QM News 63 (pdf 752KB) - Queen Margaret University

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RESEARCH NEWS
ALCOHOL ABUSE - DO YOU KNOW
YOUR LIMITS?
There has been considerable media
coverage recently of the social and
health-related costs of alcohol abuse in
the UK. In light of this, two lecturers
from Queen Margaret have carried out a
study to challenge the appropriateness
of alcohol health education messages
in the UK.
Dr Jan Gill and Fiona O’May carried out
a survey of 263 shoppers in Edinburgh,
to investigate the perceived value of
daily sensible drinking guidelines.
Several initiatives related to these
guidelines are currently under
consideration by the UK government,
one being the labelling of alcoholic drink
containers - a practice which
manufacturers were encouraged to
adopt by December 2005.
“Scotmid (where the research was
carried out) has been particularly
proactive in developing a relatively
comprehensive label on wine sourced
from their supplier,” explains Jan. “Each
bottle displays the actual unit content
and the daily guidelines for both men
and women. We wanted to monitor
reaction to this labelling system among
the supermarket’s customers.”
Although most people surveyed could
define what constitutes a unit of alcohol,
less than a fifth of men and just a
quarter of women used the information
to monitor how much they drank. Very
few were aware of the current
guidelines, which outline sensible daily
drinking levels.
”Most participants said they were in
favour of alcohol labelling but we found
that price offers influenced buying more
than label information did,” said Jan.
”There seems to be considerable
confusion about sensible drinking
messages in the UK.”
DEVELOPING BEST PRACTICE IN
SPEECH AND LANGUAGE THERAPY
Queen Margaret has been awarded a
grant from the City of Edinburgh Council
to develop speech and language therapy
‘best practice’ guides for use in schools.
The CIRCLE project (Child Inclusion
Research into Curriculum, Learning and
Education) is being carried out in
collaboration with NHS Lothian, with the
aim of supporting 5-11 year olds in
everyday school life and learning.
The Additional Support for Learning
(Scotland) Act 2004 created a new
system to address the needs of children
in Scotland who require additional
support with their learning. Under the
act, NHS Scotland is obliged to support
education authorities by providing
assessments and therapeutic
interventions based on a child’s specific
needs. The CIRCLE collaboration will
support the Act specifically in terms of
occupational therapy and speech and
language therapy interventions
within Edinburgh.
Dr Kirsty Forsyth, Senior Lecturer in
Occupational Therapy, who is leading the
project said: “The first stage is to review
research evidence related to children in
need of occupational or speech and
language therapy. We can then combine
this with policy and expert opinion to
identify best practice leading to the best
possible outcomes for children.”
The final stage of the project will be
consultation with parents, teachers and
children on the format and content of
the documentation to ensure the
document is useful and understandable.
“These opinions, experiences and
perceptions are valuable and important
sources of information and will allow us
to develop documentation which can be
easily understood by all,” said
Dr Forsyth.
REVERSING THE ‘BRAIN DRAIN’ IN
LOW-INCOME COUNTRIES
Paying a better salary to nurses, could
resolve the ‘brain drain’ of health
workers from low-income to highincome
countries, according to research
at Queen Margaret.
Increasing migration of health staff to
some high-income countries is causing a
shortage in poorer countries. In high
income countries, ageing populations are
feeding the demand for health services.
Also, feminisation of the health workforce
and a rising preference for leisure time
has reduced the supply of health
services in some high-income countries.
While these explanations partly explain
the increase in migration, the research
found that government policies in highincome
countries have driven a growing
demand for health staff and contributed
to the ‘brain drain’ in low-income
countries. They argue that policy
measures are equally capable of
reversing the trend.
Professor Barbara McPake, Director of
the Institute for International Health and
Development at Queen Margaret, and Dr
Bob Pond, of the World Health
Organisation, analysed key trends in the
production, remuneration and retention
of health professionals in the UK, USA,
France and Germany to gain an insight
into how policy affects the global
distribution of human resources. In
2003-04, more than 40 percent of
nurses who joined the British register
were from overseas.
“In the UK, increasing nursing pay would
seem to make the largest contribution to
resolving the labour market imbalance
that is draining poor countries of their
health staff,” explains Professor McPake.
“Better salaries would entice more
people in Britain to become nurses
and those who have left the profession
to return.”