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Guidelines for implementing health promotion programmes within university settings outline key action areas for addressing health concerns. Further guidance is needed to help manage specific health promotion activities according to the needs and resources available to universities. Decisions about allocating resources to improve employee health depend on diverse factors such as the workplace, industry, country, and employee. A more nuanced understanding of health promotion programme implementation should help universities address the alarming rates of occupational stress reported among employees. This present study develops a taxonomy to help universities implement appropriate activities. Content analysis and interview findings highlight the importance of communication between workplaces and employees to determine the motivations for adopting health promotion activities. Collaboration between an extensive network of stakeholders will likely ensure that appropriate activities are available, supported, and implemented to target employee health concerns.

Background: Psychological distress is growing in prevalence in Australia. Comorbid psychological distress and/or depressive symptoms are often associated with poorer health, higher healthcare utilisation and decreased adherence to medical treatments. Methods: The Australian Work Outcomes Research Cost-benefit (WORC) study cross-sectional screening dataset was used to explore the association between psychological distress anda range of health conditions in a sample of approximately 78,000 working Australians. The study uses the World Health Organization Health and Productivity Questionnaire (HPQ), to identify self-reported health status. Within the HPQ is the Kessler 6 (K6), a six-item scale of psychological distress which strongly discriminates between those with and without a mental disorder. Potential confounders of age, sex, marital status, number of children, education level and annual income were included in multivariate logistic regression models. Results: Psychological distress was significantly associated with all investigated health conditions in both crude and adjusted estimates. The conditions with the strongest adjusted association were, in order from highest: drug and alcohol problems, fatigue, migraine, CVD, COPD, injury and obesity. Conclusions: Psychological distress is strongly associated with all 14 health conditions or risk factors investigated in this study. Comorbid psychological distress is a growing public health issue affecting Australian workers. Key words: psychological stress, health conditions, comorbidity, public health. doi: 10.1111/j.1753-6405.2010.00531..x

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8462.2008.00505.x Byline: Nerina Vecchio ([dagger]) Abstract: Abstract Based on the National Health Survey of 2005, this study examined the use of dental services among non-institutionalised older Australians. The results of the regression revealed differences in the frequency of dental visits across the states. The greater the public dental health expenditure per capita in each state the more likely residents of that state were to have visited the dentist in the previous year. Older people residing outside major cities experienced the greatest disadvantage. In addition to the socioeconomic factors reported by studies, in Australia inequalities in access to dental health services was associated with urbanicity and Australian states. Author Affiliation: ([dagger])Griffith Business School, Griffith University Article History: First version received November 2007;final version accepted March 2008 (Eds).

Workplace health promotion programmes (WHPPs) are more likely to succeed where design and implementation account for the influence of health's complex, systemic nature. Thus, a greater understanding of how frameworks developed to progress WHPPs are operationalized across different countries and industries is needed. This study investigates health concerns targeted in an underexplored setting—Australian universities, describing how diverse programmes are implemented to target different health issues and health risk factors. Content analysis is used to outline how Australian universities implement WHPPs to target diverse health concerns. Content from 497 website documents is collected and analysed using NVivo software. A framework for examining diverse WHPPs currently used in practice is developed. Based on this framework, it was evident that Australian universities emphasized initiatives targeting health issues focusing on 'mental health' and 'diabetes'. Regarding health risk factors, 'alcohol and other addictions', 'discrimination and harassment', and 'physical activity' were emphasized. Links between different health concerns targeted and corresponding WHPPs implemented, provide workplaces with a benchmark for designing and implementing programmes. University WHPPs targeted a diverse range of health concerns when enough legal and political motivations to do so existed. These findings about the motivations for improving employee health indicate a potential gap between health promotion benefits reported in literature and the appreciation for these benefits in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background In Australia a persistent and sizable gender wage gap exists. In recent years this gap has been steadily widening. The negative impact of gender wage differentials is the disincentive to work more hours. This implies a substantial cost on the Australian health sector. This study aimed to identify the magnitude of gender wage differentials within the health sector. The investigation accounts for unpaid overtime. Given the limited availability of information, little empirical evidence exists that accounts for unpaid overtime. Methods Information was collected from a sample of 10,066 Australian full-time employees within the health sector. Initially, ordinary least-squares regression was used to identify the gender wage gap when unpaid overtime was included and then excluded from the model. The sample was also stratified by gender and then by occupation to allow for comparisons. Later the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition method was employed to identify and quantify the contribution of individual endowments to wage differentials between males and females. Results The analyses of data revealed a gender wage gap that varied across occupations. The inclusion of unpaid overtime in the analysis led to a slight reduction in the wage differential. The results showed an adjusted wage gap of 16.7%. Conclusions Unpaid overtime made a significant but small contribution to wage differentials. Being female remained the major contributing factor to the wage gap. Given that wage differentials provide a disincentive to work more hours, serious attempts to deal with the skilled labour shortage in the health sector need to address the gender wage gap.

Abstract Background The health condition of workers is known to impact on productivity outcomes. The relationship between health and productivity is of increasing interest amid the need to increase productivity to meet global financial challenges. Prevalence of psychological distress is also of growing concern in Australia with a two-fold increase in the prevalence of psychological distress in Australia from 1997-2005. Methods We used the cross-sectional data set from the Australian Work Outcomes Research Cost-benefit (WORC) study to explore the impacts of health conditions with and without co-morbid psychological distress, compared to those with neither condition, in a sample of approximately 78,000 working Australians. The World Health Organisation Health and Performance Questionnaire was used which provided data on demographic characteristics, health condition and working conditions. Data were analysed using negative binomial logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression models for absenteeism and presenteeism respectively. Results For both absenteeism and presenteeism productivity measures there was a greater risk of productivity loss associated when health conditions were co-morbid with psychological distress. For some conditions this risk was much greater for those with co-morbid psychological distress compared to those without. Conclusions Co-morbid psychological distress demonstrates an increased risk of productivity loss for a range of health conditions. These findings highlight the need for further research to determine whether co-morbid psychological distress potentially exacerbates lost productivity.

Objectives: To identify the main drivers of the use of respite services and the need for respite services among caregivers of people experiencing dementia relative to family caregivers of people with other health conditions. Method: Based on nationally representative secondary data regression analysis was used to test the association between selected health conditions and the utilisation of and need for respite services. Results: For a person living with dementia the odds of using respite care are higher than for a person with either a musculoskeletal or circulatory condition. Family caregivers of people living with dementia report the odds of the need for more respite as 5.3 times higher than for family caregivers of people with musculoskeletal conditions and 7.7 times higher than for family caregivers of people with circulatory conditions. The main reason for never using respite services is largely driven by the type of health condition, age of care recipient, existence of a spouse, and level of disability. Conclusions: Respite services that cater to the specific needs of families experiencing dementia at home should become a higher priority within the aged care sector. Alternative models of respite care that focus on prevention and early intervention would be cost effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a systematic literature review of the qualitative evidence in relation to intergenerational learning programs, principles, and practices. The aim of the review is to develop the evidence base to form an Intergenerational Model of Practice Framework based on the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). The EYLF comprises three inter-related elements: principles, practice, and outcomes. The results of this systematic literature review revealed commonalities across these elements and therefore what is needed to underpin the development of an evidence-based Intergenerational Model of Practice Framework. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article the authors discuss several studies on older people's risk of malnutrition and falls in care homes. They examine the factors that affect the quality and kinds of services provided by care givers to their clients, and compares the services given by hospitals and care homes based on various researches. The authors also discuss their study which reveals that the disparities in health care provision is common with other previous studies.