Einige Hinweise zur Verpflegung von Ausl?ndern in der Schweizer Industrie

Zusammenfassung Unterkunft und Verpflegung vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg, mit Hinweis auf die Textilindustrie.—Erfahrungsaustausch 1947—Hochkonjunktur: Anwachsen des Zuzuges von Arbeitskr?ften aus immer unserem Land ferner gelegenen Gegenden. Ern?hrung als geistiges Problem—Beeinflussung durch Religion und ethische Momente. —L?sungen der Schweizer Arbeitgeber: individuelle Kochgelegenheit—Gemeinschaftsverpflegung: Anpassung des Speisezettels—Wahlm?glichkeit zwischen mindestens zwei Cerichten.

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Résumé Questions de logement et alimentation de la main-d'œuvre étrangère en Suisse avant la seconde guerre mondiale, en rapport à l'industrie textile—échange d'expérience en 1947—Période de prospérité: nombre accroissant de la main-d'œuvre étrangère de pays toujours plus éloignés de la Suisse. Alimentation vue comme problème psychologique—influencée par la religion et la morale—solutions réalisées par l'employeur suisse: mettre à disposition des cuisines individuelles où chacun préparera son met selon ses habitudes—ravitaillement dans les ménages collectifs: adaptation des menus—possibilité de choix parmi deux mets au moins.

     

For whom and for what the definition of severe dementia is useful an edcon consensus

The European Dementia Consensus Network (EDCON) is a special project of the Madariaga Foundation located in Brussels. The Madariaga Foundation seeks to facilitate collaboration between European countries and between the public and private sector. This paper will review the differences in the definitions of Severe Dementia and summarise the EDCON consensus on their implications for management. EDCON recommends that: — The attributes of the person suffering from dementia should be given as much attention (and are as important for care) as the severity of cognitive decline in dementia; — The dementia syndrome (particularly in it’s severe form) is inadequately defined by criteria which only includes the domain of cognition; — Physical, legal, social and cultural factors defining the environment of patients and their families should be carefully examined and that the results of this examination should be used in conjunction with the results of the somatic and psychiatric assessment in planning care and placement of the patient; — patients with severe dementia should have access to palliative care; — family members should be included in the care plans for those with severe dementia who are in institutional care.     

An urgent need to improve life conditions of seniors

In the fall of 2007, the Government of Quebec set up a Public Consultation on Living Conditions of Seniors. Fifty sessions were held in 26 cities across all 17 regions of the province. More than 4000 seniors attended the sessions and 275 briefs were received from scientists and associations. Three themes were identified in the report published in 2008: supporting seniors and their caregivers, reinforcing the place of seniors in society, and preventing problems associated with aging (suicide, abuse, addictions). The main actions that I recommended included:— Increasing the Guaranteed Income Supplement to prevent poverty; — Modifying pension plans and working conditions to allow for progressive retirement; — Making a major investment in home care to provide access to services regardless of place of residence; — Introducing an Autonomy Support Benefit and autonomy insurance program for financing services to support people with disabilities; — Generalizing an Integrated Service Delivery Network providing services to frail older people; — Better training for professionals in gerontology. I also recommended setting up a National Policy on Seniors to align all government departments and agencies, municipalities and the private sector around a vision, objectives and a set of actions for improving the integration of seniors in an aging society. This would contribute to a more equitable, interdependent and wiser society. Unfortunately, the Government did not support these recommendations. It is now time for scientists to get involved in leading policy on seniors and in the political arena.     

The influence of individual and contextual psychosocial work factors on the perception of the indoor environment at work: a multilevel analysis

Purpose  

The aims of this study was to investigate the role of the psychosocial work environment—at the individual level as well as the workplace level—in explaining the variability in the employees’ perception of the indoor environment.     

The case for an integrated incontinence service for disabled children

Summary Despite the practical and social problems it can cause, incontinence in the disabled child has attracted relatively little attention. This article reviews the different causes of incontinence—developmental, neurological and environmental—and the resulting different approaches to its management. A short outline of the range of services available to the incontinent leads to the conclusion that an integrated service—covering all aspects of assessment, re-assessment, medical and surgical intervention and the provision of aids and appliances—is required if the burden of incontinence is to be made as light as possible for both the disabled child and his or her carers. Work on incontinence at the Social Policy Research Unit is supported by the Department of Health and Social Security.     

Associations between two job stress models and measures of salivary cortisol

Purpose  

To investigate the association between two job stress models—the job demand-control model and the effort-reward imbalance model—and repeated measures of salivary cortisol among male and female call-centre operators.     

Physical activity—the more we measure,the more we know how to measure

In the nineteenth century, the legendary physicist Lord Kelvin remarked, “to measure is to know” and “when you can measure what you are speaking about, and can express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind”. Even though Lord Kelvin did not have epidemiology in mind when he made these statements, they hold true in the world of epidemiology—where measurement is the key. The importance of physical activity as a determinant for health and diseases—and as an adjuvant in medical treatment and rehabilitation—is increasingly valued. And, it has been highlighted by this journal many times.     

Sex Differences in Sex Drive,Sociosexuality, and Height across 53 Nations: Testing Evolutionary and Social Structural Theories

By analyzing cross-cultural patterns in five parameters—sex differences, male and female trait means, male and female trait standard deviations—researchers can better test evolutionary and social structural models of sex differences. Five models of biological and social structural influence are presented that illustrate this proposal. Using data from 53 nations and from over 200,000 participants surveyed in a recent BBC Internet survey, I examined cross-cultural patterns in these five parameters for two sexual traits—sex drive and sociosexuality—and for height, a physical trait with a biologically based sex difference. Sex drive, sociosexuality, and height all showed consistent sex differences across nations (mean ds = .62, .74, and 1.63). Women were consistently more variable than men in sex drive (mean female to male variance ratio = 1.64). Gender equality and economic development tended to predict, across nations, sex differences in sociosexuality, but not sex differences in sex drive or height. Parameters for sociosexuality tended to vary across nations more than parameters for sex drive and height did. The results for sociosexuality were most consistent with a hybrid model—that both biological and social structural influences contribute to sex differences, whereas the results for sex drive and height were most consistent with a biological model—that evolved biological factors are the primary cause of sex differences. The model testing proposed here encourages evolutionary and social structural theorists to make more precise and nuanced predictions about the patterning of sex differences across cultures.     

Can we assume that research participants are utility maximisers?

The objective of this study was to experimentally examine by means of an information manipulation if respondents are adhering to the utility theory axiom of utility maximisation. A repeated measure experimental design was used. Assessments were conducted pre- and post-intervention with self-administered questionnaires. The study participants were 158 (142 after exclusions) first year undergraduate students, Bangor University (UK). The intervention—information manipulation—did not induce the hypothesised changes in the perceived pros and cons of, or desire for, genetic testing and counselling for breast cancer; correlation revealed a weak relationship between the pros and cons of and desire for testing and counselling. We conclude that there was no evidence of utility maximisation—the key tenet of utility theory—being used. Given the contradiction between the findings of this study and others, there is a need to conduct further research into utility maximisation.      

Metal Content Profiles in Mushrooms Collected in Primary Forests of Latin America

Ecotoxicology and environmental safety concerns suggested estimation of the content of 14 metals—some of them highly toxic, such as cadmium, mercury, and lead—in 26 mushrooms species (Basidiomycetes and Ascomycetes). The fungi—members of different genera—were collected during two periods, 1967–1969 and 1978–1981, in primary forests of Latin America (mainly French Guyana and a few samples from Colombia and Costa Rica), these areas are non- or slightly inhabited, therefore, industrial pollution has to be considered as totally nonexistent. Heavy metals, selectively concentrated in specific living organisms, should be regarded as toxin-like substances, taking into account the bioaccumulation sites (mushrooms) and the noxious activity toward various organs of mammals (i.e., central nervous system, kidneys, liver, etc.). The levels and distribution of the metals in the samples are given and compared. Most surprisingly, contents are not especially contrasted with those found in mushrooms collected in European urban areas, such as the Paris region; cadmium, lead, and mercury levels are of the same order of magnitude. Received: 20 July 1998/Accepted: 4 November 1998     

Very low birth weight births in Georgia, 1994–2005: trends and racial disparities

Objective  

To investigate the nature of very low birth weight (VLBW) births in Georgia—a major contributor to the overall and the black–white disparity in infant mortality—as a step toward elucidating strategies for reducing VLBW births.     

Musculoskeletal Problems among VDU Workers in a Hong Kong Bank

A survey of musculoskeletal problems among visual display unit(VDU) users was carried out in a bank using a self-administeredquestionnaire. The prevalence of complaints in various bodyparts were: neck—31.4%, back 30.6%, shoulder—16.5%,hand and wrist—14.9% and arm—6.6%. Frequent usersof VDU had significantly more musculoskeletal problems in theneck and shoulder regions than infrequent users. Individualmusculoskeletal complaints were associated with various riskfactors including personal attributes, working posture, repetitivemovements and work station design. Back, neck and shoulder problemswere more related to unfavourable working postures, while arm,hand and wrist problems were more affected by repetitive movements.Some risk factors for musculoskeletal problems were specificallyrelated to the nature or design of VDU work. Modification otthe workstation design and improvement in work organizationshould be able to reduce the prevalence of these disorders.     

Screening for a cancer: thinking before rethinking

A recent article (by Esserman et al.) called to serious question the diagnostic and prognostic premises of screening for breast and prostate cancers, and it proceeded to adduce, also, other radical rethinking of these screenings. That questioning was ‘evidence-based’ in the contemporary epidemiological meaning of this—use was made of cancer-registry data as well as of evidence from such randomized trials as epidemiologists now take to be essential in actual research on screening for a cancer—and, evidence-based as it was, that questioning has been left unquestioned. But that questioning, as to the interpretation of the evidence, was not adequately thinking-based. It was, instead, rife with the misunderstandings that permeate contemporary epidemiological thinking about screening for a cancer and about research for the scientific knowledge-base of this. In the truly called-for rethinking, the point of departure would be the recognition that the premises of screening for a cancer are clinical in nature, as obviously also are both the entire process potentially leading to a cancer’s early, preclinical diagnosis and the individual counselling about submitting oneself to this. Epidemiologists should focus on epidemiology—practice of and research for community medicine, community-level preventive medicine, that is—and to have no presumptions of understanding, better than clinicians, the (clinical) issues surrounding the pursuit of early diagnosis of a cancer, whether matters of practice, research, or public policy. Clinicians and clinical researchers, in turn, should disregard epidemiologists’—and other public-health professionals’—ideas about screening for a cancer, the practice of and research on this. The need for this aprioristic rethinking is manifest, very eminently, in the fresh recommendations about screening for breast cancer, issued by the US Preventive Services Task Force, and in the public uproar provoked by these.     

The desired moral attitude of the physician: (I) empathy

In professional medical ethics, the physician traditionally is obliged to fulfil specific duties as well as to embody a responsible and trustworthy personality. In the public discussion, different concepts are suggested to describe the desired underlying attitude of physicians. In this article, one of them—empathy—is presented in an interpretation that is meant to depicture (together with the two additional concepts compassion and care) this attitude. Therefore empathy in the clinical context is defined as the adequate understanding of the inner processes of the patient concerning his health-related problems. Adequacy is scrutinized on behalf of the emotional and subjective involvement of he physician, and on the necessary dependence on medical—moral—goals. In the present interpretation, empathy alone is no guarantee of the right moral attitude, but a necessary instrumental skill in order to perceive and treat a patient as an individual person. The concepts of compassion and care that will be discussed in two forthcoming articles are necessary parts to describe the desired moral attitude of the physician more completely.     

Care and competence in medical practice: Francis Peabody confronts Jason Posner

In this paper, I discuss the role of care and competence, as well as their relationship to one another, in contemporary medical practice. I distinguish between two types of care. The first type, care₁, represents a natural concern that motivates physicians to help or to act on the behalf of patients, i.e. to care about them. However, this care cannot guarantee the correct technical or right ethical action of physicians to meet the bodily and existential needs of patients, i.e. to take care of them—care₂. To that end, physicians must be competent in the practice of medicine both as evidence—based science (technical competence) and as patient—centered art (ethical competence). Only then, I argue, can physicians take care of (care₂) patients’ bodily and existential needs in a compassionate and comprehensive manner. Importantly, although care₁ precedes competence, competence—both technical and ethical—is required for genuine care₂, which in turn reinforces an authentic care₁. I utilize the play Wit, especially the character Jason Posner, and Francis Peabody’s exposition on caring for patients, to illustrate the role of care and competence in contemporary medical practice.     

The impact of home hospitalization on healthcare costs of exacerbations in COPD patients

Home-hospitalization (HH) improves clinical outcomes in selected patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) admitted at the emergency room due to an exacerbation, but its effects on healthcare costs are poorly known. The current analysis examines the impact of HH on direct healthcare costs, compared to conventional hospitalizations (CH). A randomized controlled trial was performed in two tertiary hospitals in Barcelona (Spain). A total of 180 exacerbated COPD patients (HH 103 and CH 77) admitted at the emergency room were studied. In the HH group, a specialized respiratory nurse delivered integrated care at home. The average direct cost per patient was significantly lower for HH than for CH, with a difference of 810€ (95% CI, 418–1,169€) in the mean cost per patient. The magnitude of monetary savings attributed to HH increased with the severity of the patients considered eligible for the intervention. This study was funded by Grants AATM 8/02/99 from the Agencia d’Avaluació de Tecnología Mèdica (Barcelona, Spain); FIS 98/0052-01 from the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (Spain); SEPAR 1998 (Spain); CHRONIC project (IST-1999/12158) from the European Union (DG XIII); Comissionat per a Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya (1999-SGR-00228); Fundación Mapfre Medicina (Spain); Red Respira—ISCIII—RTIC-03/11 and Red Telemedicina ISCIII—RTIC—03/117. Alejandro Casas was pre-doctoral research fellow supported by CHRONIC (IST-1999/12158) from the European Union (DG XIII).     

Effects of increasing syringe availability on syringe-exchange use and HIV risk: Connecticut, 1990–2001

Syringe-exchange programs (SEPs) in Connecticut operate with caps on the number of syringes exchanged per visit. We investigated the effects of legislation increasing the cap on drug injectors' access to clean syringes through the SEPs in New Haven and Hartford. The mixed design of this study included longitudinal and crosssectional data from individuals and ecological data from program operations. Five parameters—syringe return rate, syringes per visit to the SEP, syringe reuse rate, syringe human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence, and syringe sharing—were monitored through syringe tracking and testing of SEP syringes and by interviewing injectors. Two increases in the cap—from 5 to 10 and then from 10 to 30—had little effect on the five parameters that measured injectors' access to clean syringes. In contrast, access to clean syringes increased when the New Haven SEP first began operations, when syringes first became available at pharmacies in Hartford, and when the agency running the Hartford SEP changed. Legislation providing piecemeal increases in the cap may not, by themselves, be sufficient to increase injectors' access to clean syringes and decrease the risk of human immunodeficiency virus transmission in this population.     

Levels of Cadmium, Mercury, and Lead in Magellanic Penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) Stranded on the Brazilian Coast

Cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and lead (Pb) were determined in samples of liver and breast muscles of first-year Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus), from two different areas on the Brazilian coast, 35 on the Rio de Janeiro coast and 12 on the Rio Grande do Sul coast. In both areas, Cd concentrations in muscle samples were <0.025 μg/g. However, the Cd and Hg concentrations found in liver and Hg concentrations found in muscle showed a significant difference between the two regions. The geometric mean of the concentrations was higher in the specimens from Rio de Janeiro (Cd—6.8 μg/g; Hg—liver, 1.6 μg/g, and muscle, 0.4 μg/g wet weight) than in those from Rio Grande do Sul (Cd—2.3 μg/g; Hg—liver, 0.9 μg/g, and muscle, 0.1 μg/g wet weight). The site differences could be related to differences in diet influenced by geographic factors. Brazil’s southeastern coast is highly urbanized, and its coastal waters are contaminated by the waste of agricultural and industrial activities. There is a lack of information on the levels of heavy metals in S. magellanicus, however, their wide distribution and top position in the trophic chain make the use of stranded specimens an attractive source of information for monitoring heavy metals in the South Atlantic coast.     

Cabin fever: A folk belief and the misdiagnosis of complaints

“Cabin fever” is a common term in the northern tier of states, Canada and Alaska. Two possible indicators of cabin fever—domestic violence and mental health admissions—do not support the popular belief that it is a common winter phenomenon in the North. The result of inaccurate popular belief may be the misdiagnosis of complaints and inappropriate or inadequate treatment. Christensen, Russ, M.A., M.S., is Director of Developmental Disabilities Programs for Presbyterian Medical Services, Farmington, New Mexico. He received his M.S. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Alaska, Anchorage.     

Improvement of antioxidant status in women conventionally treated for breast cancer after 12 months of a cow milk whey-based supplementation. A preliminary study

Background  

Cancer chemo- and radiotherapy are constantly associated with unwanted side effects at least partially ascribable to oxidative stress, an imbalance between pro-oxidant and antioxidant factors. However, the possible indication and efficacy of antioxidant supplementations — including glutathione-based formulas — aimed to restore the oxidative balance should be, respectively, evaluated and monitored carefully with reliable analytical tools.