Francine Watkins

Cycling and health: An exploratory study of views about cycling in an area of North Liverpool, UK

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore views about cycling among members of identified community groups living near the Loop Line, a cycling and walking path in a deprived part of North Liverpool, UK.Design/methodology/approach – Following a literature review, qualitative focus group research was conducted among six groups of children, single mothers and older people living near the Loop Line.Findings – The paper finds that one of the strongest reported barriers to cycling for young boys was fear of bicycles being stolen – especially by a peer or someone known to the bike owner who asks to borrow the bike. The existence of high levels of crime and anti‐social behaviour near the Loop Line is creating an unhealthy environment by deterring local people from exercising in their local area. For young girls in North Liverpool cycling has significant image problems, with many saying that they simply would not consider cycling as a regular mode of transport. Organising led rides along the Loop Line may...

Reducing adult obesity in childhood: Parental influence on the food choices of children

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the complexities and pressures faced by parents when trying to embed knowledge of healthy eating in their children’s lifestyles. Design: Qualitative design using focus groups with parents and children aged 10 to 11 years. Methods: The research was conducted in two phases. The first phase involved five focus groups with 47 children. The results of these focus groups then informed the development of a second phase consisting of three focus groups with 15 parents of these children. The findings from the children’s focus groups were then discussed with parents to explore their understandings and perceptions of how children perceived health, diet and lifestyle. Results: Parents are one of the main influences when it comes to shaping their children’s decisions in relation to healthy eating. Children, but also parents, appeared to only have a partial knowledge about food and diet, and parents did not know how to translate this knowledge into decisions about healthy eating. Parents in this study felt under pressure when trying to incorporate healthy messages within the context of their own lives and they also wanted to feel more confident about the role they can play in the nutritional choices of their children. Conclusion: Healthy eating strategies may need to move away from focusing solely on parents as conduits of knowledge but instead see both them and their children as playing an active part in designing interactive strategies about making healthy food choices.

I Think Boys Would Rather Be Alpha Male: Being Male and Sexual Health Experiences of Young Men from a Deprived Area in the UK.

Objective: To explore the experiences of young men aged 16–19, living in an area of high deprivation, when accessing local sexual health services. Design: A qualitative design drawing on ethnographic methods. Setting: A local college. Methods: A multi-method approach was adopted using: one-to-one semi-structured interviews with young men and stakeholders; focus groups with young men; and participant observation in the areas surrounding the college clinics. Results: While a number of the young men constructed their masculinity as dominant, promiscuous and deliberately unfeminine, this was not widespread and was often a conscious performance. This was possibly a response to boredom that the young men frequently mentioned but also because they felt it was expected of them. The young men in this study demonstrated the need to take responsibility for their actions, recognized the importance of making good judgements, and to have respect for their partner in relationships. They understood that taking alcohol and drugs could affect their ability to act in a sexually responsible manner. It was also clear that, while targeted sexual health messages remain a beneficial public health strategy, there remained a perception that existing sexual health services were still aimed at women and not suited to the young men. Conclusion: The young men in this study demonstrated adherence to aspects of hegemonic masculinity but this was extremely complex and suggests a nuanced approach is needed to understand young men’s attitudes to sexual health services. By taking this approach strategies for enabling men to access services will be more appropriate and potentially more successful.

How Political Cultures Produce Different Antibiotic Policies in Agriculture: A Historical Comparative Case Study between the United Kingdom and Sweden: Agricultural antibiotic policies

Abstract The purpose of this article is to provide an understanding of how different countries formulate and regulate antibiotic use in animals raised for human consumption. A comparative case study was undertaken, analysing historical documents from the 1950s to the 1990s from the UK, the first country to produce a scientific report on the public health risks of agricultural antibiotic use; and Sweden, the first country to produce legislation on the growth promotor use of antibiotics in food animals. Sheila Jasanoffs concepts of ‘co‐production’ and ‘political cultures’ have been used to explore how both countries used different styles of scientific reasoning and justification of the risks of agricultural antibiotic use. It will be argued that national dynamics between policy, science and public knowledges co‐produced different risk classifications and patterns of agricultural antibiotic use between both countries. UKs political culture used ‘expert committees’ to remove the issue from public debate and to inform agricultural antibiotic policies. In contrast, the Swedish ‘consensus‐oriented’ political culture made concerns related to agricultural antibiotic use into a cooperative debate that included multiple discourses. Understanding how national policies, science and public knowledges interact with the risks related to agricultural antibiotic use can provide valuable insights in understanding and addressing countries agricultural use of antibiotics.

Care farms as a space of wellbeing for people with a learning disability in the United Kingdom

Abstract People with a learning disability in the UK are increasingly choosing to spend their time on ‘care farms’ but there is limited research examining these spaces from their perspective. A qualitative research design was used to ask eighteen of these clients how care farms contributed to their health and wellbeing. For these participants care farms can be understood, using Fleuret and Atkinsons (2007) framework, as a ‘space of wellbeing’ and as a positive and life‐enhancing space. Positive language was used by participants to describe the farms contrasting with ne gative language describing other spaces and activities. Farms were identified as contributing positively to mental and social wellbeing. HighlightsCare farms provide a positive social space for PWLDs contributing to mental and social wellbeing.Care farms are perceived as a space of wellbeing for participants, not simply an ‘intervention’.Calls for PWLDs to be included in research focusing on wellbeing in different social spaces.

Online videos indicate human and dog behaviour preceding dog bites and the context in which bites occur

YouTube videos of dog bites present an unexplored opportunity to observe dog bites directly. We recorded the context of bites, bite severity, victim and dog characteristics for 143 videos and for 56 videos we coded human and dog behaviour before the bite. Perceived bite severity was derived from visual aspects of the bite. Associations between bite severity and victim, dog and context characteristics were analysed using a Bayesian hierarchical regression model. Human and dog behaviour before the bite were summarised with descriptive statistics. No significant differences in bite severity were observed between contexts. Only age of the victim was predictive of bite severity: adults were bitten more severely than infants and infants more severely than children. Non-neutral codes describing dog body posture and some displacement and appeasement behaviours increased approximately 20 seconds before the bite and humans made more tactile contacts with dogs 21 seconds before the bite. This analysis can help to improve understanding of context in which bites occur and improve bite prevention by highlighting observable human and dog behaviours occurring before the bite.

Pets, Purity and Pollution: Why Conventional Models of Disease Transmission Do Not Work for Pet Rat Owners

In the United Kingdom, following the emergence of Seoul hantavirus in pet rat owners in 2012, public health authorities tried to communicate the risk of this zoonotic disease, but had limited success. To explore this lack of engagement with health advice, we conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with pet rat owners and analysed them using a grounded theory approach. The findings from these interviews suggest that rat owners construct their pets as different from wild rats, and by elevating the rat to the status of a pet, the powerful associations that rats have with dirt and disease are removed. Removing the rat from the contaminated outside world moves their pet rat from being ‘out of place’ to ‘in place’. A concept of ‘bounded purity’ keeps the rat protected within the home, allowing owners to interact with their pet, safe in the knowledge that it is clean and disease-free. Additionally, owners constructed a ‘hierarchy of purity’ for their pets, and it is on this structure of disease and risk that owners base their behaviour, not conventional biomedical models of disease.

Running out of time: A qualitative investigation of homeless men’s access to health services

Abstract This study examined health beliefs and health care utilisation among 20 homeless men in Liverpool, through the voices of homeless men themselves. Using semi-structured interviews and framework analysis, narratives highlighted the interplay between the limiting structures of the health care system and an individuals ability to know how to seek out health care in order to improve their own health. Specifically, we found that individual agency was contingent on the availability of a set of minimum resources, to which homeless men did not have access. These findings have important implications in terms of practical policy recommendations for improving health care utilisation among the homeless.