PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Burns victims struggling to pay

Indigenous families face multiple barriers in hospital

2021-04-22
(Press-News.org) Living away from community and country, Aboriginal families of children with severe burns also face critical financial stress to cover the associated costs of health care and treatment, a new study shows.

An Australian study, led by Flinders researchers Dr Courtney Ryder and Associate Professor Tamara Mackean, found feelings of crisis were common in Aboriginal families with children suffering severe burns, with one family reporting skipping meals and others selling assets to reduce costs while in hospital.

The economic hardship was found to be worse in families who live in rural areas - some households travelling more than five hours for treatment, creating undue financial strain.

Participants included families from SA, NSW and Queensland who are already part of the larger-Australia-wide Coolamon study on burns injuries in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

Their children had sustained severe burns that required at least one night in hospital and follow up care.

So far, the Coolamon study has explored the health inequity of burns incidents and severity in Aboriginal children, with hospitalisation rates found to be 2-3 times greater than other Australian children.

This research conducted by Flinders University in conjunction with The George Institute for Global Health and UNSW School of Population Health also found Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children spent five times longer in hospital.

Dr Courtney Ryder, from Flinders University's College of Medicine and Public Health, says out-of-pocket health expenditure are costs not covered by Medicare or health insurance, and could include gap payments, pharmaceutical costs, and travel costs such as transport, car parking, food, and accommodation.

She says results were "astounding" with some families reaching credit card limits, not paying other bills or even selling assets to get by.

"Even though we have Medicare, there are always additional out-of-pocket expenses for health care, and I don't think it's understood the depth or breadth of cost for those Aboriginal families who have a child with an acute burns injury," Dr Ryder says.

"Burns injuries are quite intensive, very invasive and require a lot of follow up. While the expenses might be as simple as sterilised water and bandages, quite often there are additional expenses such as costs associated with travelling away from home.

"One family spoke about having to spend $700 each time they went to town, and they were even staying with family close to the tertiary setting."

Participants also reported not being made aware of government initiatives, such as the Patient Assisted Travel Scheme (PATS), aimed at South Australians who need to travel more than 100km to access medical services.

Dr Ryder says a review of PATS is needed, as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders often face barriers in accessing the scheme, including families who still live in regional areas but within the 100km range.

"There was one family who, because of where they were located, couldn't get assistance through PATS," she says.

"They were having to travel for an hour or more every day to the hospital, then there were parking costs and time spent away from work, so it was still significant."

Despite the stress and financial burden reported by participants, they often commented on the significant role their family networks played in helping and keeping them away from significant financial burden.

INFORMATION:

This research is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) project grant, while Dr Courtney Ryder was supported by an NHMRC postgraduate scholarship.

Ryder, C., Mackean, T., Hunter, K., Coombes, J., Holland, A.J. and Ivers, R. (2021), Yarning up about out?of?pocket healthcare expenditure in burns with Aboriginal families. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1111/1753-6405.13083



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Better country dementia care

2021-04-22
Rising levels of dementia is putting pressure on residential aged care facilities, including in rural and regional centres where nursing homes and staff are already under pressure. Now a pilot program of personalised interventions, including residents' favourite songs, has been shown to make a big difference to dementia behaviours, drug use and carers' wellbeing. Harmony in the Bush, a study led by Flinders University in five nursing homes in Queensland and South Australia, developed a multimodal person-centred non-pharmacological intervention program incorporating ...

Freeze! Executioner protein caught in the act

Freeze! Executioner protein caught in the act
2021-04-22
A new molecular 'freeze frame' technique has allowed WEHI researchers to see key steps in how the protein MLKL kills cells. Small proteins called 'monobodies' were used to freeze MLKL at different stages as it moved from a dormant to an activated state, a key process that enables an inflammatory form of cell death called necroptosis. The team were able to map how the three-dimensional structure of MLKL changed, revealing potential target sites that might be targets for drugs - a potential new approach to blocking necroptosis as a treatment for inflammatory diseases. The research, which ...

A new study identifies interleukin 11 as a marker of cancer-associated fibroblasts

A new study identifies interleukin 11 as a marker of cancer-associated fibroblasts
2021-04-22
IL-11 is known to promote the development of colorectal cancer in humans and mice, but when and where IL-11 is expressed during cancer development is unknown. "To address these questions experimentally, we generated reporter mice that express the green fluorescent protein (EGFP) gene in interleukin 11 (IL-11)-producing (IL11+) cells in vivo. We found IL-11+ cells in the colons of this murine colitis-associated colorectal cancer model," said Dr. Nishina, the lead author of a study published April 16 in Nature Communications. "The IL-11+ cells were absent from the colon under normal conditions but rapidly appeared in the tissues of mice with colitis and colorectal cancer." In the study, Dr. Nishina and colleagues characterized the IL-11+ cells by flow cytometry and found that ...

Artificial intelligence model predicts which key of the immune system opens the locks of coronavirus

2021-04-22
The human immune defense is based on the ability of white blood cells to accurately identify disease-causing pathogens and to initiate a defense reaction against them. The immune defense is able to recall the pathogens it has encountered previously, on which, for example, the effectiveness of vaccines is based. Thus, the immune defense the most accurate patient record system that carries a history of all pathogens an individual has faced. This information however has previously been difficult to obtain from patient samples. The learning immune system can be roughly divided into two parts, of which B cells are responsible for producing antibodies against pathogens, while T cells are responsible for destroying their targets. The measurement of antibodies by traditional laboratory ...

How is a molecular machine assembled?

2021-04-22
The study was published by the team from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), the Max Planck Institutes of Biochemistry and Biophysics, the Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO) and the Chemistry Department at Philipps Universität Marburg, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA, and Université Paris-Saclay, France, online on 12 April 2021 in the journal Nature Plants. Catalyst of life Photosystem II (PS II) is of fundamental importance for life, as it is able to catalyse the splitting of water. The oxygen released in this reaction allows us to breathe. In addition, PS II converts light energy ...

New therapy target for malignant melanomas in dogs

New therapy target for malignant melanomas in dogs
2021-04-22
Scientists have shown that the biological molecule PD-L1 is a potential target for the treatment of metastasized oral malignant melanoma in dogs. There are a number of cancers that affect dogs, but there are far fewer diagnosis and treatment options for these canine cancers. However, as dogs and humans are both mammals, it is likely that strategies and treatments for cancers in humans can be used for canine cancer, with minor modifications. A team of scientists, including Associate Professor Satoru Konnai from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Hokkaido University, have demonstrated that an anti-cancer therapy that targets the cancer marker PD-L1--a target that has shown great promise for treating cancer in humans--is ...

New research data on the regulation of hormone-dependent breast cancer

2021-04-22
Notch proteins are key regulators of growth and differentiation of both normal and cancer cells. Researchers in Turku, Finland, have now demonstrated that the activities of distinct Notch family members are modified differently by phosphorylation. These results can be used in the development of new cancer treatments, especially for hormone-dependent breast cancer. Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women in Finland and other Western countries. Due to the availability of hormonal therapies, the estrogen-responsive breast cancer cases have a relatively good prognosis as compared to other breast cancer subtypes. However, some of them can also develop into an aggressive, metastatic disease, for which new types ...

Fat-footed tyrannosaur parents could not keep up with their skinnier adolescent offspring

Fat-footed tyrannosaur parents could not keep up with their skinnier adolescent offspring
2021-04-22
New research by the University of New England's Palaeoscience Research Centre suggests juvenile tyrannosaurs were slenderer and relatively faster for their body size compared to their multi-tonne parents. The research, published in the END ...

Landscape induced back-building thunderstorm lines along the mei-yu front

Landscape induced back-building thunderstorm lines along the mei-yu front
2021-04-22
Thunderstorm development is not always dependent on atmospheric physics alone. Often, the surrounding landscape can influence convection, especially in regions with dramatic elevation changes. The Yangtze river basin in China's Jiangxi Province, which is surrounded by the Nanling Mountains, often experiences mesoscale convective systems (MCS) or squall line thunderstorms during the summer. These MCSs develop along the persistent mei-yu front, and often exhibit quickly developing parallel back-building, or training thunderstorms, resulting in torrential flooding. A research team led by Dr. Zhemin Tan, Professor at the School of Atmospheric Sciences of Nanjing University, analyzed the influences of the regional landscape that lead to consistent MCS back-building ...

Newly-discovered molecule provides dual protection against vascular inflammation

Newly-discovered molecule provides dual protection against vascular inflammation
2021-04-22
SINGAPORE, 22 April 2021 - A multidisciplinary team of researchers from Duke-NUS Medical School and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore discovered a new mitochondrial peptide called MOCCI that plays an important role in regulating inflammation of blood vessel and immunity. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, revealed how one gene encoded two molecules that provide two-pronged protection following viral infection. Chronic and excessive inflammation of the blood vessels, known as vascular inflammation, can lead to tissue damage and cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis and fibrosis. Although some therapies have shown promising results in clinical trials, they have considerable side effects, such as immunosuppression ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

New tool helps seniors reduce unnecessary medications

Lehigh University Professor Christopher J. Kiely receives top microanalysis award for TEM research

Tomatoes in 3D: Breakthrough in plant monitoring

A novel highly porous dual-phase high-entropy ultrahigh-temperature ceramic with outstanding properties

Study finds gaps in books on consent education for children

New method to steer electricity in atom-thin metals may revolutionize devices

New study: Powerboats can impact lakes below the surface

Plan, prepare, conquer: predicting mountain accident risks with deep learning and pre-climb data

New ancient marine reptile species discovered in Germany's famous Jurassic fossil beds

Psychedelics and non-hallucinogenic analogs work through the same receptor, up to a point

​​​​​​​The Lancet: Plastic pollution is an underrecognised threat to health, experts warn as they launch a project to track plastics’ health impacts and monitor progress

The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics to track impact of plastic production and pollution on human health

Announcing The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics

Study unexpectedly finds living in rural, rather than urban environments in first five years of life could be a risk factor for developing type 1 diabetes

Editorial urges deeper focus on heart-lung interactions in pulmonary vascular disease

Five University of Tennessee faculty receive Fulbright Awards

5 advances to protect water sources, availability

OU Scholar awarded Fulbright for Soviet cinema research

Brain might become target of new type 1 diabetes treatments

‘Shore Wars:’ New research aims to resolve coastal conflict between oysters and mangroves, aiding restoration efforts

Why do symptoms linger in some people after an infection? A conversation on post-acute infection syndromes

Study reveals hidden drivers of asthma flare-ups in children

Physicists decode mysterious membrane behavior

New insights about brain receptor may pave way for next-gen mental health drugs

Melanoma ‘sat-nav’ discovery could help curb metastasis

When immune commanders misfire: new insights into rheumatoid arthritis inflammation

SFU researchers develop a new tool that brings blender-like lighting control to any photograph

Pups in tow, Yellowstone-area wolves trek long distances to stay near prey

AI breakthrough unlocks 'new' materials to replace lithium-ion batteries

Making molecules make sense: A regional explanation method reveals structure–property relationships

[Press-News.org] Burns victims struggling to pay
Indigenous families face multiple barriers in hospital