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No health care professional in Canada should be without a clear understanding of the Canadian health care system! Health and Health Care Delivery in Canada, 2nd Edition explores the nation's basic approach to health, wellness, and illness. Set entirely within a Canadian context, this text includes coverage of individual and population health, the role of federal agencies and provincial governments, health care funding, and current issues and future trends in health care. Written by experienced educator and nurse practitioner, Valerie Thompson, this textbook is ideal for all students beginning a career in health care. Clear, easy-to-understand approach to health care in Canada begins with an overview of health, wellness, and illness and proceeds through the fundamentals of the Canadian health care system, such as population health, ethical and legal issues, health care funding and principles, practice settings, and changing trends. Learning Outcomes outline the knowledge that you should gain in each chapter. Key Terms open each chapter and include page references for definitions. Student-friendly learning aids include summary tables and boxes, photographs, figures, and illustrations. Review questions at the end of every chapter test your comprehension of the material. Case examples provide real-world scenarios related to the chapter content. In The News boxes highlight landmark case law, research developments, emerging health issues, and ethical challenges. Thinking It Through questions ask you to critically consider key aspects of health and health care delivery. NEW! Coverage of issues and trends includes expanded information on mental health issues, aboriginal health, privatization, use of electronic health records, and interprofessional health care practice.

An assessment of the tree species preferences of koalas inhabiting forest and
woodland communities growing on Quaternary deposits in the Port Stephens area,
New South Wales, was undertaken between November 1994 and March 1996. Using a
plot-based methodology, 3847 trees were sampled, comprising 15
Eucalyptus species and 17 species of non-eucalypt.
Evidence of tree use by koalas, specifically the presence of koala faecal
pellets, was recorded from beneath 10 Eucalyptus species
and 9 species of non-eucalypt. Tree species preferences were determined by
analyses of log- likelihood ratios derived from data based on the
presence/absence of koala faecal pellets, rather than on gross counts.
This approach confirmed significant variation in the levels of utilisation
amongst and between different tree species, and that two in particular –
swamp mahogany (E. robusta) and drooping red gum
(E. parramattensis) – were most preferred.
Increases in the levels of use of other tree species were also positively
associated with the presence of E. robusta and/or
E. parramattensis. Levels of utilisation of
E. robusta and E. parramattensis
did not alter significantly in response to changes in their respective
densities, suggesting that the relative abundance of both was important in
terms of understanding the carrying capacity of vegetation communities
utilised by koalas. The results have established the success with which an
enumerative approach to the interpretation of faecal pellet data can be
utilised to clarify the tree species preferences of koalas. Application of the
approach for habitat assessment and mapping purposes is also discussed.

Human reasoning research using probability problem tasks offer a novel and exciting approach to understanding executive function impairments from a new perspective, such as with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD is widely associated with lowered academic performance thought to arise from executive function deficits relating to inhibition, impulsivity, and attention.1 A wealth of research in executive function tasks and neurobiological fMRI studies cite impairments with executive inhibitory control as the origin of cognitive and behavioural deficits associated with ADHD.2,3,4 By integrating research from cognitive psychology on the science of reasoning, together with knowledge of ADHD and educational psychology, this research may offer new insight into the cognitive mechanisms of executive function impairments, such as with ADHD, to better prepare educators to instruct the 5% of children diagnosed with ADHD.5 Individuals typically implement a narrow range of procedural heuristics to simplify the process of problem-solving and decision-making, rather than systematically analyzing a problem through tedious rule-based approaches.6 Heuristic short-cuts are often based on prior experiences or beliefs that, while crucial to human survival, may sometimes be erroneous in nature.7,8 According to one account of dual process theories (DPT), our early judgments are considered to be drawn from fast, experiential, intuitive processes that conform to a belief bias (or the tendency to judge conclusions according to belief, regardless of validity).9 A central feature of these faster reasoning processes is autonomy; thus, beliefs generate a rapid default response, regardless of need, which must be suppressed for deeper analysis.10 Slower secondary processes enable analytic judgments that are effortful and taxing on working memory.11 As analytic reasoning must be deliberately engaged to override the quicker belief-based appraisals, it is assumed that slower logical evaluations do not interfere with intuitive responses. However, the autonomously produced and faster belief-based judgments are able to interfere with slower, more rational thinking operations.12This master's research examined and compared the reasoning abilities of university educated adults with and without ADHD. Both groups solved 24 base-rate problems in free time that asked for the likelihood of group membership for an individual (e.g., what is the likelihood that Paul is a doctor?) when offered two pieces of conflicting information: salient base-rates (3 doctors vs. 997 nurses) and a luring, but opposing, stereotypical description (Paul lives in a beautiful home in a posh suburb, is well spoken, interested in politics, and invests a lot of time in his career). The task was coupled with an instructional manipulation that asked reasoners to respond either with beliefs (cued by the stereotypical description) or to respond statistically by way of presented base-rates. For 12 randomly generated problems, base-rates and descriptions conflicted, cueing opposing judgements. Another 12 randomly generated problems had matching base-rates and descriptions that cued identical judgements. ADHD is broadly associated difficulties in inattention and impulsivity thought to originate from primordial deficits of executive inhibition.13 Thus, it was expected that ADHD participants would perform poorly on conflict problems when deciding with statistics, as inhibitory control is required to suppress the autonomously produced intuitive response derived from beliefs. It was very surprising to observe that ADHD reasoners were superior to controls at judging with statistics and on par with controls when deciding with beliefs. This is both startling and counterintuitive, considering ADHD is predominantly linked to difficulties in inhibition, attention to necessary tasks, and using working memory effectively.14, 15, 16The literature supporting disinhibition theories of ADHD is solid, and yet ADHD participants did not demonstrate poorer reasoning abilities on a base-rate task widely assumed to require inhibitory control. This leads to the conclusion that perhaps base-rate problems do not measure inhibitory control, as is assumed.17 The fact that both groups were better at reasoning with statistics relative to beliefs challenges the assumption that base-rate processing even requires deeper analytic processing. It may be that humans have a probabilistic intuition for processing base-rates spontaneously; 18 thus, suppression of an early, yet unfavourable response is not required. A second finding is that ADHD reasoners were on par with controls in solving problems with beliefs. This reveals that ADHD reasoners are just as capable of encoding lengthy and ambiguous information as their non-ADHD peers, despite recognized cognitive deficits. The third and most important finding is that ADHD reasoners were significantly better than controls when solving base-rate problems with statistics. This unexpected result raises the question of why this pattern emerged for ADHD thinkers. One hypothesis is that ADHD thinkers implemented a cost-effective cognitive strategy when clear, salient numerical information (base-rates) was offered that could be easily extracted for problem-solving. This strategy, however, was ineffective when resolving problems under the belief instruction that entailed the decoding of lengthy descriptive information.The hypothesis of strategy use by ADHD reasoners was confirmed by comparing response latencies for both groups. For conflict problems, both groups required similarly longer response latencies to resolve problems with beliefs as compared to statistics. This corroborates that solving with statistics was easier than with beliefs, which contradicts serial models of DPTs. However, when solving non-conflict problems with beliefs – a task that should have been relatively easy as base-rates and descriptions cue the same response – the ADHD group required significantly more time than controls. This clearly evidences that ADHD participants have developed cost-efficient problem-solving strategy when clear, salient information is offered that can be easily extracted to solve the problem. However, they misapply this strategy to non-conflict problems when simple shortcuts could be used much more effectively. The over-application of this strategy on non-conflict problems resulted in longer latencies for the more difficult belief instruction.The results evidence that ADHD university students are able to implement problem-solving strategies to overcome cognitive deficits when salient and easily extractable information is presented. This finding is vital for developing effective pedagogies relating to classroom instruction for students with ADHD. However, students must also be educated on the appropriate application of these strategies. Further comparative investigations related to ADHD and reasoning are vital to better understand the capacity for strategic learning in individuals with ADHD, leading to better more informed instructional approaches.

Gambling impacts upon the health, wellbeing and finances of many people throughout Australia. This study aimed to explore the socioeconomic and cultural factors linked with gambling in urban and remote Indigenous settings in the Northern Territory to inform the development of a gambling public health strategy. The Aboriginal and Islander Mental Health Initiative developed a semi‐structured questionnaire with Aboriginal partner organisations following consultation. Indigenous consumers of substance use treatment facilities participated in focus group discussions and key informant interviews were conducted with nine service providers at two time points, a year apart. Participants described key strengths in community as family, health and culture, while key worries included substance misuse, health concerns and family disharmony. Regulated gambling and card playing were also identified as important community worries. Financial and family concerns and addictive behaviour were seen as negative consequences of gambling. There was increasing concern linked with card playing and electronic gaming machines and an increased call for awareness campaigns, support from government for change and greater regulation. The findings of this study provide the most recent insight into attitudes, behaviours and consequences linked with Indigenous gambling in the Northern Territory.

Introduction
Black and Hispanic adults are disproportionately burdened by cardiometabolic disorders. The aim of this systematic review was to examine the effectiveness of mobile health technologies to promote disease prevention and self-management among US adults in diverse communities.


Methods
Potential studies were identified using a comprehensive search of the PubMed and EMBASE databases for recent studies published from December 2018 through 2021. Keywords and search strategies were established to focus on health disparity populations and the application of mobile health technology for cardiovascular disease risk reduction. Titles and abstracts were assessed and, if a study was eligible, 2 independent reviewers completed a full-length review with extraction in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.


Results
A total of 13 studies met our inclusion criteria. Study sample sizes ranged from 8 to 533 baseline participants. Studies were conducted in diverse communities (eg, North Carolina and California). Most studies used mobile applications (n=11) and a majority used accelerometers or similar technologies (eg, smartwatches) to assess changes in dietary behavior, blood pressure control, and physical activity. Overall, studies reported positive associations between mobile technology use and risk factor reduction actions and behaviors. Long-term adherence varied across studies. Those that prioritized culturally tailored approaches reported more significant impacts than those that did not.


Conclusions
Evidence suggests that mobile technology may be useful in promoting disease self-management and risk reduction among populations at higher risk of cardiometabolic diseases. The use of mobile health technologies, particularly when tailored to target populations, may be a practical approach to advancing population health equity.

Written by a highly respected team of authors brought together by the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP), this book provides accessible insights into pressing social problems in the United States in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and proposes public policy responses for victims and justice, precarious populations, employment dilemmas and health and well-being