their students face, students' preparedness for Master's level study and the influence of institutional culture are reported. PGT students were seen as dealing with complexity and juggling multiple demands. A gap between PGT students' readiness for study at this level, the QAA's vision of Master's study, and institutional assumptions about student support required was identified. For this gap to be closed, we suggest a review of institutional practices is required.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2006.08.044 Byline: Mary J. De Silva (a), Sharon R. Huttly (a), Trudy Harpham (b), Michael G. Kenward (a) Keywords: Low income countries; Social capital; Mental health; Depression; Anxiety; Women; Mothers Abstract: Women and the poor are disproportionately affected by common mental disorders (CMD), and women in low income countries are particularly at risk. Social capital may explain some of the geographical variation in CMD, but the association between social capital and CMD in low income countries has rarely been studied. This paper aims to explore the relationship between individual and ecological measures of social capital and maternal CMD in four low income countries. Cross-sectional data from the Young Lives (YL) study with information across 234 communities in Peru, Ethiopia, Vietnam and Andhra Pradesh (India) were used. The mental health of mothers of one-year-old children (n=6909), and the individual cognitive and structural social capital of all respondents was assessed. Ecological social capital was calculated by aggregating individual responses to the community level. Multi-level modelling was used to explore the association between individual and ecological (community level) social capital and maternal CMD in each of the four countries, adjusting for a wide range of individual and community level confounders. The analysis shows that individual cognitive social capital is associated with reduced odds of CMD across all four countries. The results for structural social capital are more mixed and culturally specific, with some aspects associated with increased odds of CMD. This suggests that structural social capital has context-specific effects and cognitive social capital more universal effects on maternal CMD. Author Affiliation: (a) London School Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK (b) London South Bank University, UK

Social capital is a relatively new concept which has attracted significant attention in recent years. No consensus has yet been reached on how to measure social capital, resulting in a large number of different tools available. While psychometric validation methods such as factor analysis have been used by a few studies to assess the internal validity of some tools, these techniques rely on data already collected by the tool and are therefore not capable of eliciting what the questions are actually measuring. The Young Lives (YL) study includes quantitative measures of caregiver's social capital in four countries (Vietnam, Peru, Ethiopia, and India) using a short version of the Adapted Social Capital Assessment Tool (SASCAT). A range of different psychometric methods including factor analysis were used to evaluate the construct validity of SASCAT in Peru and Vietnam. In addition, qualitative cognitive interviews with 20 respondents from Peru and 24 respondents from Vietnam were conducted to explore what each question is actually measuring. We argue that psychometric validation techniques alone are not sufficient to adequately validate multi-faceted social capital tools for use in different cultural settings. Psychometric techniques show SASCAT to be a valid tool reflecting known constructs and displaying postulated links with other variables. However, results from the cognitive interviews present a more mixed picture with some questions being appropriately interpreted by respondents, and others displaying significant differences between what the researchers intended them to measure and what they actually do. Using evidence from a range of methods of assessing validity has enabled the modification of an existing instrument into a valid and low cost tool designed to measure social capital within larger surveys in Peru and Vietnam, with the potential for use in other developing countries following local piloting and cultural adaptation of the tool. Keywords: Social capital; Psychometric validation; Qualitative; Factor analysis; Developing world; Peru; Vietnam

Background: Epidemiological studies often require measures of socio-economic position (SEP). The application of principal components analysis (PCA) to data on asset-ownership is one popular approach to household SEP measurement. Proponents suggest that the approach provides a rational method for weighting asset data in a single indicator, captures the most important aspect of SEP for health studies, and is based on data that are readily available and/or simple to collect. However, the use of PCA on asset data may not be the best approach to SEP measurement. There remains concern that this approach can obscure the meaning of the final index and is statistically inappropriate for use with discrete data. In addition, the choice of assets to include and the level of agreement between wealth indices and more conventional measures of SEP such as consumption expenditure remain unclear. We discuss these issues, illustrating our examples with data from the Malawi Integrated Household Survey 2004-5. Methods: Wealth indices were constructed using the assets on which data are collected within Demographic and Health Surveys. Indices were constructed using five weighting methods: PCA, PCA using dichotomised versions of categorical variables, equal weights, weights equal to the inverse of the proportion of households owning the item, and Multiple Correspondence Analysis. Agreement between indices was assessed. Indices were compared with per capita consumption expenditure, and the difference in agreement assessed when different methods were used to adjust consumption expenditure for household size and composition. Results: All indices demonstrated similarly modest agreement with consumption expenditure. The indices constructed using dichotomised data showed strong agreement with each other, as did the indices constructed using categorical data. Agreement was lower between indices using data coded in different ways. The level of agreement between wealth indices and consumption expenditure did not differ when different consumption equivalence scales were applied. Conclusion: This study questions the appropriateness of wealth indices as proxies for consumption expenditure. The choice of data included had a greater influence on the wealth index than the method used to weight the data. Despite the limitations of PCA, alternative methods also all had disadvantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a report on the fecal disposal practices of young children in a shanty town area of Lima, Peru. Age, method, perceptions of dirtiness and availability of resources as the main determinants; Potties as the most socially acceptable and `hygienic' method; Promotion of hygienic defecation and stool clearance practices.

- The position of the testes reduces their temperature but makes them vulnerable to trauma. Patients with testis cancer frequently report prior testicular trauma, but this trauma may have triggered diagnosis of the tumour rather than been aetiological. In this study, the frequencies of various prior traumatic and temperature exposures in 259 patients with testis cancer were compared with their frequencies in two sets of control patients who did not have testis cancer. Particular effort was made to prevent bias. Testis cancer was not significantly associated with any temperature or trauma exposure and the confidence limits of the findings excluded substantially raised risks. The evidence suggests that raised temperatures and traumas commonly encountered in everyday life are not important risk factors for testis cancer. The possible aetiological roles of extreme trauma sufficient to cause atrophy, and of the trauma and raised temperature which can occur in cryptorchidism, however, need investigation by other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 1300 severely malnourished children (< 60% of US National Center for Health Statistics weight-for-height, with edema, or both) are admitted each year to the Children’s Nutrition Unit in Dhaka. Fatality during treatment is low and recovery is rapid. Our aim was to determine whether this initial success is sustained when children return home. A previous attempt to address this question was frustrated by the difficulty in tracing children after discharge because most are from slum settlements and families move frequently. This prospective study with fortnightly monitoring was therefore undertaken. The main outcomes of interest were anthropometric status, relapse, morbidity, and mortality. Children (n = 437) who had been treated for severe malnutrition when aged 12–59 mo and had reached the discharge criterion of 80% of weight-for-height, were followed for the next 12 mo. During follow-up, 7.5% were lost without trace, 0.6% relapsed, and 2.3% died. Morbidity was high, with a mean of seven episodes of diarrhea during the year. Outpatient visits for diarrhea occurred for 67% of children, and 58% had pneumonia (10% had pneumonia three times). After 12 mo, mean weight-for-height was 91% (20.92 z score) but mean height-for-age remained at 84% (24.14 z score). Weight gain, but not height gain, tended to be lower in children who experienced more diarrhea. Fever and cough were not associated with either weight or height gain. The high prevalence of illness highlights the need for continued accessible health care and for interventions to reduce disease acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 1300 severely malnourished children (< 60% of US National Center for Health Statistics weight-for-height, with edema, or both) are admitted each year to the Children’s Nutrition Unit in Dhaka. Fatality during treatment is low and recovery is rapid. Our aim was to determine whether this initial success is sustained when children return home. A previous attempt to address this question was frustrated by the difficulty in tracing children after discharge because most are from slum settlements and families move frequently. This prospective study with fortnightly monitoring was therefore undertaken. The main outcomes of interest were anthropometric status, relapse, morbidity, and mortality. Children (n = 437) who had been treated for severe malnutrition when aged 12–59 mo and had reached the discharge criterion of 80% of weight-for-height, were followed for the next 12 mo. During follow-up, 7.5% were lost without trace, 0.6% relapsed, and 2.3% died. Morbidity was high, with a mean of seven episodes of diarrhea during the year. Outpatient visits for diarrhea occurred for 67% of children, and 58% had pneumonia (10% had pneumonia three times). After 12 mo, mean weight-for-height was 91% (20.92 z score) but mean height-for-age remained at 84% (24.14 z score). Weight gain, but not height gain, tended to be lower in children who experienced more diarrhea. Fever and cough were not associated with either weight or height gain. The high prevalence of illness highlights the need for continued accessible health care and for interventions to reduce disease acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]