Prevention, health and safety program in companies provide a more successful and healthier workplace

This article describes the importance of injury prevention in the workplace and the status of this issue in Iceland. Using a theoretical approach, this article examines workers' psychological and physical health, as it is affect by work. The article seeks to answer the question, "What methods are appropriate when health and safety management is of primary importance in the workplace?" Finally, the article will explain the condition of these matters in Iceland, and will also discuss how one measurement strategy, called "Workplace Analysis", uses performance indicators to demonstrate the effectiveness of health and safety consultations. This tool has been developed by Solarpexus. It is important to analyze the work environment, set goals, and measure results.     

The construction of fear: Americans' preferences for social distance from children and adolescents with mental health problems

Debates about children's mental health problems have raised questions about the reliability and validity of diagnosis and treatment. However, little research has focused on social reactions to children with mental health problems. This gap in research raises questions about competing theories of stigma, as well as specific factors shaping prejudice and discrimination toward those children. Here, we organize a general model of stigma that synthesizes previous research. We apply a reduced version of this model to data from a nationally representative sample responding to vignettes depicting several stigmatizing scenarios, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, asthma, or "normal troubles." Results from the National Stigma Study-Children suggest a gradient of rejection from highest to lowest, as follows: ADHD, depression, "normal troubles," and physical illness. Stigmatizing reactions are highest toward adolescents. Importantly, respondents who label the vignette child's situation as a mental illness compared to those who label the problem as a physical illness or a "normal" situation report greater preferences for social distance, a pattern that appears to result from perceptions that the child is dangerous.     

Predictors of women’s positive childbirth pain experience: Findings from an Icelandic national study

Background

Pain in childbirth has been identified as one of the major components in the childbirth experience and an important topic that needs to be addressed during pregnancy, birth and the after-birth period.

Partner relationship,social support and perinatal distress among pregnant Icelandic women

Background

It is inferred that perinatal distress has adverse effects on the prospective mother and the health of the foetus/infant. More knowledge is needed to identify which symptoms of perinatal distress should be assessed during pregnancy and to shed light on the impact of women’s satisfaction with their partner relationship on perinatal distress.

Fundamental causes of health disparities: stratification, the welfare state, and health in the United States and Iceland

Research has established that those with higher social status have better health. Less is known about whether this relationship differs cross-nationally and whether it operates similarly across different institutional arrangements. To examine the relationship between stratification and health, two Western, industrialized societies at opposite ends of an equal/unequal continuum are compared: the United States and Iceland. Using data from the 1998 General Social Survey and the 1998 Health and Living Standards of Adult Icelanders survey, I draw from two theoretical perspectives. First, I explore the notion of fundamental causes of disease by examining whether stratification has similar effects on health. Second, I examine whether the organization of welfare states affects this relationship. The results show that education, employment, and relative poverty have similar effects on health in both nations, thus supporting the notion of a fundamental cause. However in Iceland relative affluence has a weaker relationship with health. Further, being a parent, regardless of marital status, has a stronger positive relationship with good health in Iceland. Welfare state intervention may be most successful in equalizing health outcomes by supporting families and by removing advantages traditionally accumulated by the wealthy in capitalist societies.