Using a cluster randomized controlled trial to determine the effects of intervention of battery and hardwired smoke alarms in New South Wales, Australia: Home fire safety checks pilot program.

INTRODUCTION: In 2014, Fire & Rescue New South Wales piloted the delivery of its home fire safety checks program (HFSC) aimed at engaging and educating targeted top "at risk" groups to prevent and prepare for fire. This pilot study aimed to assess the effectiveness of smoke alarms using a cluster randomized controlled trial. METHODS: Survey questionnaires were distributed to the households that had participated in the HFSC program (intervention group). A separate survey questionnaire was distributed to the control group that was identified with similar characteristics to the intervention group in the same suburb. To adjust for potential clustering effects, generalized estimation equations with a log link were used. RESULTS: Multivariable analyses revealed that battery and hardwired smoking alarm usage increased by 9% and 3% respectively among the intervention group compared to the control group. Females were more likely to install battery smoke alarms than males. Respondents who possessed a certificate or diploma (AOR=1.31, 95% CI 1.00-1.70, P=0.047) and those who were educated up to years 8-12 (AOR=1.32, 95% CI 1.06-1.64, P=0.012) were significantly more likely to install battery smoke alarms than those who completed bachelor degrees. Conversely, holders of a certificate or diploma and people who were educated up to years 8-12 were 31% (AOR=0.69, 95% CI 0.52-0.93, P=0.014) and 24% (AOR=0.76, 95% CI 0.60-0.95, P=0.015) significantly less likely to install a hardwired smoke alarm compared to those who completed bachelor degrees. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study provided evidence of the benefit of the HFSC in New South Wales. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Fire safety intervention programs, like HFSC, need to be targeted to male adults with lower level of schooling even when they are aware of their risks.

In the name of the father: conceptualizing "Pater Familias" in the letters of William the Silent's children.

For much of their childhood and adult life, the twelve surviving children of William the Silent were separated linguistically and geographically. Many of the children forged important relationships with male primary carers who were not their biological parents. This paper explores the children's correspondence with their biological father William and with paternal figures to understand competing forms of familial authority among William's children. This paper places particular interest on analysis of the gendered negotiation of paternal bonds in the letters of William's sons and daughters, as they established multiple relationships with father figures during their childhood.

Understanding household limitation strategies among the sixteenth-century urban poor in France.

This essay explores what we can learn about the household limitation behaviour and strategies of those members of sixteenth-century French society who numbered among the mass of the poor. In particular, it focuses on the evidence produced by urban poor relief councils and hospitals, as they recorded the circumstances of the poverty-stricken clientele for their administrative records, and presents some preliminary findings. Although contraceptive methods do not feature explicitly in petitions and supporting documents, it is possible to build up a modest picture from these sources of the kinds of household limitation techniques available to the urban poor. As this essay demonstrates, in some cases, these involved reproductive strategies, yet in other cases it may be more appropriate to speak of household limitation methods.

Poverty, gender and incarceration in sixteenth-century Paris.

The experience of prison remains a relatively little-studied aspect of late-medieval and early-modern criminalization of the activities of the poor. This study examines how poverty and gender influenced incarceration practices, treatment and release in sixteenth-century Paris. A study of the archives of the ecclesiastical gaol at Saint-Germain-des-Prés from 1537 to 1579 suggests that both poverty and gender affected the crimes for which women and men were imprisoned, the length of time they remained in detention and the reasons for their release.

Women's little secrets: defining the boundaries of reproductive knowledge in sixteenth-century France. Society for the social history of medicine student essay competition winner, 1999.

Although there has been much recent work on the contribution of midwives to early modern medical practice, there has been less investigation of the participation of other women outside of the corporative or professional medical arena. This article seeks to examine how élite women were involved in medical discussion of reproduction, using the sixteenth-century correspondence surrounding the reproductive health of Elisabeth de Valois, Queen of Spain. Letters passed between the courts of France and Spain demonstrate that control of Elisabeth's reproductive health became a source of conflict between the Spanish and French. National rivalries created possibilities for women to be authoritative contributors in medical discussion with the support of university-trained physicians.