Social factors

Objectives: Although health systems are increasingly moving toward addressing social determinants of health, social risk screening for hospitalized children is largely unexplored. We sought to determine if inpatient screening was feasible and describe the prevalence of social risk among children and caregivers, with special attention given to children with chronic conditions.

To assess the relationship between paid work, family characteristics and health status in Central American workers; and to examine whether patterns of association differ by gender and informal or formal employment.Cross-sectional study of 8680 non-agricultural workers, based on the First Central American Survey of Working Conditions and Health (2011). Main explicative variables were paid working hours, marital status, caring for children, and caring for people with functional diversity or ill.

This study aims to investigate whether selected social and psychological characteristics of family caregivers of persons with dementia are related to community-based service use in Belgium. Two aspects were distinguished in service utilisation: volume (number of contacts) and diversity (number of services). Within a selected region, dementia caregivers were traced via the detection of persons with dementia known to community health or social services. A probability diagnosis was made with the Geriatric Mental State and the computer algorithm AGECAT.

Objective: to undertake a systematic literature review of risk factors for abuse in community-dwelling elders, as a first step towards exploring the clinical utility of a risk factor framework. Search strategy and selection criteria: a search was undertaken using the MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE and PsycINFO databases for articles published in English up to March 2011, to identify original studies with statistically significant risk factors for abuse in community-dwelling elders.

The Princess Royal Trust for Carers is a UK-wide network of 144 independent Carers’ Centres, which offer support including information, training, facilitating access to statutory services and benefits reviews. The Trust supports the network by providing a national voice for carers, and facilitating The Network to provide carers with the support they need. This report shows that an investment of less than £5 million in services provided by five carers' centres resulted in at least £73 million worth of social gains in a year.