Browsing by Author "Gonzalez-Aguero, Marcela"

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    Acceptability and feasibility of a comprehensive fall prevention model for independent older adults: A qualitative evaluation
    (2024) Marquez-Doren, Francisca; Lucchini-Raies, Camila; Alcayaga, Claudia; Bustamante, Claudia; Gonzalez-Aguero, Marcela
    Background: Falls amongst the elderly represent a global public health challenge because of their potential to cause illness, death, and reduce the autonomy of this group. They also impact the emotional, family, social and economic well-being of those involved. Various strategies to prevent falls have been reported in the literature, focusing mainly on addressing individual risk factors, and on the continuous assessment of the risk of falls in older people. Objective: This study evaluated user satisfaction and acceptability of a comprehensive model, implemented in the community, to prevent falls amongst independent older adults aged 65 years and above. It sought to capture both the perceptions of the individuals who received the intervention and of the interventionists who implemented it. The study protocol was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov in November 2020 (ID: NCT04313062). Design: Qualitative, exploratory study using a case study design. The evaluation of the intervention followed the recommendations proposed by the Medical Research Council for complex interventions. Methods and participants: In the period between April 2021 to April 2022, 11 semistructured interviews were conducted with independent older adults between 65 and 80 years of age who participated in the implementation of the comprehensive model in Santiago, Chile. Data were also collected with eight interventionists through: three semi-structured interviews at the beginning of the intervention; and two focus groups with seven interventionists at the end of the implementation of the model. The team members undertook a content analysis of the data collected. Results: Three themes emerged to account for the satisfaction and acceptability of the intervention with the model on the part of the participants and interventionists: (1) Previous experience of older persons and interventionists; (2) The older person-interventionist encounter and its context; and (3) Identification of facilitators, strengths and challenges for the implementation of the model. The results show a positive assessment of the model, highlighting the value of the social contact derived from the intervention by both participants and interventionists. Although the model involved an individual intervention, the participants' accounts indicate that it reached out to others, including family members and other elderly acquaintances. Moreover, the interventionists helped identify challenges in implementation and made recommendations to strengthen the model.
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    Inequalities in the Age of Universal Health Coverage: Young Chileans with Diabetes Negotiating for Their Right to Health
    (2020) Gonzalez-Aguero, Marcela; Chenhall, Richard; Basnayake, Prabhathi; Vaughan, Cathy
    While universal health coverage (UHC) has been praised as a powerful means to reduce inequalities and improve access to health globally, little has been said about how patients experience and understand its implementation locally. In this article, we explore the experiences of young Chileans with type 1 diabetes when seeking care in Santiago, within Chile's UHC program, which sought to improve people's access to health care. We argue that the implementation of UHC, within a structurally fragmented health system, did not lead to the promised equitable health care delivery. Although UHC aimed to equitably provide universal care, locally it materialized in heterogeneous configurations forcing individuals into positions of precarity and generating new inequalities. Furthermore, for the young people in the study, UHC intersected with their health insurance and socioeconomic status, impacting on the health care they could access, consequently making diabetes care and management a difficult challenge.
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    The vulnerabilities of skilled irregular Venezuelan migrants and entrepreneurs in Chile
    (2024) Gonzalez-Aguero, Marcela; Burcu, Oana
    In a context marked by restrictive migration policies, precarious living conditions and a neoliberal market, this article explores how Venezuelan migrants incorporated themselves into the job market through informal entrepreneurship, the challenges they faced, and sources of resilience they developed. We draw on eleven semi-structured and in-depth interviews with Venezuelan migrants who participated in a micro-entrepreneurship training program delivered by a Santiago-based NGO during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the entrepreneurship literature, vulnerability framework and thematic analysis, our findings suggest that there isn't a one-dimensional incorporation into the labour market experience among the group studied, despite similarities among the members; rather there is a dynamic intersectionality of gender, legal status, household economy and structural factors that amplify their precarity. The findings also highlight that migrants' capability of acquiring stable employment was essential to their well-being, in the absence of avenues to acquire formal employment, microenterprises became a source of motivation and resilience, providing them with a network of contacts and social support.