Examining data on the recent health care legislation, we demonstrate that public opinion polls on health care should be treated with caution because of item nonresponse--or "don't know" answers--on survey questions. Far from being the great equalizer, opinion polls can actually misrepresent the attitudes of the population. First, we show that respondents with lower levels of socioeconomic resou...

Greece has the highest smoking prevalence in the European Union, with adolescents having high levels of exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS). In July 2009, national smokefree legislation was implemented in Greece. This study explored Greek young people's attitudes to smoking, SHS and the impending legislation. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were undertaken with 11 groups of 14- to 16-year...

This article looks at how privacy legislation in Canada may interfere with patient care and the use of electronic health records. A review of the literature shows that legislation across Canada is not uniform and varies to the degree in which it addresses issues of privacy and confidentiality. What is not clear is what impact legislation has on the movement towards electronic health records? A ...

BACKGROUND In this paper we review the relationship between participation in legislative hearings, the use of ideological arguments, and the strength of public health legislation using a theoretical construct proposed by E. E. Schattschneider in 1960. Schattschneider argued that the breadth and types of participation in a political discussion could change political outcomes. METHODS We test S...

Australian health practitioner registration is national, whereas legislation regarding the handling of medicines is governed by individual States and Territories. To align with the July 2010 national registration scheme some legislative modifications were made concerning scheduled drugs and poisons, but many differences between jurisdictions remain. In Queensland, the Health (Drugs and Poisons)...

1. Legal Documentation and its Sources Legal documentation seems to be particularly suitable for hypertext applications because it deals with texts which by their very nature are highly correlated, both explicitly and implicitly: legislation refer to other legislation, court decisions interpret legislation or refer to other decisions, legal authority comments both case law and legislation. Ther...

Trade in wildlife brings into play a variety of legislation from several distinct areas of law. Many species of wildlife are subject to restrictions on international movement with the aim of protecting wild populations from over-exploitation. Animal health legislation is strictly applied to the movement of most animals to prevent the spread of infectious diseases between importing and exporting...

"Legislation" has a federal connotation these days, and for a very good reason: while there are notable exceptions, the general trend in health legislation has been from a local to a state to a national level. With this trend, there has been a continuous expansion of governmental participation in health service programs. It may be profitable to discuss some of the social changes that have led u...

In the 1980's and 1990's HIV/AIDS was the emerging infectious disease. In 2003-2004 we saw the emergence of SARS, Avian influenza and Anthrax in a man made form used for bioterrorism. Emergency powers legislation in Australia is a patchwork of Commonwealth quarantine laws and State and Territory based emergency powers in public health legislation. It is time for a review of such legislation and...

Health information exchanges (HIEs) are expected to facilitate collaboration between healthcare entities and improve efficiency and quality of care through enhanced information sharing capabilities. Privacy concerns have been consistently cited as one of the primary challenges to HIE development and adoption. Currently, it is unclear how privacy laws – in particular, legislation restricting the...