Study In Melbourne Research Articles

Is caring for elderly relatives with depression as stressful as caring for those with dementia? a pilot study in melbourne

AbstractThe 30‐item General Health questionnaire (GHQ‐30) scores of the primary carers of 31 elderly patients with depression were compared with the GHQ‐30 scores of 30 primary carers of dementia sufferers. Carers of dementia sufferers who lived with their demented relative had GHQ‐30 scores almost four times higher than those carers who lived apart from a dementia sufferer. There was no difference in the GHQ‐30 scores of carers of depressed subjects living with or apart from their affected relative. Carers of demented patients tended on average to have higher GHQ‐30 scores than carers of depressed patients, but this difference was almost entirely accounted for by the fact that more carers of demented patients lived with their ill relatives. Patient and carer age and sex and severity of patients' depression were not related to the GHQ‐30 scores of their carers.

Health, fitness and female subjectivity: What is happening in school health and physical education?

(1993). Health, fitness and female subjectivity: What is happening in school health and physical education? Melbourne Studies in Education: Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 78-94.

‘Nowhere to plant the sole of the foot?’: Women, university education and subjectivity in the early twentieth century

(1993). ‘Nowhere to plant the sole of the foot?’: Women, university education and subjectivity in the early twentieth century. Melbourne Studies in Education: Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 22-38.

Impossible fictions?: Utopian visions and feminist educational research

(1993). Impossible fictions?: Utopian visions and feminist educational research. Melbourne Studies in Education: Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 107-118.

Therapeutic Criteria and Evaluation of Clinical Responses in Growth Hormone Deficient Children: The Australian Perspective

In Australia, eligibility for Growth Hormone (GH) treatment is judged on auxological criteria, and the requirement to demonstrate GH deficiency was removed in 1988. Height below the 3rd centile (NCHS standards), height velocity below the 25th centile for skeletal age, and bone age less than 14 (girls) or 16 (boys), are the general criteria for eligibility, with more generous criteria for children with an intracranial lesion, Turner's syndrome and renal failure. Decisions about eligibility are made by a public servant in Canberra, who acts on the advice of a panel of four paediatric endocrinologists elected by the Australasian Paediatric Endocrine Group. All paediatric endocrinologists in Australia are, nevertheless, continuing to perform GH testing (exercise, A-ITT) on most patients being considered for treatment. Parents whose children prove not to have GH deficiency usually decide against the option of GH therapy. Is testing justifiable on other grounds? A Melbourne study showed that insulin tolerance testing rarely, if ever, revealed adrenal insufficiency that would not have been expected on other grounds. All GH treatment in Australia is monitored by APEG using its own centralized computer database, and analyses of the data are funded by the Federal Government.

Prevalence of asthma in regional Victorian schoolchildren

To determine whether the high prevalence of reported asthma in Melbourne schoolchildren is seen in rural Victoria. A questionnaire on respiratory symptoms was distributed to children to be completed by parents and returned to the school. Results were compared with a previous Melbourne study. Two hundred and twenty-seven government and non-government primary schools in five rural regions of Victoria: coast, wheatbelt, riverland, highland and Latrobe valley. All children enrolled in grade 2 were invited to join the study. Parents completed questionnaires for 4661 children after 4886 questionnaires were distributed (response rate, 95%). History of wheeze in the past 12 months. The overall prevalence of wheeze in the last 12 months was 23.6%. There was a significant difference overall in this rate across the five rural areas and Melbourne, with the Latrobe Valley (26.2%) and highland areas (25.0%) having the highest rate, and the wheatbelt the lowest (19.6%). The spectrum of severity of asthma was similarly distributed across rural regions, although severe episodes were significantly more frequently reported by parents from rural areas than by parents in Melbourne. The reported use of bronchodilators and diagnosis of asthma showed a similar pattern of variation to that of the 12-month prevalence of wheeze. The prevalence of asthma in 7-year-old children is similar for rural Victoria as a whole compared with Melbourne, but there is variability in asthma prevalence in individual rural areas which is difficult to account for in terms of known environmental precipitants.

Education policy, national curriculum and schools

(1992). Education policy, national curriculum and schools. Melbourne Studies in Education: Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 63-70.

Education as a branch of economics: The universal claims of economic rationalism

(1992). Education as a branch of economics: The universal claims of economic rationalism. Melbourne Studies in Education: Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 1-14.

Education, markets and professionalism: Some reflections on recent policy developments in England and Wales

(1992). Education, markets and professionalism: Some reflections on recent policy developments in England and Wales. Melbourne Studies in Education: Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 56-62.

The Survival of Academic Publishing in the Current Political Climate: Melbourne Studies in Education

The recent publishing history of the academic journal Melbourne Studies in Education is used as a case study illustrating the contradictions between Commonwealth Government calls to establish a ‘clever country’ of intellectual creativity and debate, and the economic rationalist dictates of the changes to Australian higher education flowing from the White Paper. On the one hand, the demand is for openness, risk taking and the practical application of intellectuality; on the other hand, educational resources are cut, academics' subsidising of journal production is discouraged and academic activities are evaluated in dollar terms. The consequences and contradictions of these policies are thrown into relief by the University of Melbourne's decision to cease subsidising the publication of Melbourne Studies in Education and the journal's subsequent transfer under new arrangements to La Trobe University School of Education.

The aims of education in New South Wales, 1788–1867

(1991). The aims of education in New South Wales, 1788–1867. Melbourne Studies in Education: Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 137-153.

Post‐Fordist ideologies and education

(1991). Post‐Fordist ideologies and education. Melbourne Studies in Education: Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 35-44.

CHILDREN, AGE AT FIRST BIRTH, AND COLORECTAL CANCER RISK

During 1980 and 1981, data were obtained on the number of children and age at birth of the first child in 675 cases of colorectal cancer and in 720 age-sex frequency-matched controls as part of a large epidemiologic study of colorectal cancer conducted in Melbourne, Australia. For colorectal cancer, the relative risk (RR) for those with one or more children compared with those with no children was statistically significantly lower than one (RR = 0.61, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.45-0.81, p less than 0.001), and with simultaneous adjustment for number of children, there was an increasing risk with increasing age at birth of first child (RR = 1.03, with each increasing year of age at birth of first child, 95% CI: 1.00-1.05, p = 0.02). The relation between both the number of children and the age at birth of the first child and colorectal cancer risk was not statistically significantly different for males and females. The risk of colorectal cancer with respect to number of children and age at birth of the first child was unaffected by the potential confounding factors of age, occupation, previous diet, oral contraceptive use in females, and a family history of colorectal cancer. Since the protection against colorectal cancer associated with having children and with earlier age at birth of the first child was found to be similar for both males and females in the Melbourne study, a life-style factor, as yet unidentified, rather than a female hormonal factor, is postulated as the mediator of these effects.

The role of heredity in the etiology of large bowel cancer: Data from the Melbourne colorectal cancer study

Family history data of colorectal cancer, heart disease, and stroke were obtained on near relatives (parents, siblings, and children) in 702 colorectal cancer cases and 710 age-/sex-matched community controls as part of a large, comprehensive, population-based epidemiological and clinicopathological study of colorectal cancer conducted in Melbourne (the Melbourne Colorectal Cancer Study). There was a statistically significant higher family history rate of colorectal cancer in cases than in controls (relative risk = 2.13; 95% confidence interval = 1.53-2.96; p less than 0.001). This family history effect was more pronounced for colon cancer than for rectal cancer and there was an earlier age of detection of colorectal cancer in those with a family history of this cancer when compared with those without such a history. Dietary risk factors for colorectal cancer, which were previously described in the Melbourne study, were separate and independent from the family history effects. It is concluded that a family history of colorectal cancer is an important indication to screen individuals for this cancer, and also that while heredity has a definite role in the etiology of colorectal cancer, this hereditary effect is either likely to be small, or else likely to be important in only a proportion (perhaps 20%) of cases.

Dr john Fishbourne: A pioneer in the evolution of special education in victoria

(1989). Dr john Fishbourne: A pioneer in the evolution of special education in victoria. Melbourne Studies in Education: Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 72-90.

The Melbourne Colorectal Cancer Study. Characterization of patients with a family history of colorectal cancer.

The characteristics of 702 colorectal cancer patients are described in relation to the presence of absence of a family history of colorectal cancer in near relatives. No statistically significant associations were found between those with a family history of colorectal cancer and age at detection, sex, country of birth, religion, number of cancers (single, synchronous, or metachronous), previously removed benign colorectal polyps, and adenomatous polyps found in the resection specimen. The family history rate of colorectal cancer for colon cancer cases was statistically significantly higher than for rectal cancer cases (chi 2(1) = 3.8, P = .05) and there was a gradient of decreasing risk from colon to rectum. The family history rate of colorectal cancer in parents of those who were less than 50 years old was twice that of those 50 or older (P = .07), consistent with the view that earlier age of onset is a characteristic of those with a family history of colorectal cancer. There was a statistically significantly higher family history rate of colorectal cancer in respondents who knew of the disease compared with those who did not (chi 2(1) = 5.5, P less than .05). It is unclear if this effect represents recall bias or self-selection bias. In contrast, the rates for a family history of heart disease and stroke were similar, irrespective of the respondent's knowledge of their colorectal cancer status. Thus in the Melbourne study, the family history rate of colorectal cancer was higher in colon cancer than in rectal cancer, there was a decreasing gradient of risk from colon to rectum, and a tendency for earlier age of onset of colorectal cancer in those with a history of this cancer in a parent.

An Australian curriculum

(1987). An Australian curriculum. Melbourne Studies in Education: Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 7-15.

The nutritional causes of colorectal cancer: an introduction to the Melbourne study.

The Melbourne study has shown that dietary factors and alcohol are important in the cause and prevention of colorectal cancer (CRC). A high intake of fat and beef probably causes CRC, and a high intake of beer possibly causes rectal cancer. The beef and beer effects were both independent of other dietary variables, but further research is indicated to explore the mechanisms of their actions. Foods of plant origin protected against CRC, and the "plant food hypothesis" now replaces the dietary fiber hypothesis. Further study is needed on the interrelationships between various foods of plant origin. Vitamin supplements were protective, and again clarification is needed on the mechanism of action. In high-risk populations, nutritional risk and causal factors are likely to be difficult to find, whereas protective factors are likely to be found with greater ease. Further analysis of the Melbourne data will reveal the importance of diet in CRC causation, relative to the other hypothesized causal and protective factors.

The agricultural colony at Mettray: A 19th century approach to the institutionalization of delinquent boys.

(1987). The agricultural colony at Mettray: A 19th century approach to the institutionalization of delinquent boys. Melbourne Studies in Education: Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 64-80.

Three islands: A case study in survival

(1986). Three islands: A case study in survival. Melbourne Studies in Education: Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 209-224.