Controversial Health Issue Research Articles

Students' perceptions of a community health advocacy skills building activity: A descriptive analysis

BackgroundSkills to promote advocacy, a nursing competency, are vital to today's cohorts of nursing students, who often struggle with discourse. Opportunities to develop, defend, and rebut science-based arguments enhance resilience and self-efficacy when advocating for health policy. A community health discussion activity was developed to enhance advocacy skills in undergraduate and graduate nursing students at a midwestern university. ObjectivesThe purposes of this study were to explore students' perceptions of the benefits of a discussion activity about a controversial health issue, and to describe the impact of the opportunities to form valid arguments using empirical evidence on students' perceptions of their ability to be advocates. DesignCross-sectional post-activity survey evaluation. SettingsEnrollment in a community health nursing course. ParticipantsStudents from two undergraduate (n = 110) and one graduate (n = 20) nursing cohorts. MethodsFollowing completion of the online discussion activity, students were invited to provide feedback on their perceptions of activity benefits. Descriptive analyses were conducted. ResultsUndergraduate and graduate nursing students reported the activity helped them learn to form a valid argument using scientific evidence (88.6 %), use credible sources when forming their own opinions (91.7 %), and begin to see themselves as advocates for improving the health of individuals and communities (87.1 %). ConclusionsOnline discussion boards are potential venues for development of advocacy skills.

Effects of Narratives and Behavioral Involvement on Adolescents’ Attitudes toward Gaming Disorder

ABSTRACT This paper examines the impact of using narratives to communicate a controversial health issue, gaming disorder, on adolescents’ issue attitudes. In a between-subjects experiment, 115 adolescent participants read either a narrative or an informational message on gaming disorder. Results indicated that compared to the informational message, the narrative health message generated more positive attitudes toward the medical view of problematic gaming and greater attitude certainty. Transportation mediated the narrative’s effect on attitudes. Behavioral involvement moderated the narrative’s effect on attitudes and attitude certainty, such that the positive effects of the narrative on attitudes and attitude certainty were more pronounced for high-involvement adolescents than for low-involvement adolescents. In addition, behavioral involvement also enhanced the effect of message absorption on attitudes. By extending our research on narrative effects to the adolescent population, this study presents findings with both theoretical and practical implications.

Medicinal Plants Used in Iranian Traditional Medicine (ITM) as Contraceptive Agents.

In recent years, rapid population growth and unsafe abortions have emerged as controversial health issues in some countries. Hence, safe and effective contraceptive methods or agents have attracted a great deal of attention and the corresponding market has been widely expanded. In this study, we present a review profiting from Iranian Traditional Medicine (ITM) to introduce expedient plants as efficient contraceptive agents. Medicinal plants suggested as contraceptive agents were obtained from ITM text books and they were also investigated using search engines to confirm their in vitro and in vivo efficacy. According to credible Iranian medical literature a wide spectrum of plants possesses contraceptive activity and among them, Ruta graveolens, Ricinus communis, Piper nigrum, and Physalis alkekengi were found to be more efficient. Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), particularly herbal remedies have received a lot of attention because of their truly healing properties. Focusing on ITM knowledge, there are various comments based on medicinal plants to reduce unsafe abortions leading to better public health in the society.

Euthanasia tactics: patterns of injustice and outrage

Struggles over euthanasia can be examined in terms of tactics used by players on each side of the issue to reduce outrage from actions potentially perceived as unjust. From one perspective, the key injustice is euthanasia itself, especially when the person or relatives oppose death. From a different perspective, the key injustice is denial of euthanasia, seen as a person's right to die. Five types of methods are commonly used to reduce outrage from something potentially seen as unjust: covering up the action; devaluing the target; reinterpreting the action, including using lying, minimising consequences, blaming others and benign framing; using official channels to give an appearance of justice; and using intimidation. Case studies considered include the Nazi T4 programme, euthanasia in contemporary jurisdictions in which it is legal, and censorship of Exit International by the Australian government. By examining euthanasia struggles for evidence of the five types of tactics, it is possible to judge whether one or both sides use tactics characteristic of perpetrators of injustice. This analysis provides a framework for examining tactics used in controversial health issues.

Health discussions on the Internet: A study of knowledge communication through citations

The Internet is a convenient but complex source for health information used by an increasing number of health consumers. Especially for people suffering from a chronic illness (e.g., diabetes), information seeking forms a part of the daily management of the disease, a “project of life.” This study of Web texts examines the citation patterns for a specific and controversial health issue: the beneficial or hazardous use of dietary chromium supplementation in diabetes self-management. Texts from different categories of Web sources (scientific, professional, educational, and commercial sources, as well as diabetes discussion groups) were analyzed in order to study how knowledge is transferred between sources, and how diabetics participating in discussion groups refer to and make sense of the information from different sources on the Internet. The citation patterns suggest that deviations from the traditional models of scientific knowledge dissemination can occur in the Internet environment.