The occurrence of depression in the United States is steadily increasing. In every age group, women have a higher rate of depression than men, and U.S. women between the ages of 40 and 59 have a depression rate of 12%. Adult women living in rural areas experience physical and/or psychological impairment and lack access to mental health treatment. The purpose of this quantitative nonexperimental study was to examine participants' preferences for treatment delivery method based on patient perceptions of the clinical experience, patient satisfaction, and therapeutic bond. The working alliance theory provided the theoretical foundation. Data collection included survey responses from a self-selected sample of 264 adult females ages 40 to 65. Results from independent sample t tests indicated that participants favored CBT treatment delivered via videoconferencing more than in-person treatment. Implications for social change include improving the lives of adult women suffering from depression by providing treatment via videoconferencing when in-person services are not available. Psychologists may apply findings in clinical practice, thereby benefiting individuals, families, and communities.

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El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / Objective: To evaluate the safety and tolerability of an oral herbal supplement containing glucosinolates, phytosterols, and citrus flavonoids (Warmi®, Lima Perú;) in otherwise healthy adult women. Methods: This was a phase-I, randomized parallel three arms, double-blinded, and a placebo-controlled clinical trial. A total of 55 participants aged 18-40 were randomly assigned to one of three groups to receive for three months: (1) an oral herbal supplement of 1650 mg/day; (2) an oral herbal supplement of 3300 mg/day; or (3) an oral placebo 3300 mg/day. The primary endpoints were oral safety and tolerability of the supplement. The secondary endpoint was its effect on vital functions, anthropometrics, and laboratory tests. We used an exploratory approach by covariance analysis (ANCOVA) adjusted for the variables’ baseline value for the secondary outcomes. Results: All women completed three months of follow-up, reporting no side effects. Our exploratory analysis revealed that treatment with the herbal supplement of 1650 mg/day was associated with increased glucose and uric acid levels. In comparison, the herbal supplement 3300 mg/day was associated with reduced breathing rate, increased basal temperature, and systolic blood pressure, both compared to the placebo group. However, despite significant differences, none of these was clinically significant. Conclusion: The oral herbal supplement had a favorable safety and tolerability profile in studied women. There is a need to study its potential as an option to treat menopausal symptoms. / Revisión por pares

Submitted by William Justo Figueiro (williamjf) on 2015-07-15T22:46:10Z No. of bitstreams: 1 20c.pdf: 1580716 bytes, checksum: 5fca4f23e37e6475bafe8a9a346ee75b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-15T22:46:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 20c.pdf: 1580716 bytes, checksum: 5fca4f23e37e6475bafe8a9a346ee75b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-07-17 / Nenhuma / Esta tese aborda a educação ambiental e o processo de alfabetização de mulheres adultas na Amazônia mato-grossense. Ela contextualiza inicialmente os caminhos formadores trilhados com referencial teórico socioambiental e da educação crítica e dialógica de base freireana. O trabalho de pesquisa teve como objetivo analisar a discussão teórica sobre a importância da educação ambiental para a preservação dos seres vivos, da natureza e do Planeta, e em especial a forma de como ela acontece e é produzida, através da mediação pedagógica que ocorre na instituição escolar. A escolha metodológica teve aproximações entre a pesquisaformação e da pesquisa participante. Assim, a investigação foi realizada durante dois anos letivos em uma sala de aula pública, informal de alfabetização de jovens e adultos do Centro Espírita Maria de Nazaré, localizado no município de Sinop, Mato Grosso. Um dos resultados consiste no envolvimento da pesquisadora e sujeitos em formação numa experiência educativa, cuja relação dialógica entre professora e alunas, “educadora e educandas”, possibilitou a compreensão da leitura de mundo e da produção coletiva socioambiental. Por fim, concluiu-se por meio de uma análise reflexiva que a educação ambiental está relacionada ao processo de alfabetização e cidadania. / This dissertation examines the environmental education and the literacy process of adult women from Amazon of Mato Grosso State. The study contextualizes, first of all, the traversed paths of education with the socio-environmental theory and the critical education and the dialogue, influenced by the works of Paulo Freire. The aim of this research was to analyze the theoretical discussion about the importance of environmental education to preserve living beings, the nature and the planet Earth, and in particular, how it happens and how it works, through pedagogical mediation that occurs in schools. The methodological choice had similarities between formative research and participatory research. Therefore, the investigation was conducted throughout two years inside a public classroom, informal, of basic education for youth and adults in Spiritual Center Maria de Nazaré, located in the municipality of Sinop, Mato Grosso. One of the results consists of involvement between researcher and the subjects in literacy process within an educational experience whose dialogical relationship between the woman teacher and women students, “educator and educatee”, allowed the comprehension of the worldview, and the collective production of the socio-environmental reflection. Ultimately, through a reflexive analysis, it was concluded the search for dialogic educational possibilities, socializing and promoting citizenship.

The concept of responsible sexual behavior (RSB) gained popularity when it was introduced in Healthy People 2010 as a leading health indicator. The Healthy People initiatives organize the top health priorities and create guidelines for improving the health of Americans. Promoting RSB was intended to address problems such as unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), however the guidelines never conceptually define behavior that would be considered sexually responsible. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation research was to examine how responsible sexual behavior (RSB) was defined in the context of public health literature, collegiate women, and rural women with the intention to contribute to a clearer conceptual understanding of RSB. First, an evolutionary concept analysis was conducted to define the attributes of RSB and develop a conceptual definition of responsible sexual behavior (RSB) as it applies to women 18 years and older who have sex with men from a synthesis of lay and public health literature. According to the literature, RSB is a desirable and deliberative pattern of behaviors that promote sexual health, manage risk, and foster respect of sexual partners within the context of community influences. This study also concludes that a purposeful redefinition maybe necessary to maintain a concept that is useful for guiding and evaluating sexual behavior. Second, a secondary data analysis was completed to identify college women definition of “sexual responsibility.” Data came from interviews collected as part of a mixed methods study of college women and unintended pregnancy. A total of 35 interviews were analyzed using within and across case methodology to derive a working definition of RSB for collegiate women. Women in this sample described being sexually responsible as self-advocating through actions that were consistent with personal goals and values while being aware of consequences that could threaten those goals or values. Actions included mindful partner selection, communicating boundaries, and preventing pregnancy. Women’s academic goals were closely linked to women’s sexual health decision making. Third, an exploratory descriptive study was completed to identify how rural women who have sex with men define RSB and to understand the role of the rural context on definitions and enactment of RSB. A total of ten rural Iowa women aged 18-29 participated in phone interviews. Within and across case analysis was used to describe the contextual influences of how rural dwelling women defined and enacted responsible sexual behavior. For rural women in this sample, RSB is understanding the consequences of sex and taking action to manage risks by preventing pregnancy and STIs, mindfully selecting of partners, and seeking appropriate resources. The social context of the rural environment acted as both a facilitator and barrier for women to acquire information enact RSB. In conclusion, RSB was an accessible concept for college and rural women to define and understand. However, the collective research indicated that a new definition of RSB was necessary to maintain its purpose in improving sexual and reproductive health. Thus, being sexually responsible is having an awareness of consequences and managing risks in a way that is reflective of a woman’s personal experiences, beliefs, values, and goals. How BSR is defined is fluid and subject to redefinition based on personal experiences and movement through the lifespan. Future research should focus on understanding how other populations of women define and manage BSR and that public health interventions and policy support women’s ability to be sexually responsible.

Instagram has become a platform where young women spend many hours a day on a daily basis. The app is largely used to publish media content and interact with other people. It is also used to gather inspiration around, among other things, fashion, beauty and interior design. As Instagram has become increasingly popular, it has also become a place for influencers to express their creativity and convey personal content. They are individuals who have a great influence on their audience. Together with companies, they market products and brands that make their followers, often young women, consume similar. Content that young women publish to their surroundings and consumption behavior becomes a large part of their identity creation.   This study is a qualitative study that aims to examine young adult women's identity creation and consumption habits through influencers on Instagram. To find out, two research questions have been studied and answered: How do young adults relate to the commercial intent of influencers' content on Instagram? and What significance do influencers on Instagram have for young adults' identity creation? A total of eight women between the ages of 18-25 were interviewed through a semi-structured interview containing four themes: Instagram, influencers, consumption and identity creation.   The study shows that the young women are aware of the marketing via influencers. Who they choose to follow is reflected in the fact that it is someone they look up to or want to emulate. Content that you want to see is the individual's everyday life in a format that must be genuine. They think that it is too much advertising and often content that creates negative feelings in them. Still, they are affected by it and consume products through discount codes or inspiration they received from influencers that they follow. This contributes to influencers having an influence over young girls' actions and thus identity creation.

Food media such as cookbooks, magazines, and television programs have become enormously popular in the last 15 to 20 years, but they have remained relatively unexamined in empirical media research. The focus of this project is the audience's perception of visual food media, specifically the capacity for critical evaluation of such media by adult women. `Food-media literacy' is the term coined in this work to describe such critical competence. The first phase of this project began to conceptualize food-media literacy with a pair of focus groups in which participants examined a series of print food advertisements. Discussion in the groups was guided by several of the core questions of media literacy. In the second phase, an experiment was conducted to examine the influence of a slick, professionally styled photo on an adult woman's interpretation of the recipe it illustrated. The primary hypothesis was that such an image would make the subject less likely to respond with confidence that she could follow the recipe and produce a similar result - a self-efficacious response. Other data collected in the experiment were the subjects' food-media literacy, cooking experience, food media use, experience using digital imaging technology, and cognitive style. The primary statistical analysis did not detect a significant relationship between the quality of the photo illustration and the subjects' self-efficacious response. Secondary analysis revealed that cooking experience was the only factor that influenced self-efficacy. Additional analyses confirmed the validity of the food-media literacy scale, and revealed important insights regarding the role of experience with digital imaging technology, and subjects' perception of food media as a genre. / Mass Media and Communication

A obesidade vem crescendo gradativamente em locais anteriormente pouco prevalentes, inclusive naqueles de baixa renda. O presente estudo foi realizado em comunidades quilombolas com o objetivo de comparar a prevalência dos fatores de riscos para doenças cardiovasculares entre mulheres dessas comunidades e de dados retrospectivos de um grupo de mulheres adultas participantes do diagnóstico Materno-infantil do Estado de Alagoas, tido como grupo de referência. Participaram desse estudo, 1665 mulheres quilombolas de 41 comunidades cadastradas na Secretaria do Estado da Mulher, da Cidadania e dos Direitos Humanos e 1158 mulheres do grupo de referência. Analisou-se a massa corporal, a estatura, o índice de massa corporal (IMC), a circunferência da cintura (CC), a relação da cintura pelo quadril (RCQ) e o percentual de gordura como indicadores de risco a desenvolver doenças cardiovasculares. Para o tratamento dos dados, foi utilizada a estatística descritiva, medidas de prevalências, razão de prevalências (RP) ajustadas pelos quartis da idade e teste de diferença entre os grupos (p<0,05). Verificou-se uma maior prevalência de risco para os pontos de corte da CC e RCQ (CC 80 cm e RCQ 0,85) nas mulheres quilombolas do que nas mulheres de referência (CC:56,27% vs 34,45%; RCQ:51,3% vs 24,32%, respectivamente). Apesar das mulheres quilombolas apresentarem maior prevalência de sobrepeso (32,4% vs 30,29%) e obesidade (18,3% vs 13,77%) quando classificadas pelos valores de IMC, apenas o 4º quartil (sobrepeso) e 3º quartil (obesidade) apresentou razão de risco significativo quando ajustado pela idade (RP: 1,2; IC 95%: 1,04 a 1,39 para o 4º quartil; RP:1,43; IC95%: 1,01 a 2,0 para o 3º quartil). Não foram encontradas diferenças significativas entre os grupos para o percentual de gordura (p=0,98), e foi demonstrado fator de proteção para RP (0,29; 0,45; 0,67 e 0,96) com o ajustamento pela idade entre os grupos, respectivamente, no 1º, 2º, 3º e 4º quartil para este indicador. Observou-se também que a idade demonstrou ser um fator de risco associado com o aumento da idade quando comparada a RP entre o 4º e 1º quartis das mulheres quilombolas. Os resultados indicam que existem importantes evidências de que a população quilombola convive com uma considerável prevalência de indicadores de doenças cardiovasculares. Portanto, as prevalências encontradas apontam para a necessidade de iniciativas emergenciais para esse grupo, no sentido de reduzir as prevalências de sobrepeso/obesidade e, consequentemente, dos fatores de risco para desenvolvimento de doenças cardiovasculares.

Individuals who have experienced child maltreatment (CM) are at an increased risk for future interpersonal difficulties and violence in their romantic relationships. While positive connections with mentors have been shown to contribute to resilience among at-risk youth, the role of mentors in promoting positive romantic relationships among those with CM histories has not been previously examined. In this study, young adult women (N = 267; 18-25 years of age) who were in a romantic relationship at the time of the study completed a computerized questionnaire exploring CM, romantic relationship functioning, and mentoring relationships. Almost half of the women had a current or past mentoring relationship (n = 132). This study explored the associations between CM and romantic relationship qualities (i.e., levels of social support, negative interactions, relationship violence, and distribution of power), and examined whether having a mentor would be particularly helpful for women with a history of CM. Maltreatment experiences examined were child psychological maltreatment (CPM; 21%, n = 55), child physical abuse (CPA; 9%, n = 24), witnessing domestic violence (WDV; 16%, n = 43), and child sexual abuse (CSA; 11%, n = 29). Results showed that women who experienced higher levels of CPM and CPA, particularly by fathers, were more likely to report higher levels of psychological maltreatment and physical violence in their current romantic relationships compared to women with lower levels of CPM and CPA. Women who indicated a lack of emotional support (ES) from their parents reported higher levels of negative interactions in their romantic relationships. However, women with higher levels of ES from their fathers reported higher levels of social support in their romantic relationships. When these factors were accounted for in regression analyses, psychological and physical maltreatment experiences by fathers predicted levels of psychological and physical maltreatment in women’s romantic relationships. As well, higher personal levels of power in their romantic relationships were found among women with higher levels of WDV. Further, ethnicity, the participants’ age, relationship status (e.g., dating, common-law/married), and parental divorce emerged as important socio-demographic factors in relation to child maltreatment and relationship functioning. There was support for the role of mentors as a protective factor among women who had experienced physical abuse by their fathers. Mentoring characteristics such as duration of the mentoring relationship and attachment to the mentor were related to CM experiences and romantic relationship functioning. This study calls attention to the need for greater awareness of the link between CM and romantic relationship difficulties in young adulthood, as well as the role of positive mentoring relationships as a protective factor for those with a history of CM. Results from this study may benefit psychologists and others in similar professions who assist those who have experienced CM and who are at risk for interpersonal difficulties, and may help those already experiencing relationship difficulties. Additional implications include a need for better identification of youth who are at-risk for relationship violence and for the implementation of violence prevention programs in schools. Given the important role of mentors demonstrated by this study, there is also a need for further research regarding mentors and for greater support of mentoring programs.

Adult women bear a disproportionate burden of overweight and obesity in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Precise information to understand disease distribution and assess determinants is lacking. Therefore, this dissertation aimed to: (i) analyze the prevalence of adult female overweight and obesity combined in lower-level administrative units; (ii) analyze the effect modification of educational attainment and age on the association between household wealth and adult female overweight and obesity; (iii) synthesize qualitative research evidence to describe contextual factors contributing to female overweight and obesity at different life stages. Bayesian and logistic regression models were constructed with Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data to respectively estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity and assess the interaction of education on the association between household wealth and overweight. The synthesis of qualitative research studies was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines and findings were grouped by themes. Prevalence estimates revealed heterogeneity at second-level administrative units in the seven SSA countries examined, which was not visible in first-level administrative units. The combined prevalence of overweight and obesity ranged from 7.5 – 42.0% in Benin, 1.4 – 35.9% in Ethiopia, 1.6 – 44.7% in Mozambique, 1.0 – 67.9% in Nigeria, 2.2 - 72.4% in Tanzania, 3.9 – 39.9% in Zambia, and 4.5 - 50.6% in Zimbabwe. Additionally, education did not have a statistically significant modifying effect on the positive association between household wealth and overweight in the 22 SSA countries eligible for the study. Body shape and size ideals, barriers to healthy food choices and physical activity were key themes in the research synthesis encompassing four SSA countries. Positive symbolism, including beauty, was linked to overweight and obesity in adult women. Among adolescents, although being overweight or obese was not accepted, girls were expected to be voluptuous. Body image dissatisfaction and victimization characterized the experiences of non-conforming women and girls. Barriers to healthy nutrition included migration and the food environment. Whereas, barriers to physical activity included ageism. While additional work is encouraged to validate the prevalence estimates, overweight and obesity interventions must consider whether the determinants identified in this study are relevant to their context to inform improved outcomes.