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Item Use of hormones on New Zealand dairy farms: an analysis of the results from a survey of farmers and a survey of veterinarians(Taylor and Francis Group on behalf of the New Zealand Veterinary Association, 2025-07-09) Laven RA; Cuttance EL; Chambers GAims: To survey New Zealand dairy farmers and veterinarians on their attitude and use of reproductive hormones in treating cows identified as non-cyclers. Whilst hormones have been identified as effective tools in assisting reproduction in dairy cattle, there is widespread but anecdotal concern about their cost-effectiveness and a lack of high-quality information on the attitude and practices around hormone use on New Zealand dairy farms. Methods: Electronic links to separate farmer and veterinary survey forms were sent to all dairy clients and all veterinary employees of five, convenience-selected veterinary practices across New Zealand. Using closed, open, and Likert-style questions, the surveys covered cost-effectiveness of hormonal interventions, value judgements on their use, and impact on the public perception of dairy farming. Results: Usable surveys were returned by 424 farmers and 70 veterinarians. Response rates are not known as denominator data were not sought. Of the farmers, 253/424 (60%) reported using hormone treatments, with 153 (36%) primarily using them before mating started. However, only 163 (38%) thought treatment was cost-effective, compared to 65/70 (93%) veterinarians. Beliefs around cost-effectiveness affected use: 8/171 (5%) farmers who never used hormones believed they were cost-effective, compared to 38/94 (40%) who used hormones occasionally and 117/159 (74%) who used them routinely. Other reasons put forward by farmers for not using hormones included “breeding infertility”, “not natural”, and “not treating the cause”. Farmer and veterinary opinion also varied around the trajectory of hormone use. Amongst veterinarians, 12/70 (17%) thought use should decrease compared to 271/424 (64%) farmers, while 19/70 (27%) veterinarians thought use should increase compared to 21/424 (5%) of farmers. Conclusions: The results suggest a disconnect around hormone use between the participating veterinarians and farmers. Many farmers did not believe hormone use was cost-effective, despite strong evidence to the contrary. As other reasons for not using hormones were also cited, and as most farmers believed hormone use should decrease, it seems unlikely that further education on cost-effectiveness will change practice. Rather, it could increase the proportion who think veterinarians benefit financially more from hormone use. Clinical relevance: Veterinary focus on maximising synchronisation use and efficacy is bypassing a significant proportion of dairy farmers. There is an opportunity for veterinarians to focus on what their clients want and work with them to improve herd fertility without relying on hormones to fix management problems.Item Barriers and facilitators to prescribing medicinal cannabis in New Zealand.(CSIRO Publishing on behalf of The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners, 2023-03-02) Withanarachchie V; Rychert M; Wilkins C; Goodyear-Smith FIntroduction: The New Zealand Medicinal Cannabis Scheme (NZMCS) was established in April 2020 with the aim of expanding access to quality controlled medicinal cannabis products and developing a domestic medicinal cannabis industry. Yet, two years later, many patients report challenges in utilising the NZMCS, including physicians’ reluctance to provide prescriptions for products. Aim: To explore the barriers and facilitators to prescribing medicinal cannabis in New Zealand. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 31 New Zealand physicians (general practitioners, specialists, and cannabis clinicians) who had discussed medicinal cannabis with patients in the last 6 months. Results: Physicians reported the principal barrier to prescribing medicinal cannabis was the limited clinical evidence to support cannabis therapy. Further barriers included: a perceived lack of knowledge of medicinal cannabis; concerns over professional reputation; social stigma; and the price of products. Conversely, the factors that facilitated cannabis prescribing included patients’ and physicians’ knowledge of medicinal cannabis; some physicians’ desire to avoid patients having to engage with private cannabis clinics; and the timing of prescription requests (ie considering medicinal cannabis after other treatments had been exhausted). Discussion: Further clinical research of medicinal cannabis medications, education and training, and information would support physicians to deliver more informed advice to patients and enhance professional confidence with cannabis therapies.Item Improving menstrual health literacy in sport.(Elsevier B.V., 2023-07-19) McGawley K; Sargent D; Noordhof D; Badenhorst CE; Julian R; Govus ADMenstrual health represents a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being in relation to a woman's menstrual cycle. From a health literacy perspective, knowledge acquisition and expertise are dependent upon the degree to which an individual can find, access, understand, critically analyse, and apply health information. Therefore, menstrual health literacy can be used to describe the state of knowledge acquisition and application specific to menstrual health-related issues. Menstrual health literacy is low among female athletes, their coaches, and practitioners, and few evidence-informed education or implementation strategies exist to improve menstrual health literacy in sport. Moreover, athletes seldom discuss their menstrual cycles or hormonal contraceptive use with their coaches, despite experiencing menstrual symptoms and/or disturbances and perceiving their menstrual cycles/hormonal contraceptive use to affect performance. Barriers to communication about menstrual cycle- and hormonal contraceptive-related topics include a perceived lack of knowledge among athletes, coaches, and practitioners, concerns about how conversations on these issues will affect interpersonal relationships, and a lack of formal and informal discussion forums. Whilst evidence relating to the effects of the menstrual cycle phase and hormonal contraceptive use on training and performance is currently limited, with existing studies often lacking methodological rigour, impactful steps can still be made to support female athletes. This cornerstone review highlights the current state of menstrual health literacy among athletes, coaches, and practitioners, and provides recommendations for improving menstrual health literacy in sport.Item Knowledge of Osteoporosis and Lifestyle Behaviours Impacting Peak Bone Mass among Young Adults(LIDSEN Publishing Inc., 2021-01-11) Patel H; Denison H; Zafar S; Teesdale-Spittle P; Dennison E; Marks ROsteoporosis is a major public health problem through its association with fragility fracture. Low peak bone mass (PBM) is a major contributor to later osteoporosis risk. Despite this, most studies concentrate on older people when the window of opportunity to impact PBM has passed. This study aimed to understand what adolescents and young adults understand about PBM, the risk of osteoporotic fracture and how lifestyle factors impact PBM. Such information may inform educational interventions to reduce future risk of fracture, and provide important public health benefits. New Zealand university students were approached to participate in this study. Nine focus groups of a total of 44 adolescents and young adults, mean age 22.9 (± 4.02) years of different ethnicities (29 female 15 male), were conducted using a semi-structured approach with open-ended questions and prompts. Transcripts were thematically coded using an inductive content analysis approach. Participants reported poor knowledge of PBM and factors impacting risk of osteoporotic fracture. There was a general awareness of the positive and negative impacts of many lifestyle behaviours such as physical activity, diet, tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption on health in general, but not specifically how these impact PBM and good bone health in later life. We conclude that in a cohort of New Zealand University students, current knowledge of osteoporosis and lifestyle factors that impact PBM is limited. Educational interventions in young adults are now warranted to improve PBM and prevent osteoporosis in late adulthood.Item Resisting stigma: the role of online communities in young mothers' successful breastfeeding.(BioMed Central Ltd, 2024-03-06) Severinsen C; Neely E; Hutson RBACKGROUND: Breastfeeding initiation and continuation rates are shaped by complex and interrelated determinants across individual, interpersonal, community, organisational, and policy spheres. Young mothers, however, face a double burden of stigma, being perceived as immature and incompetent in their mothering and breastfeeding abilities. In this study, we aimed to understand the experiences of young mothers who exclusively breastfed for six months and beyond and explore their experiences of stigma and active resistance through social media. METHODS: In 2020, in-depth telephone interviews about breastfeeding experiences were conducted with 44 young mothers under age 25 in Aotearoa New Zealand who breastfed for six months or longer. Participants were recruited via social media. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically. RESULTS: Analysis yielded four themes on young mothers' negotiation of breastfeeding and support. The first three themes revealed young mothers' encounters with socio-cultural contexts. They faced negative judgments about maturity and competence, adverse guidance to supplement or cease breastfeeding, and an undermining of their breastfeeding efforts. The fourth theme showed how young mothers sought alternative support in online environments to avoid negative interactions. Online spaces provided anonymity, convenience, experiential knowledge and social connections with shared values. This facilitated identity strengthening, empowerment and stigma resistance. CONCLUSION: Our research highlights the importance of online communities as a tool for young mothers to navigate and resist the societal stigmas surrounding breastfeeding. Online spaces can provide a unique structure that can help counteract the adverse effects of social and historical determinants on breastfeeding rates by fostering a sense of inclusion and support. These findings have implications for the development of breastfeeding promotion strategies for young mothers and highlight the potential of peer support in counteracting the negative impacts of stigma. The research also sheds light on the experiences of young mothers within the health professional relationship and the effects of stigma and cultural health capital on their engagement and withdrawal from services. Further research should examine how sociocultural barriers to breastfeeding stigmatise and marginalise young mothers and continue to reflect on their socio-political and economic positioning and how it can exacerbate inequities.Item Sugar-sweetened beverages consumption among New Zealand children aged 8-12 years: a cross sectional study of sources and associates/correlates of consumption(BioMed Central Ltd, 2021-12-13) Smirk E; Mazahery H; Conlon CA; Beck KL; Gammon C; Mugridge O; von Hurst PRBACKGROUND: The benefit of reducing sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption is widely accepted, but updated and in-depth data on New Zealand (NZ) children's SSB consumption is lacking. The aims of this study were to describe beverage consumption, focusing on SSBs in primary school age children living in Auckland; to examine the association of selected socio-demographic, home, community and school factors and children's beverage knowledge/attitudes with regards to beverage consumption; to explore the relationship between SSBs consumption and adiposity in children. METHODS: A cross-sectional, Auckland-wide survey of 578 school age children (8-12 years) was conducted using questionnaires to collect data on beverage consumption, beverage knowledge/attitudes, and selected socio-demographic and home, community, school factors. Body fat percentage (BF%) was assessed using bioelectrical impedance (BIA). RESULTS: Ninety-six percent of children consumed ≥1 serving of SSBs a week; with ≥5 servings reported by 62% of children. Of all SSBs assessed, consumption of ≥1 serving of sugar sweetened milk-based beverages (85%, mainly milk drinks made from powder) was most prevalent, followed by fruit juice (46%) and sugar-containing carbonated drinks (39%, mainly soft/fizzy drinks). Among unsweetened beverages, plain water was reported to be consumed < 2 times a day by 22% of children, and plain milk < 1 serving a day by 53%. Higher consumption of SSBs was associated with socio-economic disadvantage, non-NZ European ethnicities (Māori, Pacific, Asian, others), availability of SSBs in the home, frequent takeaway/convenience shop visits, children's incorrect perception of adequate SSBs consumption frequency, and higher BF% (females only). School health policy and encouragement of children to consume un-sweetened beverages was not associated with SSBs consumption. CONCLUSIONS: The consumption of SSBs is prevalent in NZ school age children, with higher consumption rates observed among those from socially disadvantaged areas. This high consumption is associated with higher BF% in females. Multi-contextual interventions to decrease SSBs should target children, and their families/environment, particularly those from socially disadvantaged areas.Item An introduction to relativity in James Joyce's Ulysses : a thesis presented in partial fulfulment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University(Massey University, 1999) Sanson, Allan EdwardUnavailable to Leopold Bloom in 1904, but front page news to Joyce as he scripted Ulysses, Albert Einstein's relativity theories superseded Sir Isaac Newton's theories about absolute space, absolute time, laws of motion, and the universal law of gravitation during the period 1905 - 1922. The opposition between Newtonian mechanics and Einsteinian relativity was played out in the newspapers of the time and incorporated anachronistically into Joyce's novel in his characterisation of Bloom, who is not only a metempsychotic reincarnation of the ancient Greek hero Odysseus, but also a metempsychotic anticipation of the greatest scientist of the twentieth century, Albert Einstein. Musing continually on the ultimate nature of time, space, motion, light, and gravitation. Bloom verges on the brink of an Einsteinian epiphany without ever quite achieving one.Item New Zealand primary school teachers' knowledge and perceptions of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Educational Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand(Massey University, 2013) Dilaimi, AliaAttention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common, unremitting, and controversial childhood disorders, which affects between 1% and 7% of New Zealand children. It leads to impairments in the individual’s key life activities, including social relations, academic, family, and vocational functioning, self sufficiency, as well as adherence to social regulations, norms, and laws. Teachers play a central role in the referral, diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of students with ADHD. Research examining teachers’ knowledge of ADHD however, has led to some uncertainty as to whether teachers have the level of knowledge about the disorder needed to support ADHD learners. The present study had two main objectives. It examined the knowledge and perceptions of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder held by primary school teachers in New Zealand and sought to determine whether teacher characteristics, such as demographic variables and experiences of students with ADHD, are associated with teachers’ knowledge of ADHD. Eighty-four primary school teachers completed a postal survey containing demographic information and the Knowledge Of Attention Deficit Disorders Scale (KADDS). Results indicated that teachers answered an average of 35% of questions correctly on the KADDS. Teachers’ scored significantly higher on the Symptoms/Diagnosis subscale compared to the Associated Features and Treatment subscales. All teachers in the present study reported that they believed ADHD impacts on the educational experiences of students diagnosed with the disorder. Most teachers had received no pre-service or in-service training about ADHD, and 90% of teachers wanted more training on ADHD. The majority of teacher characteristics examined were unrelated or only weakly related to teachers' knowledge of ADHD. However, the number of students with ADHD teachers’ had taught, participation in an individual behaviour plan (IBP), and participation in an individual education plan (IEP), were significantly and moderately related to higher KADDS total and Symptoms/Diagnosis scores. The results of this study suggest that New Zealand primary school teachers do not in fact have the level of knowledge about the disorder required to effectively participate in the referral, diagnosis, treatment, or monitoring of students with ADHD. Implications for educational psychology practice and directions for future research are discussed. Strengths and limitations of the study are also considered.Item Common-sense to academic sense : epistemological explorations into the study and processes of the act of coming to know : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand(Massey University, 1993) Baer-Doyle, Teresa F.This study takes a sociological look at how different ways of knowing are educationally determined. It explores this complex praxis by engaging in two intellectual journeys. First, (in Part I) it exposes my own moves from common-sense to academic-sense, as the topic of this thesis is formed in my personal history, but I find the methods to study it require innovative reconstruction. This realisation effects the move from psychology and Identificatory positivism to critical sociology, epistemology and a standpoint in 'the negatives'. When I realised the topic might be more authentically studied by methodologically conceding that knowledge is subject to change, difference and social determinisms, the original subject altered from a search to normatively understand 'how adults learn', to a social inquiry into how some radicalised ways of knowing are educationally mediated. Then an empirical study with epistemological underpinnings is outlined. The study is one which is critically contextualised prior to investigation, and one which negates the foregrounding and dominance of a search for truth by replacing this with the possibilities of exploring meanings. Part II reflects the intellectual journey of several selected people as they move from common-sense to academic-sense. The first chapter in this section identifies the educational histories of three typified and radicalised ways of knowing, illustrating the habituation of personal epistemic views. The second (and major) section, analyses the year-long journey of these people, by collapsing the time-frame into the single sequence of one knowledge-act. It follows their first year of study, by correspondence, in the social science faculty of a university. During this journey, the adults begin from different epistemological preferences ('standpoints' which include language, personal epistemology and social contact) and they seek different forms of knowledge from within the institution (these 'touchstones' include the conventions of scholarly conduct, course-content itself and knowledge of evaluation strategies). For each typified way of knowing, the preferred standpoint and touchstone form a critical educational relation. In the third section of Part II, the social mediation of these three educational relations is explored. What is found is that although two educational relations ('personal epistemology to course content', and 'language' to 'the conventions of scholarly conduct') are concerned with invoking either a subjectified or objectified understanding about academic ways of knowing, these knowledge-constitutive preferences were not, in the main, addressed by these university educators in their teaching practices. Instead a social-constitutive bonding (between staff and students) dominates the educators concerns. Rather than focus upon the epistemological aspects of ways of knowing, (such as 'how to be critical' or 'how to theorise'), these educators focussed upon the teaching of 'presentation protocols' (e.g. the need to prepare a bibliography) and outlining matters of evaluation (e.g. grammar, spelling, due dates, and word lengths). When this particular educational relation (between 'social contact' and 'evaluation') was radically politicised by deliberate negation of knowledge-constitutivity, it provided the framework of 'the academic game' - a minimalist approach to academic-sense effected by replacing the essence of knowledge-constitutivity with the appearances of knowing. It is suggested that should an educational institution wish to allay or negate this ideology of success which is based in the mythologies of 'the game', then it would need to focus attentions upon epistemologically defining its knowledge-constitutive understandings of 'academic-sense', and reflect these examined understandings in the mediations of its social-constitutive practices.Item Tū māia, tū pakeke, tū rangatira ngā kuia, ngā mana e pūkaha ana : ko te mātauranga Māori : he tuhinga whakapae hei whakaea i ngā whāinga mō te tohu pae tuarua i roto i te whare wānanga o Manawatū, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa(Massey University, 2010) Ormsby, Pirihira HingatuHe tika te kōrero a ō tātau tūpuna, ko te wahine te ūkaipō, ko te wahine te puna roimata, ko te wahine te puna kōrero, ko te wahine te puna mātauranga. Kei te wahine te mana ki te tuku i ngā kōrero me ngā taonga ki tēnā whakatipuranga, ki tēnā whakatipuranga e haere ake nei. Otira, i ēnei wā kua rerekē tēnei mea ko te mātauranga Māori. Kua hikina ngā whare wānanga tawhito me ngā wharemaire owhakapata, ā, kei raro tonu tātau i ngā whakahaere a te Pākehā. Ahakoa tēnei āhuatanga, ki au nei, kei ngā wāhine tonu tēnei taonga ko te mātauranga. Waimarie tātau te iwi Māori ki te manawanui o ngā pakeke o ngā kurumatarērehu, ki te noho ki ngā kura ki te ako i ngā tamariki. Kāore e tū atu i ngā kuia pakeke Māori mō ēnei mahi. Nā rātau te ringa māmā ki te poipoi, ki te awhi, ki te manaaki hoki i ngā taitamariki ki te whai i te mātauranga mai tōna takenga, ki te kōmata. Heoi, ko te pūtake o tēnei tuhinga roa, ko te whai i ngā kōrero a ngā kuia pakeke Māori kua roa nei e mahi ana i roto i te kaupapa mātauranga. Kia mōhio pū tātau ki ngā take e here nei i ngā kuia ki ngā tamariki, ki ngā kura, ki te mātauranga hoki. Kia mōhio hoki tātau ki ngā pūmanawa kei ēnei kuia i roto i te kaupapa akoako. Kia mīharo tātau ki ō rātau māia, ki ō rātau kaha, ki ō rātau aroha ki ngā tamariki katoa e hiakai ana ki ngā purapura o te mātauranga.