Abstract Dental diseases such as dental caries and periodontal disease could well be seen as being behaviour-related. The high prevalence of periodontal disease in the Finnish adult population mirrors the need for improving oral health behaviours in a comprehensive manner. Thus far, scant attention has been drawn to the underlying psycho-social factors that could, in part, explain oral health and oral health behaviours. Deficiencies in oral health behaviour may also be indicative of an individual's poor health behaviour in general. The aim of this study was to introduce the salutogenic approach, called sense of coherence, into the domain of oral health and health behaviour. The present study uses data from the nationally representative Health 2000 survey carried out in 2000–2001 by the National Public Health Institute of Finland. The subjects of this study numbered 4175 in article I, 4131 in article II, 4039 in article III, and 4096 in article IV, and were 30- to 64-year-old dentate men and women. The cross-sectional data was collected via home interviews, self-administered questionnaires, or clinical examinations. Sense of coherence was positively associated with oral health behaviours, such as dental attendance and tooth-brushing frequency. In addition to tooth-brushing frequency, sense of coherence was also positively associated with the level of oral hygiene. The association between sense of coherence and level of oral hygiene weakened only marginally after controlling for tooth-brushing frequency. A strong sense of coherence was strongly associated with a positive oral health-related quality of life (OHIP). Sense of coherence was also associated with all of the OHIP sub-scales, and the association was most evident in the psychological discomfort, psychological disability and handicap sub-scales. Among males, health behaviours seemed multidimensional, whereas they tended to be unidimensional among females. A strong sense of coherence was a common determinant of healthy behaviours in general, as well as of a good subjective health status. The present study recognizes the sense of coherence as a common health-promoting determinant of oral and general health behaviours, good oral health, and a good oral health-related quality of life. The results thus suggest that the role of psycho-social factors should not be underestimated in health promotion.

Nous avons réalisé une enquête par questionnaire auprès de 65 anciens enfantsjuifs cachés durant la deuxième guerre mondiale, situation évaluée comme untraumatisme dans l’enfance, ainsi qu’auprès de leurs enfants. Nous avons comparé cesanciens enfants cachés à 65 sujets ni juifs ni cachés d’âge comparable. Dans unpremier temps, nous nous sommes intéressés au degré d’anxio-dépression de cespopulations consécutivement en tenant compte de deux variables :l’existence dupremier traumatisme dans l’enfance (enfants cachés ou non) et la présence oul’absence d’éventuels traumatismes ultérieurs. L’effet de ces deux variables surl’anxio-dépression a été expliqué par leurs effets sur les compétences de résilience.Les variables Anxio-Dépression et Résilience ont été mesurées quantitativement surbase d’échelles validées. De plus, nous nous sommes intéressés à un concept prochede la résilience, le Sens de la Cohérence (SOC), également mesuré sur base d’uneéchelle quantitative validée. Quatre résultats majeurs ressortent de notre enquête.Premièrement, nous avons démontré que la résilience subit une érosion sousl’effet de traumatismes multiples (phénomène de sensibilisation), ce qui augmente lerisque de développer des troubles anxio-dépressifs. De ce fait, la résilience n’est pasun trait de personnalité, fixé pour la vie entière une fois le développementpsychologique de l’individu accompli, mais s’assimile à une aptitude, susceptible des’éroder mais aussi de se renforcer par des techniques psychothérapeutiquesspécifiques. Nous confirmons les résultats des précédentes recherches montrant que larésilience n’est pas un bloc monolithique mais plutôt un concept multifactoriel quis’appuie sur les ressources propres de l’individu, celles de son milieu familial et cellesde son milieu social.Deuxièmement, nous avons pu démontrer que le SOC s’érode lui aussi sousl’effet de traumatismes multiples mais que, contrairement à la résilience, il a unedouble composante, à la fois aptitude et trait de personnalité ;c’est-à-dire qu’unepartie du SOC ne s’érode pas en fonction des expériences traumatiques rencontrées aulong de l’existence et apparaît comme une composante stable fixée dès l’enfance.Troisièmement, notre recherche a permis de démontrer que la survenue d’untraumatisme ultérieur aggrave la perception qu’a un individu d’un traumatisme subidurant l’enfance, montrant en cela que la mémoire et les souvenirs ne sont pas figésune fois pour toutes mais sont en perpétuel remaniement, modelés par les interactionsconstantes entre le passé et le présent.Quatrièmement, notre recherche a montré que la présence d’un traumatismemajeur chez les parents peut engendrer une altération du fonctionnement familial quiempêcherait leurs enfants de développer des stratégies efficientes d’adaptation auxstress et aux traumatismes (résilience et SOC), ce qui favorise, chez eux, ledéveloppement de troubles anxio-dépressifs.Au travers de ces conclusions, nous abordons les conséquences à la foisthéoriques et cliniques. Nous soulignons les principales limitations de nos études / Doctorat en Sciences médicales (Médecine) / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Adolescence is an important period of development, where health and health behaviours have substantial impact on health and lifestyle in adulthood. Prevalence of mental illness are increasing in this group, where depression account for a substantial part of the cases. Increasing evidence present exercise as an effective treatment for adolescent with mild or moderate depression, but investigations of long-term effects are required. Qualitative studies of adolescents’ experiences of exercise as treatment for depression may lead to a greater understanding of favourable arrangements of future treatment plans to facilitate adherence and effects on depressive symptoms. The salutogenic concept sense of coherence (SOC) is associated with mental health and important for behaviour change, such as initiating an exercise treatment program. This study described adolescents’ long-term experiences of a group-based exercise intervention for depression, within the framework of SOC. Fourteen adolescents met the inclusion criteria and were individually interviewed at one-year follow-up, after their participation in a 14-week group-exercise intervention for depression. Interviews were analysed with abductive qualitative content analysis, initially using an inductive approach to create nine sub-categories and four categories. The deductive part included sorting categories into the three SOC domains manageability, comprehensibility, or meaningfulness. The consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) have been considered when reporting the procedures. Results revealed that the setting for the exercise intervention offered a supportive environment which made the participation manageable, while insights during the intervention facilitated comprehensibility. Furthermore, the experiences of progress in health and lifestyle together with a belief in the future that emerged during the intervention made the experience meaningful. The connection in the group was appreciated, and a feeling more energised and clearer in the head facilitated functionality in daily life. This study concludes that a group-based exercise intervention as treatment for depression can be an encouraging and valuable long-term experience for the adolescents, potentially influencing health, and health behaviours in a positive direction through SOC. The study is further suggesting that SOC may provide useful guidance for further development of exercise as treatment for depression.

Due to the Ukrainian refugee crisis, millions of people had to leave their home country. As a neighbor of Ukraine, Hungary is highly affected by this crisis and thousands of volunteers help refugees in this difficult situation. As their role is central in emergency response, the health and wellbeing of volunteers are of high importance. The aim of this study was to examine the sense of coherence among Hungarian volunteers working with Ukrainian refugees. Sense of coherence is a core concept in Aaron Antonovsky’s salutogenic model (1979), and reflects on the psychological, social and cultural resources which help people to cope with everyday stressors. In order to explore how this theory can be applied in the context of volunteering, 6 semi-structured interviews were conducted and a deductive qualitative analysis was made with the sense of coherence theory as a framework. It resulted in three predetermined categories based on the three dimensions of sense of coherence: (1) Comprehensibility, (2) Manageability and (3) Meaningfulness. The analysis of qualitative data resulted in a total of twelve themes within the three categories (e.g. Effective communication and information flow are important to me.; Supportive team spirit and collaboration are important to me.; A strong sense of service gives me strength.; I believe helping others is its own reward.). The findings suggest that the concept of sense of coherence can be applied in the context of volunteering, revealing key aspects of comprehending, managing and making sense of volunteer work. Therefore, interventions based on this salutogenic approach would improve the mental health and well-being of volunteers through enabling them to cope with the challenges of volunteer work.

Lung cancer patients generally experience high levels of physical and psychological distress and decreased quality of life (QOL). Sense of coherence (SOC) has been conceptualized as a personality orientation reflecting the degree to which an individual perceives their world as comprehensible, manageable and meaningful. The present study investigated the associations of SOC with QOL in lung cancer. It also examined potential psychological mediators by which SOC may exert its influences on QOL. Fifty-six participants with non-small cell lung cancer were administered self-report assessments of SOC, QOL and psychological distress. Results revealed that SOC was positively associated with QOL and this relationship may be mediated by depressive symptoms. The current study supports the notion that SOC may be a protective factor with regard to psychological adjustment and QOL in cancer survivors.

Depression in the elderly population is a growing concern in the United States. A decrease in depression in the elderly could lead to greater quality of life and reduced cost of healthcare services. The Sense of Coherence Theory was utilized as the theoretical foundation for this study. The purpose of this study was to use archival data to analyze differences in depression scores by groups based on prayer (yes/no) and over time (wave 1/wave 2 of data collection) when controlling for amount of time spent in prayer by category, gender, and ethnicity. The data were retrieved from the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging, which included interviews with adults aged 65 and over living in the coterminous United States. The first wave was collected in 2001 and consisted of 1,500 interviews. Wave 2 was collected in 2004 and consisted of 1,024 of the original participants. A mixed ANOVA was used to analyze the data. Results showed that change in depression over time differed depending on use of prayer after controlling for frequency of prayer. Comparisons of the 2 waves in the sample revealed that depression significantly decreased for people who prayed but not for people who did not pray. Implementing prayer as a supplemental form of treatment for depression may alter the way that some clinicians and providers conduct mental health treatment, reduce the emotional burden on families who are often the caretakers of the elderly, and become a cost-effective method of reducing depressive symptoms.

Omställningen till ett digitalt arbetsliv, till följd av Covid-19-pandemin, på distans har förändrat många människors sätt att arbeta de senaste två åren. Forskning visar på motstridiga resultat hur distansarbetare upplever detta sätt att arbeta och det finns en bristande kunskap om hur kommunikationen inom de digitala plattformarna påverkar distansarbetarnas upplevelse av KASAM. Syftet var att undersöka om distansarbetare, som innan pandemin inte tidigare arbetat på distans, upplever att kommunikation via digitala plattformar påverkar deras upplevelse av KASAM. I studien deltog 12 respondenter från både offentlig och privat sektor. Genom kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer, som analyserades tematiskt, visade resultatet att respondenterna upplevde både faktorer som hindrade KASAM, som bland annat försämrad teamkänsla, och faktorer som främjade KASAM, som bland annat ökad effektivitet. Studiens resultat visade i linje med vad tidigare forskning sagt att det finns både positiv och negativ påverkan på respondenternas KASAM när de kommunicerar via digitala plattformar under distansarbete.

Välbefinnande är ett mångdimensionellt begrepp som rymmer flera olika förklaringsmodeller. Tidigare forskning har visat att välbefinnandet i relation till krig är komplicerat och grundar sig i individuella och kontextuella skillnader. Föreliggande studie syftade till att belysa vilka faktorer som haft en inverkan på välbefinnandet hos kvinnliga krigsflyktingar från Bosnien. Totalt ingick 6 kvinnor i undersökningen. Studien har kvalitativ karaktär och tematisk analys användes som analysmetod. Resultatet visade att både coping såväl som olika aspekter av KASAM var framträdande för gott välbefinnande. Både emotionellt fokuserad och problemfokuserad coping har använts i bearbetningsprocessen. Den förstnämnda användes i samtliga fall först och efter en viss tid, när nya strukturer börjat formas i deltagarnas liv, blev den sistnämnda mer framträdande. Slutsatsen visade att det finns en relation mellan copingstrategier, KASAM och välbefinnande samt att flera faktorer ligger bakom valet av strategi. Studien har kunnat fylla en kunskapslucka med tanke på att det enbart finns ett mindre antal genomförda undersökningar kring den valda målgruppen.

Vad gäller sambandet mellan KASAM och psykiskt välbefinnande tyder tidigare forskning på en starkt positiv korrelation. Forskning som bedrivits avseende den religiösa trons påverkan på det psykiska välbefinnandet har däremot konstaterat både positiva och negativa samband. Studiens frågeställningar ämnar bland annat att undersöka korrelationen mellan psykisk hälsa och KASAM, religiös tro samt bakgrundsvariablerna ålder, kön och födelseland. Urvalet bestod av 86 deltagare i Sverige och data samlades in via enkäter. En Pearson-korrelationsanalys kunde påvisa signifikanta positiva samband mellan KASAM och psykiskt välbefinnande samt mellan religiös tro och psykiskt välbefinnande. En hierarkisk regressionsanalys påvisade att variationen i psykisk hälsa till störst del kunde förklaras av KASAM, samt att en mindre procent kunde förklaras av bakgrundsvariablerna och religiös tro. Utifrån studiens resultat kan det sammanfattas att både KASAM och religiös tro är faktorer som har en effekt på den psykiska hälsan. Dessa kan hävdas agera likt ett skyddsnät gentemot psykisk ohälsa.

Trots att de väletablerade begreppen Mening i livet (MIL) och Känsla av sammanhang (KASAM) är snarlika saknas forskning kring sambanden sinsemellan. Studiens syfte var att explorativt undersöka dessa samband samt om de korrelerar olika till motivation och coping. I studien ingick 191 universitetsstudenter varav 116 kvinnor. Enkäten utgjordes av ett antal bakgrundsvariabler och 4 skalor. Analysen visade att hanterbarhet som enskild komponent hos KASAM korrelerade svagast med samtliga MIL-komponenter samt att MIL förklarade 45% av variationen i inre motivation jämfört med KASAM som förklarade 26%. Analysen visade även att MIL förklarade en större del av konstruktiva copingstrategier och KASAM en större del av destruktiva strategier där hanterbarhet var en central komponent. MIL ser ut att omfatta en bredare dimension av motivation och coping men saknar en del aspekter som komponenten hanterbarhet innefattar såsom resurser för att hantera livets utmaningar. Detta tyder på att skalorna till viss del har olika användningsområden.