Suchergebnisse

Firefighters as an occupational group are at increased risk for a cardiac-related injury, with the largest proportion (44%) of firefighter on-duty mortality due to sudden cardiac death. As poor physical fitness behaviors are a contributing factor to this risk, a social marketing approach was used to design and market a competitive team-sports intervention to improve physical fitness and reduce cardiac risk factors in a group of full-time firefighters. This article describes how social marketing principles were used in the design and implementation of the "Get Firefighters Moving" physical fitness intervention. This includes strategic development of the marketing plan, with discussion of audience segmentation and the marketing mix used to implement the intervention. Preliminary findings are also presented, as they suggest improvement in cardiac risk factors including blood pressure, cardiovascular class, flexibility, and percent body fat.

This paper describes certain features of the economy in an extreme mountain environment where two contrasted forms of traditional political organization have survived into the twentieth century. It attempts to show that these forms of organization not only have had implications for the agricultural economy in the past, but are now influencing economic behaviour in the face of new situations and opportunities.

Background: The Australian Government's Pacific Malaria Initiative (PacMI) is supporting the National Malaria Program in both Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, complementing assistance from the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM). Two remote island groups - Tafea Province, Vanuatu and Temotu Province, Solomon Islands have been selected by the governments of both countries as possible malaria elimination areas. To provide information on the prevalence and distribution of the disease within these island groups, malariometric surveys were conducted during the wet seasons of 2008. Methods: In Tafea Province, a school-based survey was conducted which included the 2-12 y age group, while in Temotu a village based all-ages survey was conducted. An effort was made to sample villages or schools from a wide an area as possible on all islands. Diagnosis was initially based on Giemsa stained blood slides followed by molecular analysis using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results: In Tafea Province, 73% (5238/7150) of children (2-12 y) were surveyed and in Temotu Province, in the all-ages survey, 50.2% (8742/17410) of the provincial population participated in the survey. In both Vanuatu and Solomon Islands malariometric surveys of their southern-most islands in 2008 showed relatively low over-all malaria parasite prevalence (2 to 3%). Other features of malaria in these island groups were low parasitaemia, low gametocyte carriage rates, low spleen rates, low malaria associated morbidity, a high incidence of asymptomatic infections, and a predominance of Plasmodium vivax over Plasmodium falciparum. Conclusion: For various reasons malaria rates are declining in these provinces providing a favourable situation for local malaria elimination. This will be advanced using mass distribution of bed nets and selective indoor residual spraying, the introduction of rapid diagnostic tests and artemisinin combination therapy, and intensive case detection and surveillance. It is as yet uncertain whether malaria parasites can themselves be sustainably eliminated from entire Melanesian islands, where they have previously been endemic. Key issues on the road to malaria elimination will be continued community involvement, improved field diagnostic methods and elimination of residual P. vivax parasites from the liver of asymptomatic persons.