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ABSTRACT Title: FASHIONING THE FEMALE - An Analysis of the “Fashionable Woman” in ELLE Magazine - Now and Then Number of pages: 57 (including diagrams and figures, excluding enclosures) Author: Heidi Marie Nömm Tutor: Ylva Ekström Course: Media and Communication Studies D Level, Master Thesis Period: Spring term 2007 University: Uppsala University Division of Media and Communication Department of Information Science Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate how fashion can function as a communication channel and how the modern Swedish woman is represented in ELLE magazine within two different fashion decades, in 1992 and 2007. Material: Swedish ELLE magazines No. 1-4 1992 and No. 1-4 2007. Method: A complementary combination of quantitative content analysis, semiotics and critical discourse analysis. Main results: A number of differences, as well as similarities can be recognised between the fashions of 1992 and 2007. The latter one is characterised by women looking serious, sometimes even austere while 1992 shows often happy women. The fashion styles are much more casual, colourful and more accessorised by jewellery etc. in 1992, while the clothing in 2007 is often tight, body hugging and reveals more skin. Concerning ethnicity, 2007 only shows white women, often very feminine and wearing mostly dresses and rarely pants, whereas 1992 is characterised by ELLE’s effort to show a more multicultural and diversified picture of the female. The semiotic analysis has lead to the conclusions that women in 1992 were more natural and “real” whereas the female picture ELLE is presenting often has fictional or unnatural elements. The fashion styles often seem un-wearable in 2007, however also rather artistic. The woman of 2007 is living a more expensive and extravagant lifestyle than in 1992 where women were more of en depicted “average”. Keywords: Fashion, communication, representation, lifestyle, cultural studies,feminism, ELLE magazine, femininity.

Länsförsäkringar in Värmland, Sweden, had during the year 2003 a total level of 6.1 percent of people on the sick-list, which was higher than average in the business (4,5%) and for salaried employees in the private sector (3,3%). The average age of those put on sick-list was 47 years, whish is four years higher than the average for the whole LF-group. The cost for the total amount of people being on sick-list at LF-company (6,1%) was estimated to 1 500 kkr, according to a calculation model coming from Försäkringskassan. For every percent the sick level could be reduced, the company would save 239 kkr. To map out the state of health of each and every collaborator in LF, the company offered all employees to make a health profile at the company's health service, Clarahälsan AB. This health control was accomplished during May 2004 to August 2004, and almost every employee participated (99%). The purpose of this study was to find out if the stress and lifestyle handling course at Clarahälsan AB, which was offered those considered in need for it after the health control,could influence the motivation of the participants to change lifestyle in order to prevent long time sick leave. A quantitative method was used to evaluate goals for life style changes after accomplishment of the course by quastionnaire. Three women and six men participated in the study. The result shows that six out of seven (two drop-outs) had been influenced in a positive way towards a chang in lifestyle including exercise, stress management, sleep and work situation. All seven had a postive change considering food habits.

Nickel stands out as the main cause of contact allergy in both children and adults, which has given rise to concern and the introduction of regulations by official bodies. Today´s youths are frequently exposed to body piercing and orthodontic treatment. Changes in youth lifestyle practices are also likely to influence nickel exposure and thus, the occurrence of nickel allergy. However, against patient and parental concern regarding nickel exposure to orthodontic appliances, often evoked by allergies following piercing, stand results from studies indicating that early orthodontic appliance treatment may reduce, rather than increase, prevalence of nickel allergy; a finding that has been suggested to result from tolerance induction by early exposure to nickel via the oral route. The objective of the present thesis was to investigate the association between nickel allergy and exposure to different orthodontic appliances and lifestyle, in particular piercing, as well as to study nickel release from orthodontic appliances into the oral cavity. Furthermore, one objective was to establish baseline prevalence data of nickel allergy in a Swedish adolescent population. Data was generated from a cross-sectional survey, in which about 6000 youths completed a questionnaire and almost 4500 of these were patch-tested for contact allergy. Information on exposure to orthodontic appliances was verified by dental records, whilst nickel content in saliva and dental biofilm was measured in a clinical study. Questionnaire data demonstrated a reduced risk of nickel allergy when orthodontic treatment preceded piercing (OR 0.5; 95 % CI 0.3-0.8) and similar results were found for data verified from dental records, however statistical significance was lost when adjusting for background factors (OR 0.6, 95 % CI 0.4-1.0). Exposure to full fixed appliances with NiTi-containing alloys, as well as a pooled ‘high nickel-releasing’ appliance group prior to piercing correlated with a significantly reduced risk of nickel allergy and a trend towards a reduced risk with exposure duration. Nickel could also be found in significantly higher concentrations from dental plaque samples, but not saliva samples, in orthodontic patients who were well into treatment compared to patients who had not been exposed to orthodontic appliances. The effect was not found to be due to differences in estimated dietary nickel intake between the two groups. Significantly more girls than boys (13.3 % versus 2.5 %) were found to be patch-test positive to nickel. Positive nickel tests were also most prevalent in occupational programmes and least prevalent in natural science programmes, indicating differences in lifestyle and exposure to nickel. Dropout from testing was handled using a missing-value analysis. This internal validation showed that our results overestimated the occurrence of nickel allergy to a minor degree. More girls than boys reported piercing, vegetarian/vegan diet, and smoking practices, whereas an interesting shift in tattooing prevalence was observed with a larger proportion of girls reporting this practice compared to boys. Sex, number of piercings, smoking and orthodontic appliance treatment prior to piercing were found to influence weighted risk estimates of nickel allergy. To conclude, although orthodontic patients are exposed to nickel intraorally, we found no increased risk of sensitising adolescents to nickel by the use of oral orthodontic appliances. On the contrary, early orthodontic treatment preceding piercing reduced the risk of nickel allergy by a factor of 1.5-2.0. This reduced risk appears to be associated with estimated nickel release of the appliance and duration of treatment, in all supporting a hypothesised induction of immunological tolerance via oral administration of nickel. Our study also showed a strong association between lifestyle and nickel allergy. Although there have been changes in lifestyle over time, as indicated by the strong shift in tattooing practices, no large change in nickel allergy prevalence was found compared with previous Swedish data. Our data will serve as a baseline for future studies of the effect of nickel exposure regulations, such as the Nickel Directive, and for studies of lifestyle changes and their effects on nickel allergy.

Health literacy affects caregivers' ability to engage in preventive health care behaviors for themselves and their children. Studies suggest that health literacy among low income families needs improvement, and this possibly contributes to disparities in preventive health care rates. Additionally, parents and caregivers may not be able to provide or seek preventive health care for their children because of lack of knowledge and skills to do so effectively. This study designed and piloted an intervention that delivered to parents of young children, 1) health literacy information in an experiential manner, and 2) practical skills to engage their families in healthy lifestyle choices, with the decisions for healthy lifestyle choices being based on the health knowledge provided in the intervention. Specifically, the intervention focused on diet/nutrition, physical activity, sleep hygiene, parenting skills, and mental wellness. The intervention was successful at improving diet/nutrition knowledge at least one month post-intervention and more immediate changes were found for participants' overall beliefs about diet/nutrition, children's vegetable consumption, and parents' fruits and vegetable consumption. Immediate improvements were also found for factual knowledge about physical activity, sleep, and the relationship between mental health and stress. Additionally, the intervention was successful at improving general knowledge and beliefs about sleep, knowledge about the relationship between sleep and health, and knowledge about common childhood sleep problems at least one month post-intervention. The intervention also reduced participants' bedtime interactions with children that are indicative of sleep problems at least one month post-intervention. Future research should conceptualize the intervention as a multiple health behavior intervention and reflect this in the evaluation.

Sustainable urban mobility calls for well-informed design of neighborhoods. Although many studies have been conducted in the field, there is little evidence about the relationships between design elements, urban quality and behavior. Little is also known about residents’ valuation of design and urban quality in this context. This study uses a multidisciplinary approach to deal with these issues. The focus is on children’s leisure activities, their travel mode and independence of adult escort in trips to school. Logistic regression models were used to analyze connections between neighborhood design, parents’ satisfaction with urban qualities and children’s behavior. The study included socioeconomic factors, parents’ stated importance of qualities and travel mode to work. It was conducted in a suburban district in the Stockholm region, in three different modernist neighborhoods and one traditional villa area. The results support the hypothesis that environmental and social qualities, and proximity to school, can influence children’s trips to school, and the location and frequency of children’s leisure activities. The results confirm and extend earlier research. Two separate lifestyles were identified across neighborhoods with differencesin housing type and socioeconomic characteristics. They related to parents’ preferences for and priorities of public versus private urban qualities, and location of children’s leisure activity and travel mode to school. The results suggest that schools should be located in neighborhoods, close to both homes and transit, that neighborhoods are car-free or traffic separated and that the outdoor environment is stimulating and cycling-friendly. They further suggest that a higher quality of children’s environment would be achieved if parents’ preferences had greater impact on urban developments, whereas current professional design ideals of mixed traffic and high density can be unsupportive ofthese qualities and can increase car escorts. Altogether, the results point to that design at the neighborhood scale has significance in relation to mobility requirements; and that new priorities are needed in planning and design as part of a comprehensive urban and transportation policy.

The purpose of this study was to describe how nurses, working in primary health care and responsible for diabetes care, reflected on patient information and education, its’ content and experiences of providing it. The study had a descriptive design and seven nurses from seven health care units in the middle of Sweden participated in the study. Data were analyzed with qualitative content analysis. The results are presented in two main categories; “The information” and “The procedure”. The two subcategories; Adjusting information and Bring about knowledge and to live with the disease emerged from “The information”. The five subcategories; Specific situation information, Increased insight about lifestyle changes, Developed dialogues, Nurses’ and patients’ perspective of responsibility and Supporting and follow ups were formulated from “The procedure”. Individual adjusted information within dialogues was highlighted. The motivational interview technique was considered as contributing to possibilities for more successful treatment and lifestyle changes. The main result showed that nurses responsible for diabetes care in primary health care empathized the need of individual adjusted information and the procedure providing it, in order to support the patients’ daily life.

Att lägga om sin livsstil är inte lätt, men i många fall kan det vara nödvändigt för att bibehålla en god hälsa. Ett exempel på ett sådant tillfälle är vid en diabetesdiagnos, där förstahandsbehandlingen består i livsstilsförändring, som främst innefattar kost, motion och rökstopp. Resultat från tidigare forskning visar att det är viktigt att patienten är motiverad att genomföra en livsstilsförändring, och även diabetessköterskorna i den här studien är av den uppfattningen. Det är viktigt att patienten själv tar ansvaret för sin sjukdom, det är bara han eller hon som kan förändra sin livsstil. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur diabetessköterskorna hjälpte sina patienter att hitta motivation till livsstilsförändring. En kvalitativ intervjumetod användes för att samla material, fem diabetessköterskor intervjuades. Den efterföljande analysen är inspirerad av hermeneutisk metod. Resultatet av studien visar att patienten själv måste hitta sin motivation, det finns inget sätt för diabetessköterskan att konkret hjälpa sin patient att hitta den. Diabetessköterskans uppgift är att finnas där när patienten själv hittat sin motivation, och leda patienten rätt. / To change your way of living is not easy, but in many cases it might be necessary to sustain a good health. An example of this is when you get a diagnosis of diabetes and the first treatment is a change of lifestyle, especially concerning diet, exercise and no smoking. Former studies have shown that the patient has to be motivated to change their lifestyle and this is the opinion of diabetes nurses in this study as well. It is important that the patient takes the responsibility for the disease because it’s only himself who can change the lifestyle. The aim of this study was to look into how the diabetes nurses helped the patients to find motivation to a change of lifestyle. Five nurses were interviewed. A qualitative field survey has been used to gather the material and the following analysis is inspired of the hermeneutic method. Results of the study show that the patients have to find the motivation on their own and that the diabetes nurse doesn’t have a concrete way of helping him or her. The nurse’s task is to be there when the patient has found the motivation and lead them on to the right track.

The concept of emotional branding has not received much attention from the academic community. Emotional branding is a powerful and advantageous instrument. It links brand to the customers, makes customers identify themselves with the brand, adapts brand to customers’ way of life, and makes brand more reliable in customers´ eyes. Simply defined, emotional branding is about fulfilment of peoples’ needs. This dissertation explores and analyses factors, which explain the concept emotional branding. After having reviewed the literature in the area of branding and emotions, the authors of the dissertation create an explanatory model. This model consists of four factors: Trust, Personality, Lifestyle, and Relationship. Four propositions are formulated in order to test the model. The suggested theory was tested in a laboratory experiment with a Multi-method qualitative study. The conclusion of the research conducted is that emotional branding, indeed, can be explained by four factors; Trust, Lifestyle, Personality, and Relationship.

Bakgrund: Hjärt-kärlsjukdom är en av våra vanligaste folksjukdomar iSverige och majoriteten av dessa kan, med hjälp av vården, förebyggasgenom livsstilförändringar. Trots en medvetenhet hos individen om attdennas vanor är ohälsosamma är förändringarna svåra att genomföra. Syfte:Syftet var att undersöka vilka omständigheter som försvårarlivsstilsförändringar hos personer med, eller med ökad risk att utveckla,hjärt-kärlsjukdom. Metod: Studien gjordes som en allmän litteraturstudieför att sammanställa aktuell forskning inom området. Sökningar gjordes idatabaserna cinahl, PubMed och PsycINFO och resulterade i 10 kvalitativaartiklar. Resultat: De fem huvudkategorierna i studien var: bristandeinformation från vårdpersonal, fysiska och praktiska hinder, upplevda kravfrån omgivningen och deltagarna själva, bristande stöd från vårdpersonaloch närstående, konflikt mellan förnuft och känsla. Hindrande faktorer förlivsstilsförändringar visade sig vara information som inte var anpassad efterindividernas levnadsförhållanden och förutsättningar, att individen kändebristande kontroll över den egna hälsan och sjukdomsutvecklingen samt attprioriteringen för livsstilsförändringar minskade när tiden gick ochsymtomen avklingade. Diskussion: Vid arbetet med livsstilsförändringar ärdet viktigt att vårdpersonal utgår från individen och gör denna delaktig iförändringsarbetet. Genom att erbjuda ett långsiktigt stöd där informationkontinuerligt fylls på, förtydligas och upprepas samt att frågor kan besvaraskan förmågan att genomföra livsstilförändringar öka. / Background: Cardiovascular disease is one of the most common nationaldiseases in Sweden and the majority of cases can be prevented by lifestylechanges. Despite the fact that patients frequently demonstrate a high degreeof awareness with regards to the effect that negative lifestyle habits mayhave on their health it is often difficult to implement the required changes.Purpose: The aim was to investigate the circumstances which makelifestyle changes difficult for individuals with cardiovascular disease andthose at risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Method: The study wasconducted with view to gathering and evaluating literature on researchrelating to the subject. Searches were made in the databases Cinahl, PubMedand PsycINFO and resulted in 10 qualitative articles. Result: The five maincategories in this study were: lack of information from health professionals,physical and practical barriers, perceived demands from their socialenvironment as well as demands participants have on themselves, lack ofsupport from health professionals and conflict between reason and emotions.Hindering factors for lifestyle changes proved to be information that was notadjusted to participants’ living conditions and circumstances, thatindividuals felt lack of control over their own health and diseasedevelopment and lower prioritization of lifestyle changes as time went andthe symptoms faded away. Discussion: When supporting lifestyle changes,it is important that health professionals in their treatment closely involve theindividual and that the individual’s personal needs are taken intoconsideration. The chance of successfully implementing preventive lifestylechanges greatly increases if information is updated, clarified, repeated andany questions arising are answered.