Drug testing on arrest-who benefits?

Background: Drugs and crime are linked and diversion from the criminal justice system into drug treatment is a well-established policy response. The point of arrest is a pivotal moment to initiate a drug-specific intervention. This paper assesses the impact of the introduction of drug testing on arrest (DToA) into a low crime area in England.

Participation and attitudes towards gambling in Ghanaian youth: an exploratory analysis of risk and protective factors.

Purpose: There is little information on youth gambling in Ghana even though there is an unprecedented emergence of various types of gambling and gambling venues throughout the country. The aim of this cross-sectional exploratory study was to examine the role of perceived social difficulties and perceived protective social factors in participation and attitudes of Ghanaian youth towards gambling using data from a school-based survey (n = 770).

Methods: Participants completed measures on perceived social difficulties, perceived protective social factors, attitudes towards gambling and participation in four types of gambling.

Spiritual Well-Being, Depression, and Stress Among Hemodialysis Patients in Jordan.

Purpose: The spiritual dimension of a patient's life is an important factor that may mediate detrimental impacts on mental health. The lack of research investigating spiritual well-being, religiosity, and mental health among Jordanian hemodialysis patients encouraged this research. This study explored levels of spiritual well-being and its associations with depression, anxiety, and stress.

The impact of persistent poor housing conditions on mental health: A longitudinal population-based study.

Living with housing problems increases the risk of mental ill health. Housing problems tend to persist over time but little is known about the mental health consequences of living with persistent housing problems. We investigated if persistence of poor housing affects mental health over and above the effect of current housing conditions.

Is Housing a Health Insult?

In seeking to understand the relationship between housing and health, research attention is often focussed on separate components of people's whole housing 'bundles'. We propose in this paper that such conceptual and methodological abstraction of elements of the housing and health relationship limits our ability to understand the scale of the accumulated effect of housing on health and thereby contributes to the under-recognition of adequate housing as a social policy tool and powerful health intervention. In this paper, we propose and describe an index to capture the means by which housing bundles influence health.

Development of the Arabic Spiritual Care Intervention-Provision Scale.

Aims And Objectives: This study develops a new instrument, the Spiritual Care Intervention-Provision Scale, and assesses its psychometric properties in an Arab Muslim nurse sample. The Spiritual Care Intervention-Provision Scale was developed to measure the frequency with which nurses provided aspects of spiritual care.

Background: Most of the available spiritual care instruments were developed in the West and reflect a predominantly Christian tradition.

Association between psychosomatic health symptoms and common mental illness in Ghanaian adolescents: Age and gender as potential moderators.

Little is known about the role of age and gender in the association between psychosomatic symptoms and common mental illness in Ghanaian adolescents. This cross-sectional study examined age and gender as moderators between psychosomatic symptoms and common mental illness using data from a school-based survey ( N = 770). Males reported higher psychosomatic symptoms and common mental illness, while younger adolescents reported higher common mental illness only.

Routine testing for blood-borne viruses in prisons: a systematic review.

Background: People in prison have a higher burden of blood-borne virus (BBV) infection than the general population, and prisons present an opportunity to test for BBVs in high-risk, underserved groups. Changes to the BBV testing policies in English prisons have recently been piloted. This review will enable existing evidence to inform policy revisions.

Impact of Spiritual Well-Being, Spiritual Perspective, and Religiosity on the Self-Rated Health of Jordanian Arab Christians.

The purpose of this study was to explore associations of spiritual well-being, spiritual perspective, and religiosity with self-rated health in a convenience sample of 340 adult Jordanian Arab Christians. Data were collected through church and community groups. Results indicated that spiritual well-being and religiosity were positively associated with self-rated health, but in the final regression model only spiritual well-being retained a significant association after controlling for the other spiritual and religious measures.

Factor structure and psychometric properties of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) among Ghanaian adolescents.

Purpose: There is little information about the reliability and validity of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) in Ghana. This study sought to examine the reliability and factor structure of the GHQ-12 in Ghanaian adolescents.

Methods: High school students (N = 770) completed the GHQ-12 and the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ).

Perceived social support and parental education as determinants of adolescents' physical activity and eating behaviour: a cross-sectional survey.

Purpose: To examine the role of perceived social support and parental education on physical activity and eating behaviour of Ghanaian adolescents.

Methods: Seven hundred and seventy Senior High School students (504 boys and 266 girls) between the ages of 14-21 years participated by completing questionnaires on perceived social support, physical activity and eating behaviour. The highest education attained by either parent or guardian was also obtained.

Social support, stress, health, and academic success in Ghanaian adolescents: a path analysis.

The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of the role psychosocial factors play in promoting the health and academic success of adolescents. A total of 770 adolescent boys and girls in Senior High Schools were randomly selected to complete a self-report questionnaire. School reported latest terminal examination grades were used as the measure of academic success.

Barriers to effective practice for health visitors working with asylum seekers and refugees.

The objective of this study was to determine the barriers to effective practice that health visitors experience when working with refugees and asylum seekers. This was a qualitative study based on the analysis of in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of 14 health visitors describing their experiences working with refugees and asylum seekers. These were analysed using the Framework process, a thematic matrix-based analytical method.

Health systems and the right to health: an assessment of 194 countries.

60 years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights laid the foundations for the right to the highest attainable standard of health. This right is central to the creation of equitable health systems. We identify some of the right-to health features of health systems, such as a comprehensive national health plan, and propose 72 indicators that reflect some of these features.

Biographical disruption associated with multiple sclerosis: using propensity scoring to assess the impact.

Chronic illness such as multiple sclerosis (MS) is often associated with 'biographical disruption', a concept that is derived from qualitative narrative analyses examining how people make sense of their illness in the context of their lives [Bury, M. (1982). Chronic illness as biographical disruption.

The psychological costs of unsustainable housing commitments.

Background: The extended recession and stagnant housing market in the 1990s following the boom of the late 1980s resulted in more than half a million housing repossessions. This study explores the impact of unsustainable housing commitments on psychological well-being. We test the hypotheses that housing payment problems and housing arrears have adverse impacts on heads of households' psychological well-being over and above those caused by financial hardship more generally.

Twelve-month psychiatric disorder among single and married mothers: the role of marital history.

Objective: To examine differences between single and married mothers in the 12-month prevalence of psychiatric disorders.

Methods: The analysis uses data from the National Comorbidity Survey, collected in 1992-1993, and focuses on women aged 15 to 55 years with children (n=1346). Psychiatric disorders are assessed with the University of Michigan Composite International Diagnostic Interview, a survey instrument based on DSM-III-R criteria.

Between family and friends: a longitudinal study of friendship choice.

The increasing role for chosen friends is a key element in current debates on individualization and the transformation of intimacy. This paper describes the changes in friendship choices over time and demonstrates how life events subsequently impact on those choices. We primarily distinguish between kin and non-kin nominations of friends and how these may be related to the social and economic turbulence inherent in late modernity.

Cohabiting unions, repartnering and mental health.

Background: A considerable body of research has established that transitions out of marriage are generally deleterious for mental health and some have examined transitions out of cohabitation. In this study we depart from these established areas to investigate the effects of poor mental health on the duration and outcome of cohabitations and on the time to, and likelihood of, repartnering after both cohabitation and marriage.

Method: Samples came from the British Household Panel Survey, 1991--2001.

Marital transitions and mental health.

Most research identifies marital disruption as a precursor for poor mental health but is generally unable to discount the potential selection effect of poor mental health leading to marital disruption. We use data from nine annual waves of the British Household Panel Survey to examine social selection and social causation as competing explanations. Mental health is measured using the general health questionnaire.

Precursors, consequences and implications for stability and change in pre-adolescent antisocial behaviors.

Although much of the evidence stresses the stability of dysfunctional behavior throughout the life cycle, other evidence suggests that stability of antisocial behavior is a matter of degree. In this work we determine the degree of stability of such behavior in preadolescence and how this is influenced by age, gender, social structures, and family processes. Also, we explore whether change in the level of antisocial behavior impacts upon other important developmental regimes such as health and educational performance.

Social precursors to onset and recovery from episodes of common mental illness.

Background: Social disadvantage and lack of social support have been identified as important risk factors for the onset and continuance of episodes of common mental illness. This study aimed to identify the social precursors to episodes of and recovery from common mental illness in a large, general population sample over eight yearly intervals.

Method: The analytical samples were drawn from those aged > or = 16 in the British Household Panel Survey from 1991 to 1998.

Emergence of gender differences in depression during adolescence: national panel results from three countries.

Objective: Although the gender gap in depression among adults is well established, the age at which this phenomenon appears during adolescence is less clear. To address this, the authors present a cross-national examination of the emergence of the gender gap in depression during adolescence using national longitudinal panel data from Canada, Great Britain, and the United States.

Method: The two-wave, 1994-1996 Canadian National Population Health Survey uses a diagnostic measure across a 24-month interval, providing 12-month prevalence rates of major depressive disorder.