Care workers' perspectives of factors affecting a sustainable aged care workforce.

Aims: To identify the reasons why workers decide to enter, stay or leave the aged care workforce; and the factors influencing them to transition between community and residential sectors in Australia.

Background: Factors affecting the recruitment and retention of suitable care workers in aged care are complex and influenced by personal, institutional and societal factors.

Methods: A qualitative description study design.

Why do older people with multi-morbidity experience unplanned hospital admissions from the community: a root cause analysis.

Background: Increasing demand for hospital services by older people is a major concern for Australian health care providers. To date there has been little in-depth research that encompasses contextual and systems factors contributing to hospital admissions. The objective of this study was to determine the reasons why older patients experienced unplanned hospital admissions to a major public hospital.

Family histories of school bullying: implications for parent-child psychotherapy.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether a parent's past history of peer victimisation predicted their children's risk of being bullied at school.

Method: In face-to-face interviews, a representative community sample of 1895 mothers and fathers were asked about exposure to traumatic bullying during their schooling. Parents completed the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) to measure possible links with health-related quality of life.

Recruitment for a clinical trial of chronic disease self-management for older adults with multimorbidity: a successful approach within general practice.

Background: A robust research base is required in General Practice. The research output for General Practice is much less than those of other clinical disciplines. A major impediment to more research in this sector is difficulty with recruitment.

Marital satisfaction among older couples: the role of satisfaction with social networks and psychological well-being.

Marital satisfaction is important for health and well-being, although determinants of satisfaction among older couples are unclear. Much of the marital literature has focused on the role of the spouse, in isolation from satisfaction with broader social relationships. We conducted separate semi-structured interviews with both members of n = 40 couples (mean age 76 years) to measure satisfaction with particular types of social networks (confidant, friend, children, other relatives) as well as levels of physical and psychological well-being.

A longitudinal analysis of social engagement in late-life widowhood.

Very little is known of the longitudinal changes that occur in contact with children and participation in social activities during late-life widowhood. Using data on social networks and activities drawn from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing, trajectories of change in social engagement were modeled for 1266 participants (mean age 76.7 years) over a 16-year period.