Gender, Inclusion, Community, Health, Sport and Empowerment
Team Edmonton is a volunteer-operated, non-profit society serving primarily members of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgendered communities but open to friends and supporters of GLBT community. The primary focus of Team Edmonton is to provide our membership with access to well organized and fun sporting events and other recreational activities to allow them to participate and interact in a positive social framework.
Published – December 2008
www.teamedmonton.ca
LAS VEGAS — It is a place that worships momentum and mocks inertia, craves acceleration and condemns lethargy. All angle and pitch, slope and slant, it is a place of dry pools and concrete runways, of mad ramps and half-pipes.
No one ever told Aaron Fotheringham it was a place he shouldn’t enter, or didn’t belong in. After all, he did the same things — spinning and rising, falling and crashing - every other skateboarder and BMX rider did.
Aaron Fotheringham had wheels.
His were just a little different than the others.
“People call it wheelchair skateboarding,” he says with a shake of the head, “and it’s like, oh man, it’s its own sport. It’s hard-core sitting.”
Posted – February 2008
Full ESPN News Story
Aaron Fotheringham: FIRST backflip in wheelchair!
Aaron Fotheringham: FIRST backflip in wheelchair!
The Role of Medical Language in Changing Public Perceptions of Illness
Meredith E. Young1*, Geoffrey R. Norman2, Karin R. Humphreys1
1 Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 2 Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Abstract
This study was designed to investigate the impact of medical terminology on perceptions of disease. Specifically, we look at the changing public perceptions of newly medicalized disorders with accompanying newly medicalized terms (e.g. impotence has become erectile dysfunction disorder). Does using “medicalese” to label a recently medicalized disorder lead to a change in the perception of that condition? Undergraduate students (n = 52) rated either the medical or lay label for recently medicalized disorders (such as erectile dysfunction disorder vs. impotence) and established medical conditions (such as a myocardial infarction vs. heart attack) for their perceived seriousness, disease representativeness and prevalence. Students considered the medical label of the recently medicalized disease to be more serious (mean = 4.95 (SE = .27) vs. mean = 3.77 (SE = .24) on a ten point scale), more representative of a disease (mean = 2.47 (SE = .09) vs. mean = 1.83 (SE = .09) on a four point scale), and have lower prevalence (mean = 68 (SE = 12.6) vs. mean = 122 (SE = 18.1) out of 1,000) than the same disease described using common language. A similar pattern was not seen in the established medical conditions, even when controlled for severity. This study demonstrates that the use of medical language in communication can induce bias in perception; a simple switch in terminology results in a disease being perceived as more serious, more likely to be a disease, and more likely to be a rare condition. These findings regarding the conceptualization of disease have implications for many areas, including medical communication with the public, advertising, and public policy.
Published – December 2008
Complete Publication Review
IAPESGW AIMS
To bring together women of many countries working in the field of physical education and sport;
To represent and promote the interests of girls and women at all levels and in all areas of physical education and sport;
To strengthen international contacts and networks;
To afford opportunities for the discussion of mutual concerns and to share good practice;
To promote activity in such fields as the exchange of persons and ideas among member countries and research on physical education and sport for girls and women;
To cooperate with other organisations and agencies working to promote the interests of women, physical education and/or sport.
Published – November 2008
2009 IAPESGW Official Website
