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1 – 10 of 44Courtney Field, Alyssa Zovko and Julia Bowman
The purpose of this paper is to compare the rates of chronic health conditions and lifestyle factors between Australian-born and overseas-born inmates and to uncover predictive…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to compare the rates of chronic health conditions and lifestyle factors between Australian-born and overseas-born inmates and to uncover predictive relationships between lifestyle factors and health outcomes for both groups.
Design/methodology/approach
Data are presented from a cross-sectional study based on a sample of inmates from correctional sites in New South Wales (NSW). The inclusion of results here was guided by the literature relating to the healthy immigrant effect.
Findings
Results indicate that a higher proportion of Australian-born inmates consumed alcohol at higher levels and were more likely to smoke on a daily or almost daily basis than overseas-born inmates. Australian-born inmates were also more likely than overseas-born inmates to have been diagnosed with cancer, epilepsy or hepatitis C. Physical activity predicted the number of diagnoses for Australian-born inmates while physical activity and smoking frequency predicted the number of diagnoses for overseas-born inmates.
Practical implications
Overseas-born inmates make up a considerable portion of the prison population in NSW. A better understanding of those health and lifestyle factors that distinguish them from Australian-born inmates provides important insight regarding health promotion and the planning of service provision for those providing health care in this space.
Originality/value
Comparison of the health of immigrant and native-born prison inmates has not been undertaken before and promises to provide important information regarding those factors that distinguish a sizeable minority in the prison population.
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Adam Capon, Lien McGowan and Julia Bowman
Patient-centred care is a key approach used in Australia for the delivery of quality health care, and understanding experiences and perceptions is a key part to this. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Patient-centred care is a key approach used in Australia for the delivery of quality health care, and understanding experiences and perceptions is a key part to this. This paper aims to explore prisoners’ experiences and perceptions of health-care service provision in New South Wales, Australia.
Design/methodology/approach
In February and March 2017, 24 focus groups, consisting of 128 participants, were undertaken using semi-structured interviews that explored experiences of health care in prison.
Findings
A conceptualisation of the prisoners’ health-care experience around the core category of access to health care emerged from the data. Enablers or barriers to this access were driven by three categories: a prison construct – how the prisoners “see” the prison system influencing access to health care; a health-care system construct – how the prisoners “see” the prison health-care system and the pathways to navigate it; and personal factors. Communication was the category with the greatest number of relational connections.
Research limitations/implications
This study takes a pragmatic approach to the analysis of data, the findings forming the basis for a future quantitative study. The findings identify communication as a key issue for access to health care.
Originality/value
This study provides first-hand accounts of enablers and barriers to accessing health-care services in the prison environment. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to identify access to health care as a core category and is of value to health workers and researchers that work with the prison population.
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Joanne Ross, Courtney Field, Sharlene Kaye and Julia Bowman
The purpose of this paper is to examine the prevalence and predictors of low self-reported physical health status among NSW prison inmates.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the prevalence and predictors of low self-reported physical health status among NSW prison inmates.
Design/methodology/approach
Cross-sectional random sample of 1,098 adult male and female prisoners, interviewed as part of the 2015 Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network Patient Health Survey.
Findings
Almost a quarter of participants had “low self-reported physical health status”. Independent predictors of “low health status” were having been in out of home care before the age of 16 years, being illiterate, smoking 20 or more cigarettes a day, not eating more than one serve of fruit a day, not being physically active in the 12 months before incarceration, higher body mass index score and low self-reported mental health status. Many of these predictors are modifiable risk factors for chronic disease, which could be targeted during incarceration.
Originality/value
This paper demonstrates the utility of a using a single item measure of self-reported physical health status among Australian prisoners, and helps to characterise those prisoners in greatest need of intervention for issues relating to their health.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine correlates and predictors of hazardous drinking behaviour, that may be considered evidence of generalised strain, in a sample of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine correlates and predictors of hazardous drinking behaviour, that may be considered evidence of generalised strain, in a sample of incarcerated non-Aboriginal males in New South Wales, Australia.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 283 non-Aboriginal male inmates as part of a larger epidemiological survey of inmates in NSW undertaken in 2015 by the Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network. Data relating to a range of social factors were selected with reference to relevant literature and assessed with regards their predictive value for scores from the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). To facilitate regression analysis, variables were logically organised into historical factors or adult factors.
Findings
Almost all participants reported some history of alcohol consumption. Hazardous drinking was common among participants. While parental alcohol problems and adult drug use were the only correlates of AUDIT scores, parental misuse of alcohol was shown to be an important predictor of AUDIT scores in regression analysis. The role of parent gender was inconclusive. Previous incarceration as an adult, employment status, and drug use as an adult also predicted AUDIT scores.
Originality/value
Alcohol abuse is common among inmates and the use of alcohol is implicated in the commission of many offences. A better understanding of its genesis may inspire novel approaches to treatment, leading to improved health outcomes for inmates.
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Colin Armistead, Cliff Bowman and Julia Newton
Examines the way in which managers perceive the relative importanceof the three costs as applied to professional service firms, financialservices firms and retail distribution and…
Abstract
Examines the way in which managers perceive the relative importance of the three costs as applied to professional service firms, financial services firms and retail distribution and manufacturing. Managers′ perceptions may be determined by the nature of the business, the operational focus and the opportunities for the control of costs. Examines the existing literature for indications of the importance attached to each of these costs. Concludes that managers have more discretion of the control of operating costs where they represent a high proportion of the three types and where supply and overhead costs form a high proportion of total costs, managers can exercise discretion by challenging existing industry recipes through restructuring their operations.
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Julia Beck, Mattia Rainoldi and Roman Egger
Emerging technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), have been influencing both the tourism supply side and tourists alike. The purpose of this study is to analyse VR research in…
Abstract
Purpose
Emerging technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), have been influencing both the tourism supply side and tourists alike. The purpose of this study is to analyse VR research in tourism and to provide a comprehensive state-of-the-art review. As the technological connotation of the term VR has been changing and encompasses various VR systems with different capabilities, this paper aims to provide a systematic and structured overview. The overall objective of this paper is to contribute to a thorough understanding of VR research in tourism.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper comprehensively reviews and analyses existing literature on VR in tourism, published from 1994 to February 2018. Using a wide variety of sources, these papers were examined so as to give a state-of-the-art literature review and to deepen one’s understanding of the diverse applications of VR in a tourism context. This paper also presents a novel classification of different VR systems according to the level of immersion and depicts their respective technological capabilities.
Findings
The advent of new VR hardware necessitates a distinction for different VR systems applied in the tourism sector. Research conducted during the past three years has been focussing on the application of head-mounted displays, which reflects the temporal development of VR technology. Regardless of the VR system, most studies examine VR as a marketing tool for promotion and communication purposes during the pre-travel phase, focussing on behavioural aspects. Advances in technology will yield new opportunities and application possibilities for the tourism industry.
Originality/value
The key contribution of this paper lies in its structural approach, which differentiates between non-, semi- and fully immersive VR systems in tourism, as well as the proposition of respective definitions. The concluding part of the paper proposes practical implications for tourism businesses together with directions for future studies.
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Father involvement is a salient predictor of children’s development and recent studies suggest that African American fathers who are highly involved across infancy and toddlerhood…
Abstract
Father involvement is a salient predictor of children’s development and recent studies suggest that African American fathers who are highly involved across infancy and toddlerhood have children who enter school better prepared to succeed. Little is known, however, about the specific dimensions of fathering (e.g., language stimulation) that contribute to the positive development of African American children during the early childhood period. Even less is known about psychological and contextual barriers to positive father involvement among African American men with very young children. The first part of this chapter briefly reviews empirical research that has delineated links between multiple dimensions of father involvement and child development in African American families. The second part of the chapter explores emerging evidence on the associations between fathers’ psychological functioning, father involvement and child development, and concludes with suggestions for future research, practice, and policy.
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Christopher Ruppel, Julia Stranzl and Sabine Einwiller
The study focuses on the negative implications that an organizational crisis can have for individual employees. Specifically, it considers job-related uncertainty, negative…
Abstract
Purpose
The study focuses on the negative implications that an organizational crisis can have for individual employees. Specifically, it considers job-related uncertainty, negative emotions (anxiety and frustration) and job disengagement. Through the lens of the social exchange theory, it is argued that internal crisis communication needs to provide sufficient socioemotional resources to their employees in order to mitigate these negative outcomes. In particular, the study argues for internal crisis communication that fosters organizational transparency and organizational support to achieve these mitigating effects.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey among employees in Austria was administered one year after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic – this specific crisis context particularly evoked job-related uncertainty and negative emotions which are considered relevant drivers of job disengagement. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling based on a sample of N = 410.
Findings
Results show that employees' perceptions of job-related uncertainty are strongly linked to job-related anxiety and frustration; job-related frustration, in turn, strongly influences job disengagement. Overall, employees' perceptions of organizational transparency and organizational support contribute both to prevent the risk of job disengagement; however, the processes how these effects evolve differ. Whereas organizational transparency works on the cognitive level via a reduction of employees' perceptions of uncertainty, organizational support shows its effect on the emotional level through a reduction of job frustration.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the scarce research on how internal crisis communication can address employees' uncertainty, negative emotions and job disengagement during a crisis. Moreover, despite the lack of organizational responsibility for creating the crisis, the study emphasizes organizational accountability to respond to the needs of its employees to mitigate negative effects.
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Julia S. Mehlitz and Benjamin R. Auer
Motivated by the growing importance of the expected shortfall in banking and finance, this study aims to compare the performance of popular non-parametric estimators of the…
Abstract
Purpose
Motivated by the growing importance of the expected shortfall in banking and finance, this study aims to compare the performance of popular non-parametric estimators of the expected shortfall (i.e. different variants of historical, outlier-adjusted and kernel methods) to each other, selected parametric benchmarks and estimates based on the idea of forecast combination.
Design/methodology/approach
Within a multidimensional simulation setup (spanned by different distributional settings, sample sizes and confidence levels), the authors rank the estimators based on classic error measures, as well as an innovative performance profile technique, which the authors adapt from the mathematical programming literature.
Findings
The rich set of results supports academics and practitioners in the search for an answer to the question of which estimators are preferable under which circumstances. This is because no estimator or combination of estimators ranks first in all considered settings.
Originality/value
To the best of their knowledge, the authors are the first to provide a structured simulation-based comparison of non-parametric expected shortfall estimators, study the effects of estimator averaging and apply the mentioned profiling technique in risk management.
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