The aims of this thesis were to study the incidence, severity and pattern of injury in male and female elite football players; to study time trends in injury risk; to identify risk factors for injury; and to test the effectiveness of an intervention programme aimed at preventing re-injury. All studies followed a prospective design using standardised definitions and data collection forms. Individual training and match exposure was registered for all players participating. Time loss injuries were documented by each team’s medical staff. The amount of training increased by 68% between the 1982 and 2001 Swedish top male division seasons, reflecting the shift from semi-professionalism to full professionalism. No difference in injury incidence or injury severity was found between seasons. The injury incidence was 4.6 vs. 5.2/1000 training hours and 20.6 vs. 25.9/1000 match hours. The incidence of severe injury (absence >4 weeks) was 0.8/1000 hours in both seasons. The Swedish and Danish top male divisions were followed during the spring season of 2001. A higher risk for training injury (11.8 vs. 6.0/1000 hours, p<0.01) and severe injury (1.8 vs. 0.7/1000 hours, p=0.002) was observed among the Danish players. Re-injury accounted for 30% and 24% of injuries in Denmark and Sweden respectively. The Swedish top male division was studied over two consecutive seasons, 2001 and 2002, and comparison of training and match injury incidences between seasons showed similar results. Players who were injured in the 2001 season were at greater risk for injury in the following season compared to non-injured players (relative risk 2.7; 95% CI 1.7-4.3). Players with a previous hamstring injury, groin injury and knee joint trauma were two to three times more likely to suffer an identical injury to the same limb in the following season, but no such relationship was found for ankle sprain. Age was not associated with an increased injury risk. The effectiveness of a coach-controlled rehabilitation programme on the rate of re-injury was studied in a randomised controlled trial at amateur male level. In the control group, 23 of 79 injured players suffered a recurrence during the season compared to 10 of 90 players in the intervention group. There was a 75% lower re-injury risk in the intervention group for lower limb injuries (relative risk 0.25; 95% CI 0.11-0.57). The preventive effect was greatest during the first weeks after return to play. Both the male and female Swedish top divisions were followed during the 2005 season. Male elite players had a higher risk for training injury (4.7 vs. 3.8/1000 hours, p<0.05) and match injury (28.1 vs. 16.1/1000 hours, p<0.001) than women. However, no difference was observed in the rate of severe injury (0.7/1000 hours in both groups). The thigh was the most common site of injury in both men and women, while injury to the hip/groin was more frequent in men and to the knee in women. Knee sprain accounted for 31% and 37% of the time lost from training and match play in men and women respectively. / Serienumret i serien Linköping University medical dissertation är fel. Det korrkta numret är 988. The serial number in the series Linköping University medical dissertation is incorrect. The correct number is 988.

The main research questions examined in this thesis concern the extent to which social class influence individuals' health, and how and whether individuals' occupation, education and lifestyles mediate between class and health. The conclusions drawn from the analysis of these empirical questions cast further light on the widening health inequalities seen in developed societies in recent decades. In particular, this research suggests that, employment conditions as well as educational levels are variables that need to be taken into account when planning policies aimed at tackling differences in health outcomes. Lifestyle variables, on the other hand, would appear to be almost irrelevant when explaining why the members of the more privileged social classes not only live longer than those in other classes, but also enjoy significantly better health over the course of their lives. In trying to understand the association between class and health, I define a theoretical framework that specifies the mechanisms through which class is linked to health. Social structure influences health by distributing certain factors such as material resources or some health-related behaviour that ultimately result in individuals having different living conditions. Educational attainment also affects the way these resources are employed and, therefore, lifestyles. A fundamental element of a social class is occupation: individuals' employment and working conditions also affect their health. Furthermore, the nature of a social structure has an effect on health at the aggregate level of analysis since social policies are partly the result of the structure of class interests. Four mechanisms are specified in order to systematically test this theoretical framework. Mechanisms (2) and (3), those that relate class and health through education and lifestyle lie at the heart of the empirical analysis. This analysis employs individual-level data drawn from health surveys carried out during the first half of the 1990s in the two countries selected for the analysis, United Kingdom and Spain. These countries are treated as contexts in which to test the theoretical explanation. The main results of the analysis reveal the importance of social class in determining health outcomes. Indeed, individuals from different classes enjoy distinct degrees of health. Specifically, individuals in the most privileged class categories have persistently better health than those in the other class categories. Differences exist in terms of both objective and subjective or self-perceived health. Moving on from observation to explanation, the analysis suggests that the distribution of certain resources across classes accounts for some of the variance in health outcomes. Hence, education is identified as a significant variable to comprehend part of the health inequalities in developed societies. Lifestyle, on the other hand, does not appear relevant in accounting for health outcomes. The small differences found between the United Kingdom and Spain in the mechanisms that link class and health suggest that the process through which class affects health is essentially similar in developed societies.

This study analyses the development of health care in Haiti as it has emerged from a syncretic cultural background. The historical bases of the social and cultural practices surrounding health and illness are described as four separately developing but interacting strands--domestic medicine, mercantile medicine, official medicine and Creole medicine. The thesis interprets this heterogeneity of health-care beliefs and practices using the theoretical concept of a disemic culture, in which diverse cultural codes interact, to provide occasions for the situational negotiation of health care. / Case studies of domestic groups suggest that the domestic unit is the determining factor of health status, and the necessary focus for health development policy. The resources of the health care system outside the domestic unit are shown to contribute little to the health status of the population.

Family and Community Medicine was introduced to Costa Rica through the McGill-CENDEISSS Project of 1989-1994. The development of this new speciality is interpreted as a "professionalization" drive, which, while appropriating the discourse of the international primary health care movement, in fact places more importance, as a social movement, on negotiating for and expanding its own jurisdictional space. Two bodies of literature are called upon to provide theoretical guidance, namely, writing on "professionalization" and ethnographic interpretations of "development" in the so-called Third World. The phenomenon of Family and Community Medicine in Costa Rica is described as an international, national, and local movement. The town of Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui is the focus of an ethnographic description of the speciality's local-level implementation.

No description available.

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1985. / Bibliography: leaves 236-245. / Photocopy. / Microfilm. / v, 245 leaves, bound

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Dept. of Community Medicine, University of Adelaide, 1992. / Typescript (Photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 307-320).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Public Health, 2000. / Bibliography: leaves 203-219.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2007. / A thesis submitted to the University of Western Sydney, College of Health and Science, School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliography.

Maîtrise (M. Sc.)--Université de Montréal, 1998. / "Université de Montréal, mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de maître ès sciences (M. Sc.) en sciences infirmières" CaQCU Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU