CONCEPTS OF HEALTH: WOMEN'S STRUGGLE FOR WHOLENESS IN THE MIDST OF POVERTY

This article describes the findings of a modest qualitative study that deals with the concept of health and involves the women-centered interviewing of six women who live in poverty. The themes uncovered in this study identify the struggle for wholeness in the midst of poverty. The findings validate many of the nursing theorists' definitions of health as wholeness, and challenge care providers to bring an appreciation of this view to their understanding of women's health.     

WOMEN'S PERCEPTIONS OF HEALTH CARE IN PRISON

Fifteen female inmates' perceptions of medical care and the manner in which treatment is provided are explored through individual interviews in a state prison. The women did not hold exclusively negative or positive views about the care and treatment they received; however, the predominant view was negative. Examples of inadequate medical care are described by 14 of the 15 women. Nonempathetic treatment, such as being treated as if undeserving of care, is described by all 15. Examples of adequate medical care and empathetic treatment are offered as well, and the overlap between positive and negative perceptions of care is explored.     

海南省女性生殖健康调查分析

[目的]了解我省女性生殖健康状况及存在的问题,针对影响女性生殖健康的主要因素提出可行性干预措施,提高女性生殖健康水平. [方法]采取分层整群随机抽样方法,对15个市县10 328名≥18岁已婚或有性交史的女性进行抽样调查,主要针对婚前保健、产前保健、住院分娩、母乳喂养、生育节育情况及妇女病患病情况进行统计分析. [结果]≥18岁已婚或有性交史的女性婚前检查率19.6%,产前检查率80.1%,住院分娩率86.5%,母乳喂养率91.3%,采取节育措施率74.0%,妇女病患病率77.4%.从调查结果分析得出,影响以上结果的因素主要有调查对象受教育程度、保健意识、经济水平、当地社会条件. [结论]女性生殖健康是一项功在当代、惠泽千秋的系统工程,由政府部门牵头、多部门多行业协作,从妇女各期保健入手,切实做好工作,才能从根本上提高我省女性生殖健康水平.     

THE IMPORTANCE OF SYMBOLIC INTERACTION IN GROUNDED THEORY RESEARCH ON WOMEN'S HEALTH

A variety of grounded theory studies are presented in this issue of Health Care for Women International that attend to different factors and situations impacting women's health. In this paper I will provide the basic principles of symbolic interactionism (SI) for the reader unfamiliar with the conceptual underpinnings of the grounded theory research method. I will discuss why SI is a fitting perspective for use in the study of women, women's perspectives, and women's health. I will conclude with a brief discussion of challenges to researchers maintaining the symbolic interaction perspective in grounded theory research.     

WOMEN'S PERCEPTIONS OF FEMALE GENERAL PRACTITIONERS

A telephone survey of 250 women, selected at random from the Melbourne telephone directory, was conducted to ascertain perceptions about female general practitioners (GP) by female patients. The three most important factors in choosing a new GP were recommendation, distance and ease of obtaining an appointment. The sex of the GP was only an important factor for a small group of the respondents. The preference for a female doctor was higher if a gynaecological examination or discussion of emotional/personal problems were involved. A majority of respondents perceived no difference in a number of professional attributes. of female and male GPs. Preference (or lack of it) for sex of a new GP was strongly related to sex of current GP. These results reveal a much more favourable disposition by female patients towards female GPs than has been earlier reported. They indicate that the increasing numbers of female GPs in the medical workforce are unlikely to experience any obstacle to their full participation in it arising from the perceptions of their female patients.     

健身健美操锻炼改善女性体质健康状态效果分析

[目的]了解自主组合创编的健身健美操锻炼对女性体质健康状态的影响,探讨可持续性干预女性亚健康状态的有效措施。[方法]对新乡市区6个健身健美操俱乐部的中、青年女性及新乡医学院的女生共950名参加健身健美操学习、锻炼的采取整体抽样法、问卷调查,并从中抽取锻炼组、对照组各80例,年龄17～35岁。采用自主组合创编的健身健美操锻炼为主要内容,对锻炼前、中、后的形态指标、机能素质等进行比较分析。[结果]锻炼组锻炼前后形态指标、机能差异均有统计学意义(P﹤0.01);锻炼组与对照组差异也有统计学意义(P﹤0.05),(P﹤0.01)。[结论]长期进行健身健美操锻炼对女性体质健康状态有良性调节作用,能减少脂肪堆积,增进健康素质,减少亚健康发生率。此方法安全可靠、行之有效,宜长期采用。     

ABSTRACTING WOMEN: ESSENTIALISM IN WOMEN'S HEALTH RESEARCH

Women's desire to take control of their own bodies creates a natural affinity between the projects of feminism and women's health research. Feminists have used the categories of woman/women, gender, and sex as foundation terms to designate the subject of feminist theories. Universal categories, which have been exposed as essentialist by postmodern and poststructural critiques, create falsely unified subject positions that fail to account for the diversity of women and also fail to acknowledge the situated interests of the dominant groups whose perspectives they reflect. Because it adopts these same categories, research in women's health is also permeated with this essentialized understanding, whether or not it is overtly feminist. In this paper, we point out the dangers of the unreflective use of woman/ women, gender, and sex in women's health research. We conclude, that for political purposes, however, a carefully considered "strategic essentialism" can be warranted in research aimed at improving women's health.     

MUSLIM CULTURE AND FEMALE SELF-IMMOLATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR GLOBAL WOMEN'S HEALTH RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

Self-immolation among young Muslim women in parts of the Middle East and Central Asia increasingly is becoming a cause of death and disability. Very little is known about this phenomenon. Thus, in this article we (1) examine, from the perspective of Muslim culture, the phenomenon of self-immolation among young Islamic women in the Muslim countries of Central Asia and the Middle East; (2) describe current international activities regarding Islamic female self-immolation; and (3) discuss the implications of Islamic female self-immolation for global women's heath research and practice.     

重庆直辖以来卫生资源配置与利用状况的动态分析

[目的]通过对1997￣2004年重庆市直辖8年来的卫生资源配置与利用状况的动态分析,为卫生行政部门制定区域卫生发展规划和相关政策提供参考。[方法]分析重庆市直辖8年来的卫生资源发展状况以及县及县以上医院、卫生院2003年、2004年的卫生资源利用率,并与全国平均水平进行比较分析。[结果]重庆市直辖8年来,卫生事业取得了快速的发展,但存在总诊疗人次下降、卫生资源利用率低、卫生服务需求不足等问题。[结论]卫生资源发展应继续走质量效益型道路,提高现有卫生资源的质量与利用率,并大力发展城乡社区卫生服务。     

MEDIA REPORTS OF RURAL HEALTH AND SAFETY: A REVIEW OF ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN THE LAND NEWSPAPER

ABSTRACT: The Land is one of the main newspapers that service Australia's rural community. A content analysis of reports on health issues in The Land was undertaken for the period April 1998 to October 1999 (76 editions, 10 336 pages). Fifty-four articles were published, with most being about causes of farm injury. Very few articles concerning non-injury health issues facing rural residents were published. People working in health promotion should consider The Land to be an under-utilised vehicle for news and commentary on rural health and safety issues.     

经济欠发达地区中小学女教师心理健康状况研究

[目的]探讨经济欠发达地区中小学女教师心理健康状况。[方法]采用SCL-90症状自评量表对江西省赣州地区中小学女教师心理健康状况进行研究,并与同地区妇联女性干部心理健康状况进行比较。[结果]①约有68.42%的中小学女教师存在程度不等的心理问题;②女教师9项因子分均高于同地区妇联女性干部及全国常模,差异有统计学意义(P﹤0.01),尤以强迫、躯体化、抑郁、人际关系明显;③不同年龄组间比较,除焦虑、敌对性、精神病性因子外,其他因子在各年龄组间差异有统计学意义(P﹤0.05)。[结论]经济欠发达地区中小学女教师心理健康水平不容乐观,且低于同地区妇联女性干部,不同年龄女教师心理健康水平不一。     

中国少数民族育龄妇女健康状况分析

目的：了解现阶段少数民族育龄妇女健康水平。方法：用2000年第五次人口普查资料对40个少数民族育龄妇女健康状况进行描述，并对其影响因素进行相关及多元回归分析。结果：1990年到2000年我国少数民族育龄妇女健康状况普遍提高，育龄妇女死亡率与人均GDP、初婚年龄、出生率、总和生育率等有相关性。结论：加快少数民族地区经济的发展，并做好计划生育工作，使晚婚、晚育、优生、优育的观念深入人心，将有助于提高少数民族育龄妇女的健康水平。     

深圳市社区医护人员妇女保健与健康教育培训效果评价

目的为了更好地做好"降低孕产妇死亡率,消灭新生儿破伤风"的工作,为今后的培训班提供依据和方法。方法于2008年10月20~21日在深圳市妇幼保健院举办了深圳市社区医护人员妇女保健与健康教育相关知识培训班,136名学员来自全市一百多个社区健康服务中心,参加了2天(16学时)的培训,根据课程安排掌握的内容,自行设计问卷,同一份问卷于培训前和培训后由学员做问卷,用SPSS13.0进行统计分析。结果培训前和培训后做比较,12道题其中11道有显著性的差异(p<0.05),培训收到预期的效果。结论所采取的培训方法有参与式互动、案例分析、小组讨论等教学方法效果显著,是有效的培训方法。     

MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS,THE POLITICS OF THE WORLD ECONOMY,AND THEIR EFFECTS ON WOMEN'S HEALTH IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD: A REVIEW

Presently, globalization and the world economy maintain power relations that hamper the economic integrity and the political autonomy of the developing world. My paper addresses specific economic conditions that perpetuate poverty and poor health. I examine multinational corporations and their effects on women's health, particularly in Mexico and parts of Asia. The advent of multinational corporate business in Mexico, Malaysia, Philippines, India, and Indonesia has led to increased poverty and human rights abuses. Women bear the brunt of this because of specific international economic arrangements and their low social status, both locally and globally. As a result, their physical, mental, and emotional health is suffering. Solutions to these health problems have been proposed on multiple levels: international top-down approaches (i.e., employing international protectionist regulatory standards, exposing multinationals who infringe on their workers' human rights), as well as local grassroots organizational campaigns (i.e., conducting informational human rights workshops for factory workers). Ultimately, the answers lie in holding corporations accountable to their laborers while developing countries maintain their comparative advantage; this is the only way women's health will improve and the developing world can entice corporate investment.     

健康信念模式在女性压力性尿失禁非手术治疗中的应用

目的探讨健康信念模式在女性压力性尿失禁非手术治疗中的应用价值。方法对门诊50例压力性尿失禁(SUI)患者进行健康信念模式治疗12周,分别于治疗前、后,采用尿失禁问卷表(ICI-Q-SFO)、焦虑自评量表(SAS)、抑郁自评量表(SDS)及生活质量问卷指数(QL-INDEX)对患者各评定一次,比较四种指标评定变化。结果①治疗后SAS、SDS评分(31.25±9.61、40.71±8.24)明显低于治疗前(41.28±7.52、46.83±8.11),p<0.01;②ICI-Q-SFO评分中,治愈者6人,症状改善19人,总好转率50%,p<0.01;③治疗后QL-IN-DEX评分明显高于治疗前,p<0.05。结论健康信念模式在女性压力尿失禁非手术治疗中有重要应用价值,值得推广。     

SUSTAINING THE RELATIONSHIP: WOMEN'S CAREGIVING IN THE CONTEXT OF HIV DISEASE

In North America and throughout the world the number of persons living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV [PLWH]) continues to increase. Before the recent discoveries of effective antiviral treatments that have given hope to families of PLWH, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) was looked upon as a disease that was a virtual death sentence to those who were infected. The symptoms and opportunistic infections associated with AIDS are varied and debilitating, and PLWH require intensive and prolonged care during their many illnesses and rigorous treatments. As medical breakthroughs have prolonged the lives of the infected persons, the complicated regimens of the treatments and the physical effects of both treatment and disease continue to require the support and caregiving of family members. As is so often the case with caregiving, the tasks of caring for the men, women, and children with AIDS have been taken on in many cases by the women in their lives: their mothers, sisters, aunts, and other family members. In this study I used the grounded theory method to generate a substantive theory of women's caregiving in the context of AIDS. The primary process for collection of data in this study was interviewing participants. In-depth interviews were conducted with 9 women who ranged in age from 28 to 65. Three of the women had AIDS and were also caregivers, 3 other caregiving women were sisters, and 3 were mothers of PLWH. Five of the informants were White and 4 were African American. The basic social psychological process (BSPP) that emerged from the analysis of the data was sustaining the relationship. In this study, role transition, managing behavior, reciprocal caring, balancing independence, and managing distance were categories of the BSPP, "sustaining the relationship" as women engaged in the intricate processes of caregiving. These were overlapping and interacting processes that women used to nurture and preserve not only the object of their care, the person with HIV, but also that person's relationships with her or his significant others, including the relationship with the caregiver. In this article, relationships between categories are illustrated with quotations from the data. Implications for future research and for clinical practice are discussed.     

NEWS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON WOMEN'S HEALTH ISSUES

This paper divides, reviews, and describes the relationships among the important issues involved in prolonged gestation and the inherent potential for reproductive risk. The prevalence and significance of the problem is illustrated through comparison of recent reports. Possible physiologic and psychologic contributing factors are discussed including hypothesized etiology as well as recognized associated events.

The relationship of prolonged gestation to fetal postmaturity is discussed in pathophysiologic detail. The effects of postmaturity on the developing child with implications for follow‐up are also presented. Assessment of fetal and neonatal status for the purpose of risk identification develops the theme of reduction of reproductive casualties during this period. Finally, the nursing implications are discussed at the primary and secondary perinatal settings, with emphasis on maintaining psychologic and physiologic equilibrium.