Diabetes is one of the most common chronic medical conditions with 34.2 million people affected in the US. It costs $327 billion in medical expenses, lost work, and wages. Diabetics are at higher risk of major medical complications. 90 to 95% of 30 million Americans with diabetes are classified as type 2 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). Management of diabetes is within the scope of OT practice as it is part of health management and maintenance. It is described as how a person develops, manages, and maintains routines and habits for health and wellness promotion. A 2018 online survey was conducted with US-based Occupational Therapy (OT) and Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) program directors. Nearly half of the OT and more than half of the OTA program directors reported only 1.5–>3hrs is devoted to diabetes care and management in their curriculum. A 2019 online survey was disseminated to OT practitioners to ascertain their self-reported competence and knowledge about type 2 diabetes mellitus and its lifestyle management. OT clinicians reported minimal to somewhat skilled in educating and training clients in self-help skills related to diabetes management. OT practitioners are suggested to take training and courses that are relevant to their practice and domain for long-term retention of content and tasks (Custers, 2010). The American Occupational Therapy Association encourages OT practitioners to include health-promoting tasks in their practice as the profession’s roots and values are aligned with the health promotion (Wood, et al., 2013).

It has often been claimed that contemporary societies are shaped by globalization; the rapid interconnections of societies, economies, markets, flows and information potentially linking all places in the world to each other. In search for experiences, variation, escape or comfort, individuals are travelling, circulating, and migrating between places, challenging the notions of ‘home’ and ‘away’, ‘everyday’ and ‘extraordinary’. This thesis addresses the ways lifestyle-led mobilities are produced and performed, by studying the mobility trajectories and experiences of Swedes dividing their time seasonally between Sweden and Malta. It explores how movers are faced with a structural framework that both facilitates and directs their choices concerning mobility, and how they interpret and respond to these structures. It also explores the imaginaries, meanings, and feelings for place, identity, and lifestyle that the movers negotiate through their mobility practices and through the links they create and sustain in places. Thus, this thesis is situated in an evolving field of research on lifestyle mobilities. Lifestyle mobilities are here defined as those mobility practices undertaken by individuals based on their freedom of choice, of a temporal or more permanent duration, with or without any significant ‘home base(s)’, that are primarily driven by aspirations to increase ‘quality of life’, and that are primarily related to the individuals’ lifestyle values. The thesis is based on four individual papers exploring different aspects lifestyle mobility. The aim is to understand how production and performance aspects of lifestyle mobilities are related, and how notions of identity and belonging are negotiated in relation to lifestyle mobility practices. The production aspect relates to those structures and frameworks that create, facilitate, or sometimes delimit opportunities for lifestyle mobility while the performance aspect focuses on individual agency and meaning of lifestyle mobility practices. The studies are based on in-depth interviews with Swedish movers in Malta, and focus on how structural frameworks and mediations influence the ways that movers manoeuvre, manipulate or adapt to structures and influences in order to arrange their life context to achieve ‘quality of life’. A second aim focuses on the ways that movers reflect upon their identities and belongings as they travel routinely between two (or more) significant places, and how this may influence mobility practices. It is concluded that structures and mediations are both facilitating and delimiting movers’ space of choice regarding mobility decisions. Through their agency, movers negotiate their space of choice by allocating resources and experience, accessing supportive networks and tailoring their access to entitlements. The production and performance aspects of lifestyle mobility practices are interlinked in complex ways.

Obesity, a condition of excess body fat, is one of the most complex problems facing health systems. Lifestyle management programs that combine diet, physical activity, and intensive behavioral therapy have been shown by research to support a degree of weight loss that produces health benefits (i.e., at least a 3-5% initial body weight). However, it has been difficult for research-developed programs to be delivered in typical practice to have a meaningful impact. Integrated research-practice partnerships that involve the coming together of academic researchers, health system administrators, and program delivery staff may help overcome this gap, especially during this transformational time in the healthcare sector. This dissertation aimed to develop an understanding of how using the integrated research-practice approach would facilitate and sustain evidence-based lifestyle management strategies across a health system to treat obesity among patients and employees. An integrated research-practice partnership with Carilion Clinic, a health system in western Virginia, served as an example for the study. From 2013-2016, the Carilion Clinic integrated research-practice partnership conducted a series of trials testing different strategies for delivering weight loss and weight loss maintenance support. An evaluation guided by the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) framework was conducted to describe implementation processes and outcomes for each strategy. Lessons learned from the evaluation support the value of the integrated-research practice partnership approach as a solution for overcoming gaps in obesity care. A shared priority perspective between research and practice was identified as the powerful process for supporting facilitation and sustainability of strategies. In addition, findings from the evaluation produced evidence to inform the future development of a system for Carilion Clinic to help patients and employees lose weight and keep it off through lifestyle management. / Ph. D. / Obesity, a condition of excess body fat, is one of the most complex problems facing health systems. Lifestyle management programs that combine diet, physical activity, and intensive behavioral therapy have been shown by research to support a degree of weight loss that produces health benefits (i.e., at least a 3-5% initial body weight). However, it has been difficult for researchdeveloped programs to be delivered in typical practice to have a meaningful impact. Integrated research-practice partnerships that involve the coming together of academic researchers, health system administrators, and program delivery staff may help overcome this gap, especially during this transformational time in the healthcare sector. This dissertation aimed to develop an understanding of how using the integrated research-practice approach would facilitate and sustain evidence-based lifestyle management strategies across a health system to treat obesity among patients and employees. An integrated research-practice partnership with Carilion Clinic, a health system in western Virginia, served as an example for the study. From 2013-2016, the Carilion Clinic integrated research-practice partnership conducted a series of trials testing different strategies for delivering weight loss and weight loss maintenance support. An evaluation guided by the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) framework was conducted to describe implementation processes and outcomes for each strategy. Lessons learned from the evaluation support the value of the integrated-research practice partnership approach as a solution for overcoming gaps in obesity care. A <i>shared</i> priority perspective between research and practice was identified as the powerful process for supporting facilitation and sustainability of strategies. In addition, findings from the evaluation produced evidence to inform the future development of a system for Carilion Clinic to help patients and employees lose weight and keep it off through lifestyle management.

<p>Savremene organizacije u svojoj svakodnevnoj brizi za isunjavanje postavljenih ciljeva sve češće očekuju od svojih zaposlenih, a naročito menadžera, da budu isključivo posvećeni organizaciji i njenom uspehu. Cilj ovog rada je prikaz konceptualnih i teorijskih pitanja koja se tiču povezanosti stilova upravljanja i stresa na radu kod menadžera, u koja spadaju definisanje navedenih pojmova i njihovo razgraničavanje od srodnih pojmova, pri čemu se stilovi upravljanja posmatraju sa stanovišta situacionog modela liderstva razvijenog od strane Hersija i Blanšarda, a stres sa stanovištva transakcionističke teorije stresa.</p> / <p>Modern organizations in their everyday care for the fulfillment of the goals<br />increasingly expect from their employees, especially managers, to be<br />exclusively committed to the organization and its success. The aim of this<br />paper is to present the conceptual and theoretical issues related to<br />connectivity management styles and stress at work with managers, a group<br />that includes the definition of these terms and their delimitation from related<br />concepts, with a management style viewed from the standpoint of situational<br />leadership model developed by Hersеy and Blanchard, and stress from the<br />viewpoint of transactional theory of stress.</p>