Yonder: a diverse selection of primary care relevant research stories from beyond the mainstream biomedical literature
Parkinson’s spouses
Although research has consistently shown that Parkinson’s disease (PD) can have a significant adverse effect on spouses, this has predominantly been in spouses who act as primary caregivers. This led an Israeli research team to investigate the experiences of spouses who do not identify as primary caregivers.1 They found that the progressive nature of PD led to a dynamic nature to the participants’ experiences; as the disease progressed, it intensified in their experience. In a similar fashion to the ‘on-off’ phenomenon experienced by levodopa-treated PD patients, where patients go through cycles of fluctuating symptoms, spouses experienced a ‘seesaw’ dynamic where the disease took up more (off) or less (on) space in their lives. It was experienced as a dichotomy between absence and presence compounding the challenge of grieving for losses that had occurred along the way. The authors recommend a need for psychological and grief counselling aimed at creating a safe space for spouses to grieve over their ‘non-death losses’.
Weight-loss surgery
A recent Norwegian study explored patients’ long-term experiences after undergoing bariatric surgery (BS) by focusing on the interplay between biographical disruption and biographical flow when the body’s normal physiology and anatomy are intentionally altered.2 It found that the ‘bariatric body’ is still prominent in daily life because of the development of unexpected health problems after surgery. Because of individual informed consent to the treatment, the negative consequences are perceived as self-inflicted. The feelings of responsibility and shame make it difficult to seek help and to be open about undesirable long-term effects and other health problems after surgery. Clearly, a longer-term and more holistic follow-up after BS is required.
Pension participation
There is significant evidence that poor mental health leads to a range of adverse financial outcomes. A recent economics paper has provided novel evidence of a ‘mental health gap’ in pension participation in the UK using nationally representative longitudinal data from Understanding Society (UKHLS).3 In 2012, the UK government introduced automatic enrolment, representing a significant pension policy reform. The paper shows that, prior to automatic enrolment, male private sector employees with poor mental health were 3.7% less likely to participate in a workplace pension scheme while female private sector employees with poor mental health were 2.9% less likely to participate after controlling for key observables. The implementation of automatic enrolment has removed this mental health gap in pension participation, equalising the pension participation rates of individuals with and without poor mental health in the private sector.
Male nurses
As males in a female-dominated occupation, male nurses are at risk of being exposed to sexual harassment and a recent study from South Korea sought to examine the prevalence of workplace sexual harassment faced by male nurses in South Korea and to identify related factors.4 Based on an online survey, they found that 65.2% of male nurses had experienced sexual harassment at least once during the past 6 months at their workplace. Mistreatment because of gender, repeated sexual stories or jokes, and comments about appearance were the most frequent forms of harassment experienced. Moreover, most participants remained passive in response, ‘laughing it off’ (32.3%), ‘not expressing anything’ (12.5%), and ‘avoiding the situation’ (9.4%), with only 15.6% actively responding and expressing their displeasure. The authors conclude that nursing managers should make efforts to improve the nursing work environment, including by establishing guidelines to encourage voluntary reporting of sexual misconduct.
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- © British Journal of General Practice 2023
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