sara wood - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by sara wood
BMJ, 2020
Anderson and colleagues discuss the need to mitigate the longer term effects of the covid-19 pand... more Anderson and colleagues discuss the need to mitigate the longer term effects of the covid-19 pandemic in an equitable way.1 Plans for the United Kingdom need to tackle the triple public health challenge it faces from covid-19, climate change, and Brexit. The pandemic and measures to control it are exposing interwoven relationships between wellbeing, inequalities, the economy, the environment, and society as …
BMJ Open, 2018
ObjectivesTo examine if, and to what extent, a history of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) co... more ObjectivesTo examine if, and to what extent, a history of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) combines with adult alcohol consumption to predict recent violence perpetration and victimisation.DesignRepresentative face-to-face survey (n=12 669) delivered using computer-assisted personal interviewing and self-interviewing.SettingDomiciles of individuals living in England and Wales.ParticipantsIndividuals aged 18–69 years resident within randomly selected locations. 12 669 surveys were completed with participants within our defined age range.Main outcome measuresAlcohol consumption was measured using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C) and childhood adversity using the short ACEs tool. Violence was measured using questions on perpetration and victimisation in the last 12 months.ResultsCompliance was 55.7%. There were strong positive relationships between numbers of ACEs and recent violence perpetration and victimisation in both sexes. Recent violence wa...
BMC public health, Jan 26, 2018
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) including maltreatment and exposure to household stressors c... more Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) including maltreatment and exposure to household stressors can impact the health of children. Community factors that provide support, friendship and opportunities for development may build children's resilience and protect them against some harmful impacts of ACEs. We examine if a history of ACEs is associated with poor childhood health and school attendance and the extent to which such outcomes are counteracted by community resilience assets. A national (Wales) cross-sectional retrospective survey (n = 2452) using a stratified random probability sampling methodology and including a boost sample (n = 471) of Welsh speakers. Data collection used face-to-face interviews at participants' places of residence. Outcome measures were self-reported poor childhood health, specific conditions (asthma, allergies, headaches, digestive disorders) and school absenteeism. Prevalence of each common childhood condition, poor childhood health and school ab...
Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 2007
BMC Public Health, 2009
Background: There is a lack of empirical analyses examining how alcohol consumption patterns in c... more Background: There is a lack of empirical analyses examining how alcohol consumption patterns in children relate to harms. Such intelligence is required to inform parents, children and policy relating to the provision and use of alcohol during childhood. Here, we examine drinking habits and associated harms in 15-16 year olds and explore how this can inform public health advice on child drinking. Methods: An opportunistic survey of 15-16 year olds (n = 9,833) in North West England was undertaken to determine alcohol consumption patterns, drink types consumed, drinking locations, methods of access and harms encountered. Cost per unit of alcohol was estimated based on a second survey of 29 retail outlets. Associations between demographics, drinking behaviours, alcohol pricing and negative outcomes (public drinking, forgetting things after drinking, violence when drunk and alcohol-related regretted sex) were examined. Results: Proportions of drinkers having experienced violence when drunk (28.8%), alcohol-related regretted sex (12.5%) and forgetting things (45.3%), or reporting drinking in public places (35.8%), increased with drinking frequency, binge frequency and units consumed per week. At similar levels of consumption, experiencing any negative alcohol-related outcome was lower in those whose parents provided alcohol. Drunken violence was disproportionately associated with being male and greater deprivation while regretted sex and forgetting things after drinking were associated with being female. Independent of drinking behaviours, consuming cheaper alcohol was related to experiencing violence when drunk, forgetting things after drinking and drinking in public places. Conclusion: There is no safe level of alcohol consumption for 15-16 year olds. However, while abstinence removes risk of harms from personal alcohol consumption, its promotion may also push children into accessing drink outside family environments and contribute to higher risks of harm. Strategies to reduce alcohol-related harms in children should ensure bingeing is avoided entirely, address the excessively low cost of many alcohol products, and tackle the ease with which it can be accessed, especially outside of supervised environments.
Addictive Behaviors, 2007
Child Development, 2000
Previous research has suggested both links and differences between children's copying of line dia... more Previous research has suggested both links and differences between children's copying of line diagrams and their drawings of solid objects. If the diagram represents a familiar object, children make more errors than when copying a diagram of a nonobject or unfamiliar object, as if they are drawing from their representation of the object rather than copying the surface features of the diagram. However, copying a diagram yields fewer and different types of errors than drawing the equivalent solid, which suggests a different process. In Experiment 1 (n ϭ 72), possible relations between copying and drawing are investigated by asking children to draw a solid cube, then to copy or trace a line diagram of the cube in oblique projection, and finally to draw the solid again. Copying was better than drawing, and there was positive transfer to a subsequent drawing. Tracing was very accurate, but transfer to drawing did not occur, possibly because of the automatic nature of tracing. In Experiment 2 (n ϭ 120) different groups received versions of the copying task that differed in the extent to which temporal order of line copying was structured. Asking children to copy the lines in a systematic order led to improved copies, but this performance did not carry over to a subsequent drawing of the solid. In contrast, when temporal ordering of line copying was not manipulated, there was positive transfer from copying to the subsequent drawing. In Experiment 3 (n ϭ 80), provision of structure that emphasized faces by color-groupings of lines or coloring faces led to improved copies and did not hinder transfer to drawing the solid. Experiment 4 (n ϭ 90) showed that in a solid drawing task emphasis on faces but not edges produced a positive effect, both on the immediate drawing and on a subsequent drawing of a plain cube. We conclude that emphasis on order of line copying improves performance in a copying task because in that case line-to-line matching is an important element of the skill, whereas this does not aid drawing of the solid object, in which the focus is primarily on representation of faces and their interrelations.
BMJ, 2020
Anderson and colleagues discuss the need to mitigate the longer term effects of the covid-19 pand... more Anderson and colleagues discuss the need to mitigate the longer term effects of the covid-19 pandemic in an equitable way.1 Plans for the United Kingdom need to tackle the triple public health challenge it faces from covid-19, climate change, and Brexit. The pandemic and measures to control it are exposing interwoven relationships between wellbeing, inequalities, the economy, the environment, and society as …
BMJ Open, 2018
ObjectivesTo examine if, and to what extent, a history of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) co... more ObjectivesTo examine if, and to what extent, a history of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) combines with adult alcohol consumption to predict recent violence perpetration and victimisation.DesignRepresentative face-to-face survey (n=12 669) delivered using computer-assisted personal interviewing and self-interviewing.SettingDomiciles of individuals living in England and Wales.ParticipantsIndividuals aged 18–69 years resident within randomly selected locations. 12 669 surveys were completed with participants within our defined age range.Main outcome measuresAlcohol consumption was measured using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C) and childhood adversity using the short ACEs tool. Violence was measured using questions on perpetration and victimisation in the last 12 months.ResultsCompliance was 55.7%. There were strong positive relationships between numbers of ACEs and recent violence perpetration and victimisation in both sexes. Recent violence wa...
BMC public health, Jan 26, 2018
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) including maltreatment and exposure to household stressors c... more Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) including maltreatment and exposure to household stressors can impact the health of children. Community factors that provide support, friendship and opportunities for development may build children's resilience and protect them against some harmful impacts of ACEs. We examine if a history of ACEs is associated with poor childhood health and school attendance and the extent to which such outcomes are counteracted by community resilience assets. A national (Wales) cross-sectional retrospective survey (n = 2452) using a stratified random probability sampling methodology and including a boost sample (n = 471) of Welsh speakers. Data collection used face-to-face interviews at participants' places of residence. Outcome measures were self-reported poor childhood health, specific conditions (asthma, allergies, headaches, digestive disorders) and school absenteeism. Prevalence of each common childhood condition, poor childhood health and school ab...
Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 2007
BMC Public Health, 2009
Background: There is a lack of empirical analyses examining how alcohol consumption patterns in c... more Background: There is a lack of empirical analyses examining how alcohol consumption patterns in children relate to harms. Such intelligence is required to inform parents, children and policy relating to the provision and use of alcohol during childhood. Here, we examine drinking habits and associated harms in 15-16 year olds and explore how this can inform public health advice on child drinking. Methods: An opportunistic survey of 15-16 year olds (n = 9,833) in North West England was undertaken to determine alcohol consumption patterns, drink types consumed, drinking locations, methods of access and harms encountered. Cost per unit of alcohol was estimated based on a second survey of 29 retail outlets. Associations between demographics, drinking behaviours, alcohol pricing and negative outcomes (public drinking, forgetting things after drinking, violence when drunk and alcohol-related regretted sex) were examined. Results: Proportions of drinkers having experienced violence when drunk (28.8%), alcohol-related regretted sex (12.5%) and forgetting things (45.3%), or reporting drinking in public places (35.8%), increased with drinking frequency, binge frequency and units consumed per week. At similar levels of consumption, experiencing any negative alcohol-related outcome was lower in those whose parents provided alcohol. Drunken violence was disproportionately associated with being male and greater deprivation while regretted sex and forgetting things after drinking were associated with being female. Independent of drinking behaviours, consuming cheaper alcohol was related to experiencing violence when drunk, forgetting things after drinking and drinking in public places. Conclusion: There is no safe level of alcohol consumption for 15-16 year olds. However, while abstinence removes risk of harms from personal alcohol consumption, its promotion may also push children into accessing drink outside family environments and contribute to higher risks of harm. Strategies to reduce alcohol-related harms in children should ensure bingeing is avoided entirely, address the excessively low cost of many alcohol products, and tackle the ease with which it can be accessed, especially outside of supervised environments.
Addictive Behaviors, 2007
Child Development, 2000
Previous research has suggested both links and differences between children's copying of line dia... more Previous research has suggested both links and differences between children's copying of line diagrams and their drawings of solid objects. If the diagram represents a familiar object, children make more errors than when copying a diagram of a nonobject or unfamiliar object, as if they are drawing from their representation of the object rather than copying the surface features of the diagram. However, copying a diagram yields fewer and different types of errors than drawing the equivalent solid, which suggests a different process. In Experiment 1 (n ϭ 72), possible relations between copying and drawing are investigated by asking children to draw a solid cube, then to copy or trace a line diagram of the cube in oblique projection, and finally to draw the solid again. Copying was better than drawing, and there was positive transfer to a subsequent drawing. Tracing was very accurate, but transfer to drawing did not occur, possibly because of the automatic nature of tracing. In Experiment 2 (n ϭ 120) different groups received versions of the copying task that differed in the extent to which temporal order of line copying was structured. Asking children to copy the lines in a systematic order led to improved copies, but this performance did not carry over to a subsequent drawing of the solid. In contrast, when temporal ordering of line copying was not manipulated, there was positive transfer from copying to the subsequent drawing. In Experiment 3 (n ϭ 80), provision of structure that emphasized faces by color-groupings of lines or coloring faces led to improved copies and did not hinder transfer to drawing the solid. Experiment 4 (n ϭ 90) showed that in a solid drawing task emphasis on faces but not edges produced a positive effect, both on the immediate drawing and on a subsequent drawing of a plain cube. We conclude that emphasis on order of line copying improves performance in a copying task because in that case line-to-line matching is an important element of the skill, whereas this does not aid drawing of the solid object, in which the focus is primarily on representation of faces and their interrelations.