The limits of discourse: masculinity as vulnerability

For many, gender equity being fair to women and men is a zero sum game in which men should be willing to give up their privileges for the creation of a more equitable and just society. The idea that men might benefit from gender equity seems, for many, unthinkable. This was brought home a few years ago in a gender studies test, when students answering a question on what men might gain from gender equality explained instead how women would benefit. In this Perspective I reflect on the ways in which popular discourses around gender may inadvertently undermine movement towards gender and social justice. Dismissing my students' answers as the result of poor teaching or learning misses a key point: It seems to be extraordinarily difficult for most people to recognise how gender creates masculine vulnerabilities or how gender equity could benefit men. I suggest that if we are to improve women's lives through the reduction of violence, feminist teachers and activists need to think creatively about how to help men and boys understand that performances of masculinity deeply compromise their own lives

Interventions involving own treatment choice for people living with coexisting severe mental illness and type 1 or 2 diabetes:A scoping review

Aim: The objective of this scoping review was to summarize, understand and provide an overview of the empirical literature on interventions involving own treatment choice for people with coexisting diabetes (type 1 and 2) and severe mental illness (SMI). Methods: This scoping review undertook a systematic literature assessment. Searches were performed in MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library and grey literature (OpenGrey, Google Scholar and Danish Health and Medicine Authority databases). Publications from 2000 to July 2020 were of interest. Studies were included if they involved the users’ own choice of treatment. Included studies: RCT, intervention, cohort and case-based studies. Results: A total of 4320 articles were screened, of which nine were included. The review identified eight studies from the United States and one from Canada testing different interventions for people with SMI and diabetes (one diabetes education program, five randomized controlled trials, one retrospective cohort study, one naturalistic intervention program and one case vignette). The interventions described in the nine articles involved service users, the majority incorporated individualized healthcare plans, and all interventions were based on multidisciplinary teamwork. Conclusions: Research in the area is limited. Care management interventions tend to focus on a single condition, paradoxically excluding SMI during enrolment. Interventions aimed at people with both conditions often prioritize one condition treatment leading to an unbalanced care.</p

'Family comes in all forms, blood or not': disrupting dominant narratives around the patriarchal nuclear family

After nearly 25 years of democracy, lives of young South Africans are still profoundly shaped by the legacies of apartheid. This paper considers how these differences are produced, maintained and disrupted through an exploration of changing narratives developed by a small group of South African pre-service teachers, with a particular focus on the narratives developed around discourses of fatherhood generally and absent fathers in particular. We draw on interviews conducted with three students in which we discussed their digital stories and literature reviews. In this paper, we draw attention to the limitations of digital storytelling and the risks such autobiographical storytelling presents of perpetuating dominant narratives that maintain and reproduce historical inequalities. At the same time, in highlighting ways in which this risk might be confronted, the paper also aims to show the possibilities in which these dominant narratives may be challenged.IBS

Perceptions and experiences of living with coexisting type 2 diabetes and severe mental illness:a scoping review

AIMS: To map existing research-based knowledge of everyday life and illness management among people with coexisting type 2 diabetes and severe mental illness, and to identify study designs, aims, populations and themes.METHODS: A systematic literature search was performed on 16 April 2019 using Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, Cinahl, the Cochrane Library, and the Web of Science to conduct a scoping review. Included studies were summarized with regard to the quantity of research, the study designs, aims, populations and themes RESULTS: From 3406 records, we included 23 studies about everyday life and illness management among people with coexisting type 2 diabetes and severe mental illness. Four studies were qualitative (observations, interviews and focus groups), and 19 were quantitative (observational and interventions) and used questionnaires. Five themes emerged in the findings: (1) diet and exercise, but not other diabetes self-care activities, are consistently compromised in the target group; (2) psychiatric exacerbation diminishes diabetes self-care; (3) social support and high self-efficacy improve diabetes self-care; (4) use of healthcare services is compromised; and (5) quality of life and well-being is poor.CONCLUSIONS: The limited research into the studied population's experiences with coexisting type 2 diabetes and severe mental illness is characterized by its heterogeneity in aims and methods and a strong focus on diabetes management and treatment. Further research focusing on the management of both conditions in everyday life is needed to improve specialized and integrated care targeting the population.</p

Study protocol for a multicenter randomized controlled trial of personalized exercise therapy and self-management support for people with multimorbidity: The MOBILIZE study

BACKGROUND: Despite the great individual and societal burden associated with multimorbidity, little is known about how to effectively manage it.OBJECTIVE: The aim of this multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) is to investigate the 12-month effects of a personalized exercise therapy and self-management support program in addition to usual care in people with multimorbidity.DESIGN: This is a protocol for a pragmatic, parallel-group (1:1 ratio), superiority RCT conducted at five intervention sites (two hospitals, a private practice physiotherapy clinic and two municipal rehabilitation centers) in Region Zealand, Denmark. A total of 228 persons with multimorbidity aged 18 years or older, will be randomly allocated to one of two groups. Both groups will receive usual care, defined as routine care for multimorbidity at the discretion of the treating doctor, while the intervention group will also participate in a 12-week exercise therapy and self-management support program tailored to people with multimorbidity at one of the intervention sites. The primary outcome will be the between-group difference in change in EQ-5D-5L from baseline to the follow-up at 12 months. Secondary outcomes include objectively-measured physical function and physical activity, inflammatory markers, disease and treatment burden, anxiety, depression, stress, sleep, pain and other self-reported parameters. In parallel with the RCT, an observational cohort will follow persons aged ≥18 years with multimorbidity not adhering to all eligibility criteria, as well as people fulfilling all eligibility criteria, but unwilling to participate in the RCT. This study was approved by the Regional Committee on Health Research Ethics for Region Zealand (SJ-857) and results will be communicated in scientific papers, at relevant conferences and to a broader audience.DISCUSSION: Exercise therapy and self-management support is safe and effective in people with single conditions. However, it is still unclear whether this holds true for individuals with multimorbidity. This pragmatic, multicenter RCT will provide high-quality evidence on the benefits and harms of exercise therapy and self-management support and, if the results support it, lead to the development of a plan for implementation in clinical practice.</p

Exercise therapy and self-management support for individuals with multimorbidity:a randomized and controlled trial

Despite increasing individual and societal burden, evidence for effective management strategies of multimorbidity is missing. Exercise therapy and self-management support are promising interventions, but their effect has not been evaluated. We hypothesized that exercise therapy and self-management support were superior to usual care alone in improving health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in individuals with multimorbidity. In this pragmatic multicenter, assessor-blinded randomized controlled trial (MOBILIZE), we enrolled 228 adult patients with two or more selected long-term conditions that limited their daily activities, but who were able to walk at least 3 meters without assistance, and who did not have unstable health conditions, life expectancy less than 12 months, or selected psychiatric conditions. Patients were randomized (1:1) to a 12 week personalized exercise therapy and self-management support program in addition to usual care or usual care alone. The primary outcome was HRQoL (using the EQ-5D-5L (European Quality of Life 5-dimensions 5-level version), ranging from −0.758 to 1, with higher scores being better) at 12 months, while secondary outcomes included functional performance (6 minute walk test and the 30 second chair-stand test), serious adverse events (SAEs), physical activity level (steps per day and minutes per day of at least light intensity measured with accelerometers), disease burden (Bayliss burden of illness measure), depression (Personal Health Questionnaire Depression Scale-8), anxiety (General Anxiety Disorder-7), self-efficacy (Self-Efficacy for Managing Chronic Disease scale), disability (12 item WHO Disability Assessment Schedule) and self-rated health (EQ-VAS (EuroQoL Visual Analog Scale)). In total, 197 of 228 participants (86%) completed the 12 month follow-up. On intention-to-treat analysis the exercise therapy and self-management support program had a statistically significantly greater effect on HRQoL than usual care alone (0.050 versus −0.014; adjusted mean difference, 0.064 points; 95% CI: 0.014–0.115). There were 36 and 48 SAEs in the exercise therapy and self-management group and usual care group, respectively (P = 0.388). Among the other secondary outcomes, only self-rated health was statistically significantly different between the groups (adjusted mean difference, 6.9 points; 95% CI: 1.8–12.1), in favor of the intervention group. In conclusion, this trial suggests that personalized exercise therapy and self-management support are more effective than usual care alone in improving health-related quality of life at 12 months in adults with multimorbidity, without compromising safety. The clinical relevance of the results remains unclear. ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT04645732.</p

Assessing learning and memory in pigs

In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in (mini) pigs (Sus scrofa) as species for cognitive research. A major reason for this is their physiological and anatomical similarity with humans. For example, pigs possess a well-developed, large brain. Assessment of the learning and memory functions of pigs is not only relevant to human research but also to animal welfare, given the nature of current farming practices and the demands they make on animal health and behavior. In this article, we review studies of pig cognition, focusing on the underlying processes and mechanisms, with a view to identifying. Our goal is to aid the selection of appropriate cognitive tasks for research into pig cognition. To this end, we formulated several basic criteria for pig cognition tests and then applied these criteria and knowledge about pig-specific sensorimotor abilities and behavior to evaluate the merits, drawbacks, and limitations of the different types of tests used to date. While behavioral studies using (mini) pigs have shown that this species can perform learning and memory tasks, and much has been learned about pig cognition, results have not been replicated or proven replicable because of the lack of validated, translational behavioral paradigms that are specially suited to tap specific aspects of pig cognition. We identified several promising types of tasks for use in studies of pig cognition, such as versatile spatial free-choice type tasks that allow the simultaneous measurement of several behavioral domains. The use of appropriate tasks will facilitate the collection of reliable and valid data on pig cognition