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Thesis (M.A.)--Marshall University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 52 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-52).

In the U.S., youth experience health problems due to inadequate eating behaviors. In terms of physical environmental factors and social environmental factors, youth encounter problems with accessing good foods, as do other age groups. The purpose of this study is to find the relationship between youths’ eating behavior, especially patterns of visiting food resources, and the availability of food resources by food type and socioeconomic background in Providence, Rhode Island. In order to test the relationship between the availability of food resources and socioeconomic situation and children’s eating behaviors, several statistical models are developed. The models are based on the multinomial logistic regression model. Students’ activity data were obtained from a survey in Teen Activity and Transportation Enterprise Project (TATE) under direction of Dr. Talia McCray from September 2006 to May 2007. The food resources location data are collected from the Providence Plan and the Yellow Pages in Rhode Island. The multinomial logistic model shows that the availability of healthy food resources within walking distance from home, frequency to visit food resources, gender, employment status, and race significantly affect access to unhealthy food resources (p < 0.05). The availability of unhealthy foods within walking distance, the number of members living in the household, the number of cars in household, students born in the U.S.A, and the father born in the U.S.A, are not significant. In terms of availability of healthy foods around the home location, number of healthy food resources matter. / text

Numerous researchers have explored the benefit of creative activities for the aging population diagnosed with dementia. However, there is a lack of data available to community administrators and organizers of senior residences about how successful aging may be enhanced, in the relatively healthy older adults, through their participation in creative art-making. Activities that provide mental stimulation, facilitate expression of emotions, and that are related to overall psychological well-being can provide a foundation for healthy aging. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to explore older adults' subjective experience of engaging in creative artwork. The conceptual framework that guided this phenomenological study was based on Lazarus's cognitive-emotional-relational theory of emotions. The focus of the research questions was on the subjective experience of 10 older adults who participated in 7 weekly art sessions offered at a senior residence. Audiotaped interviews that were held after the last art-making session, together with participants' artwork and field notes, were analyzed, coded, and then categorized into themes. Results indicated the participants learned they can be creative, and that their images became a visual inroad to meaningful expression of emotions, insight, and motivation. The results point to evident social change when community organizers and administrators of senior residences increase activities for residents, especially meaningful activities designed to facilitate expression of emotions and insight during later life. Creative image-making activities can lead to continued learning, heightened social interactions, increased mental fitness, reduced depression, and enhanced healthy aging.

Despite widespread health promotion and nutrition education efforts, gaps between official healthy eating messages and people’s actual eating practices persist. There is increasing recognition that emphasizing individual responsibility for eating may have limited applicability in improving people’s health. Many experts advocate that future research on healthy eating should involve exploration of how food practices are shaped by social structures (or determinants) and individual agency. The purpose of this study was to explore the ways in which people engage with food structures to construct everyday notions of healthy eating. ‘Food structures’ draws on the concept of ‘structure,’ described by the social theorist Anthony Giddens, to refer to the range of food rules and resources people draw on. The research was conducted as part of a qualitative study on family food decision-making that included 144 participants from 13 African Nova Scotian, 10 European Nova Scotian, 12 Punjabi British Columbian and 11 European British Columbian families. These groups were chosen for their potential differences in perspectives based on place, ethnocultural background and histories of immigration to Canada. Data collection consisted of individual interviews with three or more family members aged 13 and older, and, with each family, observation of a grocery shopping trip and a family meal. Analysis followed common qualitative procedures including coding, memoing and thematic analysis. Together, the analyses support views that the gaps between official healthy eating messages and people’s eating practices may not be closed by further education about how to eat. Drawing on the theoretical concepts of Anthony Giddens and Michael Foucault, the findings suggest that one way to understand why people eat the way they do and how changes in eating habits occur is to think about the constant exposure to change through everyday, taken-for-granted practices. The findings also suggest that further healthy eating discourses may require more reflection with respect to the roles of nutrition educators and the social roles/autonomy of people in goals for health and well-being. Dietary goals for the population cannot be considered as isolated scientific objectives without taking into consideration how healthy eating discourses provide social standards beyond messages about healthy eating.

Žalingų įpročių paplitimo mastai tampa didžiausią grėsmę visuomenės raidai ir gyvenimo kokybei keliančia prioritetine sveikatos ir socialinės politikos dalimi. Lietuvoje atlikta nemažai tyrimų, nagrinėjančių sveikų jaunuolių požiūrį ir polinkį į narkotines medžiagas. Ta��iau tam tikrų grupių jaunuolių, šiuo atveju jaunuolių, turinčių klausos negalę, pozicija žalingų įpročių atžvilgiu beveik nenagrinėta . / The spread of addiction is becoming a priority in the health and social policy, as it poses a threat to the development of the society and the quality of life. Quite a few studies have been carried out in Lithuania analysing the attitude and inclination of healthy young people to drugs. However, the position of certain youth groups, in this case – the position of youth with hearing disability, regarding addiction remains hardly ever analysed. As a result, it is quite difficult to get an idea about the specific character and maladies of life led by this group of young people.

Syfte: Att beskriva föräldrars upplevelser av att ha ett barn med övervikt samt beskriva upplevda hinder och strategier för att hjälpa dem till en sundare livsstil. Syftet var även att granska artiklarnas kvalité gällande datainsamlingsmetod. Metod: Studien var en beskrivande litteraturstudie. Femton vetenskapliga artiklar inkluderades utifrån syftet som sedan granskades och sammanställdes. Resultat: Föräldrarna upplevde stor oro över sitt barns övervikt och välmående. Flera föräldrar kände svårigheter över att prata om övervikten med sitt barn. Den största oron som uppstod hos föräldrarna berodde på barnets psykiska ohälsa. De föräldrar som kontaktade skolan eller vården för att få hjälp med sitt barns övervikt upplevde att de inte blev tagna på allvar och att de blev skuldbelagda för barnets övervikt. Dock framkom även positiva upplevelser då barnet fått både psykiskt och fysiskt stöd samt individanpassade råd. Föräldrarna upplevde hinder som ekonomi, tidsbrist, bristande intresse för fysisk aktivitet samt okunskap gällande sunda levnadsvanor. Slutsats: Att vara förälder till ett överviktigt barn skapade ofta känslor av oro och skuld hos föräldrarna, de upplevde även svårigheter med att stödja barnet till sunda levnadsvanor. Därför var föräldrarna ofta i behov av stöd men även undervisning, individanpassad rådgivning och hjälp med att uppnå en sundare livsstil för barnet. / Purpose: To describe parents' experiences of having an overweight child, as well as to describe the experienced obstacles faced and strategies used to achieve a healthier life style. The purpose is also to examine the quality of the examined articles' in regards to their data gathering methods. Method: This was a descriptive literature study. Fifteen academic articles were chosen based on the study's purpose and then reviewed and compiled. Findings: The parents experienced strong concern for their overweight children's health. Several parents felt it difficult to talk with their children about weight. The largest concerns amongst parents were related to their child's mental health. The parents that contacted the school or health care practitioners in order to ask for help regarding their child’s weight issues felt that they were not taken seriously and felt blamed for their child's weight issues. However, there were also positive experiences in which the child received individualized physical and mental support. The parents experienced obstacles such as; financial issues, lack of time, lack of interest in physical activities, and a lack of knowledge in regards to a healthy life style. Conclusion: Parents of overweight children often experienced concern and guilt. They found it difficult to support their child in living healthy. Because of this, the parents were often in need of support as well as education, individualized counseling and help to encourage a healthier life style for their child.

Magistrinio darbo tema: „Sveikos gyvensenos įpročių ugdymas ir reklama“. Sveikatos statistikos duomenys rodo vis prastėjančią gyventojų sveikatos būklę, taip pat sveikos gyvensenos įpročių stoką: daug žmonių dažnai renkasi nesveiką maistą, naujausių technologijų dėka didžiąją dalį laiko leidžia fiziškai pasyviai (t.y. per mažai juda), o žalingi įpročiai itin sparčiai plinta paauglių gyvenime. Gyvensenos įpročių formavimui didelę įtaką turi stiprus išorės veiksnys – reklama. Lietuvoje nėra atlikta išsamių tyrimų apie reklamos poveikį vaikams ir paaugliams, todėl šis klausimas yra aktualus. Magistrinio darbo tikslas – surinkti informaciją apie tai, kokie yra sveikos gyvensenos įpročiai, kaip jie galėtų būti ugdomi ir kokį poveikį jiems turi reklama. Sveika gyvensena – tai žmogaus sveikatai daug įtakos turintis veiksnys, kurį lemia sąmoningi žmogaus elgesio veiksniai: sveika mityba, žalingų įpročių atsisakymas ir fizinis aktyvumas. Todėl sveikos gyvensenos įpročių ugdymas yra aktuali tema, apie kurią turi būti kalbama mokykloje ir kitoje socialinėje aplinkoje. Reklama – itin stiprios įtakos turintis socialinis reiškinys, sutinkamas visoje socialinėje aplinkoje. Rekalma daro didelį poveikį vartotojų mintims ir elgesiui, susijusiam su sveika gyvensena. Siekiant išsiaiškinti, kokius sveikos gyvensenos įpročius turi skirtingo amžiaus vartotojai, ir kokią įtaką jiems turi reklama, buvo atliktas anketinis tyrimas, kuriame dalyvavo 333 respondentai: 165 VII klasių moksleiviai iš... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The subject of this Master degree paper is „Education of healthy lifestyle habits and the rote of advertising”. Statistical data of health demonstrate the worsening state of people’s health usually do not have healthy lifestyle habits: the majority of people do not choose healthy food. Another bad thing is that owing to modern technologies people spend the biggest part of their lives in a practically passive way (i.e. do not move much) and additions spread fast among children and teenagers. One of the most important external factors, that plays an important role in the formation or bad habits is advertising. There is no exhaustive analysis so far about the effect of advertising on children and teenagers and that is why the problem is so acute. The aim of this thesis is to collect information about healthy lifestyle habits, how they could be developed and the role of advertising. Healthy life style is a very important factor for a person’s health. It is predetermined by the individual’s reasoned attitude to this behavior: healthy nutrition, refusing addictions and physical activity. That is why the development of healthy lifestyle habits is the subject of primary importance and young people should be informed about it at schools and other places of social gathering. Advertising is a common phenomen in our daily life and it continually influences consumers and their choice. In order to find out healthy lifestyle habits among schoolchildren and students and how advertising... [to full text]

The health of children and immigrants has been paramount to the economics literature in recent years. A strong relationship between parents’ socioeconomic status and children’s health has been well established. The vast short- and long-term consequences of children’s health outcomes, like low birth weight, have been emphasized. Similarly, empirical studies have attributed considerable importance to immigrants’ health. The healthy immigrant effect (HIE), a phenomenon where immigrants are healthier upon arrival but their health diminishes through time, has been evidenced in Canada. However, the link between children’s health and the HIE has not been made. Using birth weight as a health measure, the intergenerational transmission of the HIE through social capital is examined. With the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth this study provides robust evidence of the perpetuation of the HIE. However, social capital does not appear to be a determinant of birth weight for immigrants’ children in Canada.

The prevention of chronic disease requires understanding and intervention related to both individual and environmental level determinants. However, traditional approaches to chronic disease prevention and management have primarily been focused at the individual level, with limited attention toward environmental level influences on health behaviour. This lack of comprehensiveness is partially due to a paucity of complex theoretical frameworks for clarifying the influences of personal cognitive, and broader environmental, variables on a range of health behaviours. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to expand and test a popular health behaviour theory, Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), to include influences of the perceived food environment on healthy eating behaviour. This study involved two phases. Phase 1 expanded SCT to include a perceived food environment construct through review of the food environment literature. Phase 2 conducted a cross-sectional study of 201 adults (age 35 to 69 years) using an online survey to test the expanded SCT informed by phase 1. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling (SEM) to compare the traditional and expanded SCT model. Results demonstrated no significant model fit, with no improvement in oveall fit with the inclusion of the perceived food environment. However, the expansion of SCT to include perceived food environment attributes altered the pathways of influence within the social cognitive model, suggesting that the presence of perceived environment measures is important for understanding how perceived environments might mediate the effect of personal cognitive influences on eating behaviour. These findings have implications for food environment research, the development of ecological theories, the field of health promotion and the prevention of chronic disease.