Women's health care and the workplace in the People's Republic of China

Health care is provided through the workplace in the People's Republic of China through settings such as factories in the cities and commune health stations in rural areas. A special emphasis is placed on the protection of women workers through 4 critical periods: menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and lactation. These periods are considered to pose greater health risks to women. Factories provide specially designed rooms with spray baths and supplies for women during the menstrual period, and the woman's menstrual period is recorded on a health record kept in the factory health service. Permission to marry must be given by the supervisor of the workplace and a premarital examinaton is required to rule out heriditary diseases. Permisson must also be obtained to have a child. Pregnant women workers receive food supplements and are allowed to do lighter work. Care is taken to protect pregnant workers from insecticides or other harmful substances. After delivery, a leave of 56-70 days with full pay is granted. Couples with 1-child certificates may have extended leave up to 1 year with 70% pay. Breastfeeding mothers are allowed 1/2 hour breads twice day to nurse their infants. Day care and nursery facilities are available in factories and communes. The 1-child policy has extended the family planning period to close to 30 years, making it imperative that contraceptive technology and information be available to the masses. In general, rural women tend to choose the IUD; those who do not want more children opt for sterilization; and urban couples select the pill, injectables, and condoms. Health care for women in the workplaces is an effective means of implementing official population control policies. It is suggested that the approach of using nursing personnel at the local level for providing primary health care could be implemented in other countries to reduce rising health care costs.     

Guidance for community‐based caregivers in assisting people with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury with transfers and manual handling: evidence and key stakeholder perspectives

Adults with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) rely on assistance from paid and unpaid caregivers upon return to the community. An inability to move independently makes these adults highly dependent on caregivers for transfers and manual handling tasks. Evidence‐based guidelines are therefore important to ensure that caregivers and people in the community are protected and that practices are standard and consistent. This study commenced with a rapid review of evidence‐based recommendations between 2000 and 2015 pertaining to transfers and manual handling in people with TBI; and ended with a structured stakeholder dialogue that reflected upon this evidence and gathered perspectives on how to address key issues in community‐based manual handling following TBI. Three relevant guidelines were identified, providing nine recommendations encompassing assessment of the person's ability to assist caregivers, manual handling and appropriate equipment use. Due to the low number of recommendations and low level of supporting evidence, these recommendations alone could not provide comprehensive guidance. Three systematic reviews and two primary studies were also identified, and these suggest that comprehensive training programmes in transfers and manual handling tasks are effective. Further to this, a structured stakeholder dialogue was conducted, which revealed six major themes – (i) comprehensive risk assessment, (ii) presence of two caregivers, (iii) provision of training, (iv) home environment modification, (v) equipment, and (vi) policy implementation context. Recommendations for health professionals include providing information packs to caregivers, risk assessment and mitigation for those at high risk, and strategies to prevent and minimise injury in caregivers. Development of comprehensive guidance for caregivers in transfers and manual handling in people with moderate to severe TBI living in the community is a hidden but important priority.     

Aqueous solubility: Simple predictive methods (in silico,in vitro and bio-relevant approaches)

Aqueous solubility is a key physicochemical attribute required for the characterisation of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) during drug discovery and beyond. Furthermore, aqueous solubility is highly important for formulation selection and subsequent development processes. This review provides a summary of simple predictive methods used to assess aqueous solubility as well as an assessment of the more complex in silico methodologies and a review of the recent solubility challenge. In addition, a summary of experimental methods to determine solubility is included, with a discussion of some potential pitfalls.