Association of social roles, health, and health behavior of elderly women in Croatia.

AIM: To explore the association between the social role and objective and subjective health measures and use of health care services in the population of women older than 65 years in Croatia. METHODS: We used the data from the 2003 Croatian Adult Health Survey (Short Form 36 Health Survey). Two sub-populations, retired women and housewives aged over 65 years, were analyzed and compared according to anthropometric measures, health self-assessment, utilization of health care services, and socioeconomic status. RESULTS: The final sample consisted of 791 housewives and 1151 retired women. Housewives had larger waist circumference (98.44+/-13.9 vs 96.49+/-13.5, P=0.002, t test) and higher systolic blood pressure (152.88+/-25.2 vs 147.79+/-22.8, P<0.001, t test). On self health assessment, housewives had lower index on Mental Component Summary (MCS) (40.28+/-12.5 vs 42.96+/-12.4, P<0.001, t test). They also had lower self-assessed quality of life (40.28+/-12.5 vs 42.96+/-12.4, P<0.001, t test). Housewives performed regular breast check-ups significantly less often in the 12 months before the survey (7.5% vs 13.6%, chi2=18.0350, P<0.001), but they performed other forms of medical examinations, including general physical check-ups as often as retired women. CONCLUSION: Housewives differed from retired women of the same age in objective and subjective measures of health status, use of health care services, self perceived health, and self-assessed quality of life. These differences should be taken into account when planning public health measures for these age groups of women.

Involuntary hospitalisation and the rights of mental patients in recent Croatian legislation.

This paper presents and critically analyses the provisions of the Croatian Act of 1998 on the Protection of Persons with a Mental Illness relating to involuntary hospitalisation and the rights of psychiatric patients. This analysis also encompasses the amendments and supplements of 1999. The paper identifies the problems that have arisen in the application of this Act and discusses the causes of these problems. The paper concludes that the passing of new psychiatric legislation or any radical reform of the existing legislation must be preceded by a comprehensive discussion by professionals, scientists and the broader public, which would result in the passing of legislation which can be implemented in terms of organisation, staffing and financing. Without this, any new psychiatric legislation, even if it met the highest international legal standards, would be exposed to the danger of being merely declarative, which would bring most harm to mental patients themselves.