This thesis is a subset of a larger “parent” project under the direction of my supervisor, Dr. Cecilia Benoit. The purpose of the larger project is to seize an unique research opportunity that has emerged with the development and implementation of the HerWay Home (HWH) program, a community-based initiative for pregnant and early parenting women who face substance use and other challenges in the Greater Victoria Area. My research has capitalized on the pre-implementation phase of the HWH program between 2010-2011. Thirteen in-person semi-structured interviews were conducted with women who would likely be clients for the HWH program, based on their pregnancy experiences, substance use concerns and other life challenges. The goal of this research has been to explore these women’s pregnancy and postpartum narratives and investigate what, in their view, should be crucial components of the HWH intervention in the short and longterm. My findings indicate that, consistent with the literature on pregnant and early parenting women facing substance use and other life challenges, a range of complex, intertwined disadvantages exist in their lives that translate into multiple barriers to accessing continuous health and social care during their pregnancy and after the birth of their child. An adapted model of the Health Lifestyle Theory is used to frame the analysis of the data collected from this research. The results from this research support the argument that the life choices of the participants are constrained by structural life chances and socially determined inequities that systematically disadvantage and disempower them. The findings also reveal an implicit sense of agency in the women’s narratives, as well as key specifics about what they view as the main gaps in care and their desired program services. The findings will be relayed to HWH organizers, and used to inform the development and implementation of the program’s services. / Graduate

In this thesis you will find guidelines of healthy lifestyle concerning pregnancy and motherhood, which will serve as a handbook for parents-to-be. I will mainly focus on recommendations for the right eating habits and appropriate sports for expectant mothers. I won?t also leave out the mental health issue, where will be tips and suggestions for improvement of the mental state of the parents. In this text there are listed some organizations which deals with the parents' education in the area of healthy lifestyle. They are chosen to provide quality information for expectant parents. You will find here also the results of research concerning the change of attitudes of parents during their parenthood, which were obtained from a questionnaire that was sent to the Parent Centers in the Czech Republic. Thanks to this questionnaire you will find the attitude of parents to the questions of tuition on primary schools concerning the healthy lifestyle, they underwent.

(in English): The aim of this dissertation is to characterize linguistic devices of contemporary French in the technical field of maintaining a healthy diet based on an analysis of texts from this communicative field. The work is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on defining the field of nutrition and theoretical foundations needed for textual analysis. Technical discourse is characterized in terms of its composition and linguistic devices such as morphosyntactic means and technical vocabulary. The second part defines the types of texts by the addressee, which classifies professional theoretical texts, practical scientific texts, educational texts and didactic texts. Each text is analyzed in terms of the pragmatic plane, discursive plane, notice plane, and then by morfosyntactic and lexical devices. Before the analysis itself, the methodology is defined and sets the different planes of analysis.

This thesis deals with the healthy lifestyle of parents of children with disabilities. The aim of the work, which is divided into four parts, is to analyze specifically set thematic parts related to the lives of families of children with disabilities and to create a relatively comprehensive synthesis mapping and reflecting on the given issue programmatically from various perspectives. The thesis also points out neglected connections in the life of parents of children with disabilities and stereotypes and prejudices of society.

Morbidity due to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) has become a worldwide epidemic. As a result, the United Nations (2015) Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs) included goal (3.4) that aims to reduce the premature mortality from NCDs by one third. All countries, regardless of income, are required to develop strategies and achieve a reduction in the burden of NCDs. This study, conducted in the Sultanate of Oman, aimed to explore individuals' knowledge, perceptions, actions and intentions to modify their lifestyle to reduce their risk of stroke. The Health Belief Model (HBM) was used as the underpinning theoretical framework to provide a broader conceptual understanding of the Omani sociocultural and structural influences on individuals' lifestyles. A convergent mixed methods design within a realist social constructionism methodology was used. Both quantitative (344 questionnaires) and qualitative (10 interviews) data were integrated using a narrative weaving approach. The study results confirm that both agency and structure influenced the adoption of healthy behaviours in Oman. The study indicates that the study participants are likely to engage in health-related behaviours when they perceived the benefit of such a course of actions in term of it reducing their risk of stroke. The study found that in the Omani setting, individual factors such as fear, family experience and physical sickness, the psychological status of chronic conditions and a cost-benefit analysis of the behaviour influence the individuals' decisions to practise a healthy lifestyle. The major finding in the study showed that perceptions of risk vary among individuals who share the same culture and religion, particularly individual perception of religious belief was found to influence their susceptibility to stroke risk. In addition, the study identified some sociocultural and structural factors that influenced the individuals' decisions to engage in a healthy lifestyle. This study presents an extended HBM to incorporate the role of individual religious beliefs as an individual factor. The study suggests that health improvement plans are needed in Oman to develop both individual- and community- level interventions to achieve the target of SDGs for NCDs.

This thesis is focused on consumers' perceptions. It concentrates specifically on the perception of fresh and processed cheeses in terms of health.. The thesis deals with choice of a healthy lifestyle and how it influences consumer behavior and choice of products, which consumers use to present selected lifestyle to their surroundings The paper summarizes the theoretical knowledge of consumer's behavior, what effects it has on his behavior and how the patterns in consumer's mind are created. Using qualitative research and its analysis, the thesis tries to expose consumers' attitude toward the health phenomenon, how are the processed and fresh cheeses perceived in terms of health and how the consumption of processed cheese identifies with the concept of a healthy lifestyle. As a method of qualitative research were used focus groups and in-depth interviews.

Medical and economic costs for obesity are estimated at $147 billion per year, yet less than 1/3 of overweight individuals successfully maintain weight loss. The literature is replete with descriptions of the problem and research on treatments, yet demonstrations of effective loss and maintenance are lacking. Missing is an understanding of the experiences of individuals who successfully maintained healthy weight loss, which could provide insights regarding effective psycho-social interventions. The purpose of this qualitative narrative study was to explore key events and experiences in the lives of former weight cyclers. The primary phenomena of interest included weight cycling and sustained weight loss. Self-determination theory (SDT) and social cognitive theory (SCT) provided the theoretical frameworks to explore concepts like autonomy, mastery, and vicarious learning, which are known to be associated with recovery from other addictions (e.g., smoking cessation, weight loss). Using the tradition of narrative analysis, the stories of 6 formerly obese weight cyclers revealed 5 major themes: structure, strategies, relationship/support, autonomy, and identity as a fat person. Findings support SDT and SCT as meaningful frameworks for understanding how severely obese individuals can attain successful weight maintenance. Findings from this study revealed elements not fully addressed by these theories, such as resilience, the diverse orientations to the problem, and overarching themes common to all participants. Findings can be used to place greater emphasis on psychological components such as autonomy, mastery, and relatedness, which are necessary for successful remission. Findings may contribute to reducing direct and related costs of obesity and improving quality of life for individuals and their families.

The purpose of the study was to determine and estimate health and physical capability of sportsmen and non sportsmen students and persons who practice healthy lifestyle. The goals were: 1) to determine, how do the control groups estimates their own health; 2) to compare the health linked values of the groups (arterial blood pressure, body mass index); 3) to detect spread of various diseases in the control groups; 4) to estimate and determine aerobic capability of the control groups; 5) to estimate and determine links between physical capability and health of control groups. There were 6 control groups. Persons were grouped by sex and activity. We used these methods: questioning, 2 km walking test. The results showed that sportsmen students and persons who practice healthy lifestyle estimated their health better in comparison with non sportsmen students. Sporting groups had no overweight and normal arterial blood pressure, but non sportsmen student and persons who practice healthy lifestyle groups had overweight and limitary blood pressure. The main health problem in sportsmen groups were traumas, in non sportsmen groups – pulmonary diseases. The best aerobic capability was found in sportsmen students groups. The lowest values of aerobic capability was in non sportsmen women and persons who practice healthy lifestyle women groups. Health and physical capability is interconnected not only physical activity but also with age.

This study determined whether a pre-operative cardiac “pre-habilitation” (Prehab) program improves the health of elective coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery patients to a greater extent than standard care (StanC). Seventeen elective CABG patients were randomized to StanC (n= 9) or Prehab (n= 8) at Baseline and were followed at 1-2 weeks pre-operatively (Preop) and Three months post-operatively. Functional walking ability was assessed using the 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) and 5-meter Gait Speed Test. Baseline data was not different between groups. Patients in StanC did not improve 6MWT scores; whereas Prehab patients improved 6MWT distance by 35% and 39% at Preop and Three months post-operatively, respectively (p<0.05). Gait speed scores were 25% and 27% lower in Prehab patients at Preop and Three months post-operatively, respectively, as compared to StanC (p<0.05). These data suggest that Prehab is an attractive intervention for enhancing functional walking ability before and after elective CABG surgery.

This study determined whether a pre-operative cardiac “pre-habilitation” (Prehab) program improves the health of elective coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery patients to a greater extent than standard care (StanC). Seventeen elective CABG patients were randomized to StanC (n= 9) or Prehab (n= 8) at Baseline and were followed at 1-2 weeks pre-operatively (Preop) and Three months post-operatively. Functional walking ability was assessed using the 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) and 5-meter Gait Speed Test. Baseline data was not different between groups. Patients in StanC did not improve 6MWT scores; whereas Prehab patients improved 6MWT distance by 35% and 39% at Preop and Three months post-operatively, respectively (p<0.05). Gait speed scores were 25% and 27% lower in Prehab patients at Preop and Three months post-operatively, respectively, as compared to StanC (p<0.05). These data suggest that Prehab is an attractive intervention for enhancing functional walking ability before and after elective CABG surgery.