Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-293). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2008. / Title from file title page. Gregory L. Brack, committee chair; Catherine Brack, Ken Resnicow, Roger Weed, Jeffrey S. Ashby, committee members. Description based on contents viewed Feb. 22, 2010. Includes bibliographical references.

Major depression is a prevalent and harmful illness in the United States. About 7% of Americans experience depressive symptoms each year. Leaving depression untreated can result in poor general health and increased susceptibility to severe health risks such as suicide. Although there exists a variety of effective treatment methods for depression, the National Health and Nutrition Survey 2005-2006 reports that less than 30% of depressed individuals will be seen by a mental health care professional. It is essential that current efforts work toward encouraging depressed persons to seek treatment. A number of health promotion campaigns for mental health have tried reaching depressed individuals with little success. Created through a series of projects conducted with depressed men and women, Faces of Depression is a messaging strategy campaign that may prove highly effective with this audience. The campaign utilized video and computer program media in health clinic waiting areas to encourage patients with depressive symptoms to seek help from a primary care physician. These forms of media often capture attention; however, they also require many resources that may not be readily available at a health clinic. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether a cost-sensitive poster version of the Faces of Depression campaign would be an effective alternative to the original media. Undergraduate students completed an online survey concerning their willingness to discuss depression with a physician and their reactions to the health poster. Some had previously sought help from a mental health professional (33%), yet few had received treatment for depression (11%). However, 48% of the participants met the criteria for having current depressive symptoms. Although scores for the posters’ visual elements were low, the idea of the poster in a health clinic waiting area was well received by those currently depressed and non-depressed. Moreover, non-depressed persons were likely to indicate that they would seek help in response to the poster if experiencing depressive symptoms. The study is limited by poster design elements. Amendments to these aesthetic details would likely increase poster effectiveness. Future research should ensure that health promotion materials target those currently experiencing symptoms, especially men. / text

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of health promotion for a group of young adult African American men with invisible disabilities. This hermeneutic phenomenological study used a non-experimental, descriptive design. The purposive sample consisted of 11 young adult, English-speaking, non-institutionalized, African American men with invisible disability between the ages of 25 and 39 years of age living in the Central Texas metropolitan area. This study's research questions were answered using audio-taped, one-on-one qualitative interviews along with detailed fieldnotes. Participants were interviewed twice at a mutually decided upon location to ensure the privacy and comfort of participants. For these young men, an essential component of health promotion involved the reestablishment and reorganization of their bodies in the world while adjusting to living with disability. For them, the essential structure of health promotion was comprised of the following themes: Reconciling Perspectives of the Self, Embracing the Current Body, and Reorienting the Body in the World. Their lived experience of health promotion was reflected in the following themes: Risking the Body to Preserve the Self, Accepting the Evolving Body, and Seeking the Body's Redemption. For this group of young adult African American men, their health promotion experience required risking the body, putting the needs of the self before the needs of the body, and then accepting and valuing the resulting condition of the body. / text

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Chronic illness is endemic in the United States. Though people with chronic illnesses will not be cured, interventions can improve their well-being. Creating art as an intervention has been shown to assist people with chronic illnesses to improve well-being. Though creating art as a health promotion intervention is widespread it has not been well studied and the structure, process and outcomes of the intervention are not well understood. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe various key components of creating visual art as a healing intervention in the context of chronic illness. This study developed knowledge that will assist practitioners who use this complex intervention and researchers seeking to test its effectiveness in health promotion and healing in a chronically ill population. A qualitative descriptive design was used to explore art as a healing intervention. Photographs of art created by participants were observed, and participants were interviewed to collect data on the structure, process and outcomes of art as a healing intervention. The content and descriptive analysis of the data are used to describe the components of art as an intervention as well as the modifiers of the intervention process and the relationship of the components to each other to allow further research to be appropriately focused. Creating art is an intervention that works with a whole person to provide an opportunity for emergent change through disrupting old patterns, creating movement, and providing the opportunity for the participant to adopt new healthier patterns for living with chronic illness. Creating art does not have a predictable outcome, but rather has patient specific outcomes dependent on the patient's particular needs and individual self-organization. This study contributed to knowledge about creating art as a healing intervention by exploring various intervention components that must be explicated prior to development of program initiatives in practice and conducting systematic studies about the effectiveness of this intervention. The results of this study provide a foundation for a research career that both furthers the use of art as a healing intervention and further develops intervention theory to include complex evaluation methods.

The purpose of this discourse analysis of health promotion and healing practices was to describe their functioning historically through practices of governance and risk in the context of neoliberal society. The results portray a constructed subjectivity (identity) among citizens and residents of contemporary society who enact expected health promotion and healing behaviors.Two series of texts were analyzed from a Foucauldian perspective: the Healthy People series from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and the series on Uninsurance published by the Institute of Medicine. The findings generated five themes that comprise the reality of current illness care system rationalities:First, the U.S. illness care system, functioning through technology of insurance or wealth extraction, is dysfunctional as a comprehensive illness care delivery system.Second, health promotion and healing have been subsumed under illness care--if they are addressed it is only as discrete indices that comprise compliance monitoring.Third, micro determinants of health (such as behavioral patterns, genetic predispositions, social circumstances, shortfalls in medical care, and environmental exposures), while important, continue to be the single focus of illness care in the U.S. Conversely, macro determinants of health, contingent on macro-level economic and political structures, remain unrecognized as having any bearing on health outcomes. Macro determinants of health frame the configuration of the social infrastructure in which micro determinants of health unfold.Fourth, neoliberal ideology in the U.S. continues to be the status quo for illness care.Fifth, constructed health promotion and healing identity for individuals is one of health anomie, a new prudentialism where access to health promotion and healing has to be acquired from outside the venue of illness care.How can we become different from what we have become? While acknowledging the limitations inherent in this current discourse of heath promotion and healing, other alternatives must be explored for betterment of human health and wellbeing--such as a shift toward "care of the self" or "self care" that encompasses an embodiment of an arché health, a health that moves beyond contemporary illness discourses of mind-body, one that defies society's inscription of our subjectivity.

Background: Canadian children's physical inactivity levels are a public health concern due to their association with chronic diseases and mental health. Families are considered gatekeepers to children’s behaviours, and may influence their physical activity (PA). Purpose: To investigate the influence of family PA factors (i.e. parental PA, parents’ perspectives on family support for PA and family PA rules) on children’s PA levels and their free-play PA facility use. Methods: Kingston Gets Active distributes the Grade 5 Community PA Pass to approximately 2,500 grade 5 students in Kingston and surrounding areas yearly. The pass grants students free access to local pools (n=4), YMCA (n=1), and arenas (n=8) for recreational PA for 10 months. In fall 2006, 292 grade 5 students (54% girls; mean age=9.99, SD=0.35) from 24 elementary schools completed a baseline (BL) questionnaire that assessed demographics, children’s PA levels, PA facility use, and family support for PA. In spring 2007, 272 students completed a follow-up (FU) questionnaire with additional items assessing pass use. In spring 2007, 189 parents (83% mothers) participated in a telephone interview assessing family PA variables and community resources influencing pass and PA facility use. Results: The majority of students (69%) reported using their pass at least once; and although children’s PA did increase (t(230) = -4.91, p < .05), free-play PA facility use did not increase from BL to FU. Multiple hierarchical regression analysis indicated that individual-level variables were better predictors of children’s PA (ΔR2 = .28, F(2, 136) = 26.99, p < .001) and their free-play PA facility use (ΔR2 = .36, F(4, 151) = 21.55, p < .001) as compared to family-level PA variables (children’s PA: ΔR2 = .001, F(3, 133) = 0.089, p =.97; free-play PA facility use: ΔR2 = .007, F(3, 148) = 0.54, p =.65). Parents indicated that other social, organizational, and community factors influenced children’s free-play PA facility use. Conclusions: Children’s PA and free-play PA facility use are influenced by a multitude of interrelated factors within the socio-ecological model. More research should explore associations between family factors and children’s free-play PA facility use. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-24 02:48:17.239

Health promotion and the practice of health-promotive behaviors are significant factors in longevity and personal wellness. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between an individual's meaning of health and the practice of health-protective behaviors. Theoretical rationale was based on Pender's (1987) Health Promotion Model. Health promotion lifestyle was measured by the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP) (Walker,Sechrist, & Pender, 1985). Individual definition of health was measured by the Meaning of Health instrument (Wieseke, 1990a).The sample included skilled and unskilled employees of a 300-bed regional hospital located in the Triad area of North Carolina. Interviews were conducted with a random sample of the respondents to obtain information on themes of the expressed meanings of the Health Concept. Significance of this study lies in determining individuals' motivation to practice health-protective behaviors and also in determining individuals' definition of health. Identification of lifestyle and health behaviors will help nurses and other health care workers determine what motivates an individual to perform health-protective behaviors.The results revealed a significant (p<.05) relationship between the level of overall functioning of all six subscales of the HPLP. Participation in health promoting behaviors was significantly related to physical sensation overall with a level of significance at p<.05. Participation in health-promoting behaviors was significantly related to emotional level overall with a level of significance at p<.01. There was no significance between age group and the HPLP.The conclusions drawn from this study were that the subjects were self-actualized and emotionally stable. The subjects take responsibility for health but do not take advantage of opportunities to monitor health. / School of Nursing