published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Master / Master of Public Health

<p>Hälsosamma levnadsvanor är en viktig förutsättning för att skapa en positiv hälsoutveckling och kostvanor, fysisk aktivitet och stress är faktorer som påverkar hälsan. Till följd av den senare tidens förändringar i samhället har befolkningens levnadsvanor förändrats till en mer ohälsosam kost, fysisk inaktivitet, och stressen har ökat. De förändrade levnadsvanorna har påverkat folkhälsan, och att satsa på dessa områden i folkhälsoarbetet kan ge betydelsefulla hälsovinster. Landstinget Västmanland driver ett projekt med syftet att främja hälsosamma levnadsvanor. I projektet ingår ”Kom i form gruppen” som är en gruppverksamhet som inriktas på kost, fysisk aktivitet och stress. Syftet var att undersöka deltagarnas upplevelser av deltagandet i ”Kom i form gruppen” och om deltagandet har påverkat deras levnadsvanor. För att besvara syftet användes en kvalitativ metod med intervjuer. Resultatet visar att innehållet på träffarna inte har gett någon ny kunskap. Deltagandet har gett medvetenhet och motivation och upplevelsen om kostvanor har påverkats varierar mellan deltagarna. Deltagarnas motionsvanor har påverkats genom regelbundna motionstillfällen och vardagsmotion. Påverkan på stress har inte skett men de försöker att tänka på att stressa mindre. Tidsbrist och stress upplevs dock som ett hinder för att leva hälsosamt.</p> / <p>Healthy lifestyles are an important condition for creating a positive health and dietary habits, physical activity and stress are factors that affect health. As a result of recent changes in society people's lifestyles have changes through unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and stress has increased. Changing lifestyles have affected public health, and to invest in these areas in public health work can provide significant health benefits. Västmanland County Council operates a project to promote healthy behavior. The project includes "Kom i form gruppen" which is a group that focuses on nutrition, physical activity and stress. The aim was to investigate participants' experiences of participation in "Kom i form gruppen" and if the participation has affected their lifestyles. To answer the purpose, a qualitative approach with interviews used. The result shows that the content of the meetings has not identified any new knowledge. Participation has provided awareness and motivation and appreciation of food habits have been affected varied between participants. The participants' exercise habits have been affected by regular exercise occasions and everyday physical activity. Effect of stress has not been made, but they try to think about to rush less. Lack of time and stress, however, perceived as an impediment to healthy living.</p>

生活型態目前是行銷學界普遍可見的名詞，台灣地區亦有很多生活型態的相關研究，然而這些研究多屬於特定化生活型態研究，而非一般化的生活型態研究，缺乏對台灣消費者的整體認識。以政治大學社資中心為例，自成立以來社資中心共收錄有316篇生活型態相關之碩士論文，研究標的遍佈各種產業和各種族群，卻沒有可以概觀地描述台灣普羅大眾的一般化生活型態研究，由此可見台灣學術界存在有「台灣整體民眾一般化生活型態研究」之缺口，本研究將進行台灣地區消費者的一般化生活型態研究的跨期比較，首先對E-ICP東方消費者行銷資料庫資料進行因素分析，探討歷年來台灣人的生活型態概況，再以迴歸分析探討台灣人生活型態及其行為背後的主要價值觀變遷，幫助大眾進一步建立對台灣消費者生活型態與價值觀的整體認識並解讀其改變情形。 本研究以1998年為主軸，透過因素分析和信度分析選取出流行傾向、追求自我、平和謹慎的生活習慣、社群參與度、都會傾向、獨立自主的生活、尊重權威、宗教信仰傾向、不確定的自我、積極進取的工作觀、新兩性觀、嚮往西方社會、社交活躍度十三個因素，再以迴歸分析探討這十三個因素在1994年到2002年間的趨勢變化，發現斜率項顯著的有流行傾向、社群參與度、都會傾向、不確定的自我、積極進取的工作觀、新兩性觀、嚮往西方社會、社交活躍度等七個因素。追求自我、平和謹慎的生活習慣、獨立自主的生活、尊重權威、宗教信仰傾向、嚮往西方社會等六個因素則呈現迴歸模式不顯著的分析結果。 本研究的限制有三，第一是量表之周延性有待商榷、第二是資料非panel data，不能進行與時間有關的統計分析、第三是無法反應新因素，並建議學者可進行後續研究，建立本土的資料庫與量表，以發展出適合台灣地區的本土一般化生活型態量表，並進行長期調查，予以修正，彌補本量表所缺乏之周延性與穩固性。

Through understanding the way in which design can contribute in a holistic way to sustainability, this thesis investigates and proposes the design methods, and characteristics of sustainable products, services or systems capable of contributing to our happiness, hence shaping and promoting society towards sustainable lifestyles. It presents the first indications of the relationship between Happiness and Sustainable Design. The review of a vast array of phenomena (Happiness, Sustainable Lifestyles/Society, Sustainable Product Design, Consumption Behaviour, and the emerging Role of the Designer), shed light on this relationship, as well as making evident the social gap that represents within sustainable design. This led to the development of an Initial Theory to bridge this gap, which then proposed the development of new design theories and tools and also a radical evolution of the design discipline. Preliminary Testing with sustainable design thinkers validated this theory and pointed out other interesting avenues in order to develop and test it further. Subsequently, through an exploratory and iterative approach, with the Initial Theory at the heart of the research, the Design for Happiness workshop framework emerged and took shape. Two pilot studies and a first study facilitated its planning, development and implementation, which ultimately led to a strong Design Process and Tool-Kit. In addition, two Main Studies confirmed its effectiveness and put forward a robust conceptual design outcome; the trials of which demonstrated its success and high potential to contribute to Happiness and Sustainable Lifestyles. Overall, the results and findings of this research demonstrated that material changes can take place without having to do without social networks which feed our happiness. The Design for Happiness workshop framework is a practical proposal that encourages multidisciplinary groups to reinterpret the relationship between objects and users, hence approaching design from a different perspective that results in innovative conceptual designs. Here, the designer becomes a process facilitator who shares design tools, encouraging participation in the construction of collective and integrated design visions and scenarios. Creativity and Sustainability are pivotal pillars of this proposal and its success is anchored in its capacity to deliver a collection of experiences that contribute to happiness through the way in which they require people to live in general. It also challenges the evolution of the Design discipline and its consequential theoretical development. The relationship between Design, Sustainability and Happiness is new territory. This research is the first on the subject of Sustainable Design and Happiness, therefore offering a groundbreaking opportunity for design, designers, and its practical applications.

There are many opportunities for consumers to design their lives more sustainably. While a rapidly growing body of literature has investigated how consumers can reduce carbon footprints in key con- sumption areas, such as food, housing and mobility, an overall framework that allows structuring those options across all consumption areas is still missing. Hence, this paper presents a novel and systematic framework to identify improvement options that promote climate change mitigation and structure them based on their primary mode of impact on GHG emissions. The framework targets consumer practices and focuses on ambitious, but technically and socioeconomically feasible strategies for consumers to lower their carbon footprint. Four major categories for reducing consumption-based emissions form the basic framework, which are then subdivided into behavioural strategies and sub-strategies. The practical application of the framework is illustrated by using food consumption as an example. Systematically identifying improvement options can advance a holistic understanding of the range of behavioural strategies targeting consumer choices that operate at different stages in the supply chain. It thus provides a starting point for addressing critical questions related to the role of consumers in supporting climate change mitigation. (authors' abstract)

This programme of research was focused on developing a better understanding of pro-environmental behaviours and pro-environmental behaviour change, with consideration of the powerful effect of habits in thinking, affect and behaviour. Habit networks are discussed with reference to HOT topics (Habits, Opportunities and Thoughts), and explored empirically within the context of the FIT Framework (Fletcher & Stead, 2000). This programme of research started with a literature review on established models of pro-environmental behaviour. It found a large degree of similarity in the approaches used to conceptualise pro-environmental behaviour, and suggested the need to explore pro-environmental activity from different perspectives. The FIT Framework was then presented as an alternative approach. FIT variables measure the strength of an individual's cognitive characteristics and their degree of behavioural flexibility using the FIT Profiler (Fletcher, 1999). The empirical studies presented in this programme of research suggest that levels of personal FITness are related to engagement with pro-environmental activity and the extent to which lifestyles are environmentally sustainable. Study 1 (N = 325) explored the relationships between FITness and measures of pro-environmental activity, and Study 2 (N = 134) sought to confirm these relationships in a different sample. Both studies found positive relationships between levels of personal FITness and pro-environmental activity. Based on these results, it was suggested that FIT offers a useful alternative framework to study pro-environmental activity. Studies 3 (N = 75) and 4 (N = 100) considered the performance of pro-environmental behaviours in different sites of practice, as follow-up to the differences that emerged in Studies 1 and 2. They also explored the perceived influence of intrinsic and extrinsic variables on energy saving in home and work settings. The results suggested that the pro-environmental behaviours that are performed at home are often not transferred to the workplace and this might be because extrinsic factors in an organisational setting constrain action. Higher levels of personal FITness helped to align behaviours with intrinsic beliefs; individuals with higher levels of FITness behaved as they felt they ought to, whereas individuals with lower levels of FITness behaved as they were told to. It was suggested, therefore, that higher levels of FITness might support behavioural consistency across contexts. Study 5 (N = 95) explored the extent to which pro-environmental behaviours are characterised by habit and how the strength of habit changes according to level of personal FITness. The results suggested that people act pro-environmentally within distinct behaviour categories and this has little or no bearing on their propensity to behave in an environmentally friendly way in other areas. Habits can have a positive influence on the performance of pro-environmental behaviour but a negative influence on behaviour change. The empirical results suggest that a higher level of FITness might help people to engage more readily with pro-environmental behaviours that are performed less frequently. It was, therefore, suggested that developing levels of personal FITness might help individuals to extend their behavioural repertoire and be sufficiently flexible to include more pro-environmental behaviours, including those that are, at present, characterised less by habit. A second literature review on interventions for pro-environmental behaviour change found that many techniques have been developed from the perspective of bounded rationality and have assumed that the provision of information will initiate behaviour change. These approaches are often ineffective because of the resistive effects of habit. In light of this and the findings of the empirical studies, a FIT-based behaviour change intervention, named here as Do Something Greener, was developed as an alternative approach to address directly the problem of habit. Overall, this programme of research suggests that the influence of habits, opportunities, and thoughts should be considered in the study of pro-environmental activity. Further research exploring the effectiveness of Do Something Greener for pro-environmental behaviour change is necessary and planned as the next step in this programme of research. By exploring pro-environmental behaviour from a different perspective, it is hoped that this programme of research has also challenged some of the habitual tendencies that researchers are themselves starting to develop in relation to the study of pro-environmental behaviour, and that it has added a degree of eclecticism and pragmatism to psychological approaches to pro-environmental behaviour change. It is hoped that this will help to set a more practically oriented agenda for future research.

Problem: The concept of marketing segmentation was introduced over 60 years ago and have been a central element in the process of conducting customer analysis since then. However, it has barely been criticized. Consequently, companies have constructed their communication strategies upon segmentation criteria’s with the belief of it being the most effective alternative. As digitalization has changed the way in which information is retrieved and the way people communicate with one another, the customer analysis process should be adapted accordingly.   Purpose: This study aimed to explore how customer analysis is performed by professionals in the marketing field today and identify which factors professionals find essential when communicating with their target audience.   Method: To fulfil the purpose of this research and answer the research questions, a qualitative research approach with a case study was conducted. Semi-structured interviews with eight Swedish professionals in the field of marketing was held in the empirical data collection process.   Conclusion:   The analysis of the interviews showed that there is an understanding of new perspectives when conducting customer analysis among professionals today. Furthermore, acknowledgments were made that for marketing communication to be effective, changes in customer demand and individuals life context should be taken into account. Based on these results, we conclude that segmentation criteria’s might be less relevant when identifying prospects and communicating with target audiences today. Moreover, companies should become familiar with their customer's preparatory understandings, as this premise could be used as a complement to segmentation when identifying prospects and performing effective marketing communication.

Esta investigação tem por objetivo compreender como mulheres imigrantes constróem no espaço da cidade formas de convívio e negociações, conseguem acolhimento e respostas às suas necessidades e investem no pertencimento de redes sociais de apoio configurando novas formas de levar suas vidas. A partir de contato inicial realizado em uma instituição religiosa na cidade de São Paulo que recebe mulheres estrangeiras selecionaram-se cinco dessas mulheres: três solicitantes de refúgio, uma imigrante e uma egressa de sistema prisional propondo-se a pesquisadora a acompanhá-las, em diferentes períodos e situações, nas suas atividades cotidianas. A proposta possibilitou a realização de uma etnografia e observação participante em profundidade de seus itinerários na cidade. Os itinerários percorridos e acompanhados pela pesquisa mostraram diversas formas de construção de sociabilidade e de novas estratégias na vida dessas mulheres bem como diferentes modos de relação com as instituições às quais elas recorriam para apoio. De modo geral, percebe-se que, sendo mulheres, e estrangeiras, a transitoriedade de suas estadas na cidade é atravessada por interações com outras pessoas, com um trabalho ou uma atividade de lazer ou mesmo com as instituições de ajuda. Dentre estas interações percebe-se que as relações de ajuda efetiva se dão, principalmente, nos espaços fora das instituições, ou seja, nas redes de sociabilidade criadas e nos espaços acessados e acessíveis da cidade. / This study aims to comprehend how immigrant women build, in the space of the city of São Paulo, their interpersonal relationships, their negotiations with the institutions they have to deal with, their support and social networks, resulting in a new way of living their lives. Starting from a contact with one of the religious institutions that offers shelter to foreign women in São Paulo, five inhabitants of this house were met and followed on their routine activities around the city. Those women were three asylum seekers, one economic migrant and one ex-prisoner. This proposal made possible the construction of an ethnography and a participant observation of the itineraries undertaken by them in the city. Those itineraries undertaken by them and followed by this study showed different strategies and social relationships made by those women in the city. In general, the itineraries showed that, by being women and foreigners, their transitional relationship with the city was crossed by the people they meet, their work, their leisure activities and the institutions that were willing to help them. In spite of those interactions, the ones that seem to be more able to offer a significant help to them are the relationships outside the scope of those institutions, meaning the social networks built and the interactions with the accessible and accessed spaces in the city.

RESUMO: Trata-se de uma pesquisa social realizada a partir de pressupostos da sociologia compreensiva em diálogo com autores das áreas da antropologia, psicanálise e psicologia social em que doze sujeitos apresentaram suas trajetórias e respectivos sentidos para o consumo de drogas lícitas e ilícitas em contextos privados. A partir de suas narrativas pôde-se compreender que o consumo de drogas relaciona-se diretamente com o contexto social na qual vivem os sujeitos, trazendo à tona aspectos morais, estéticos e sociais em seus usos. É possível afirmar como resultados da investigação: que a problemática do consumo de drogas envolve a excessiva medicalização e psiquiatrização de comportamentos, além de uma demasiada testagem entre os usuários de fármacos prescritos; a relação entre vulnerabilidade social e pobreza é um indicador superficial para a compreensão do consumo de drogas, em que a vulnerabilidade não está e não deve ser circunscrita à pobreza, e pessoas de camadas sociais mais favorecidas também fazem uso de drogas das mais diversas e por razões semelhantes àqueles que vivem em situação economicamente desfavorecida; a narrativa oriunda da comunidade científica no tratamento das drogas como um problema de saúde pública legitima o saber biomédico; o consumo do uso de drogas faz parte de um modo e estilo de vida contemporâneos para o alívio, anestesia e recreação de nosso tempo social; a produção de categorias científicas referentes aos usuários de drogas e aos seus estilos de vida acaba por transformar esse saber-poder em mercado para a comunidade científica e médico-jurídica; e, por fim, que o consumo de drogas não é um problema de saúde pública, a priori, principalmente, no que diz respeito ao uso das chamadas ilícitas, mas faz parte de um regime de moralidades. Nesse contexto, é o uso excessivo de fármacos prescritos e sua testagem em consumidores que devem ser olhados como problema de saúde pública, já o consumo de drogas ilícitas torna-se uma questão de saúde pública apenas na medida em que o usuário e/ou seu entorno justificam seu consumo como problemático a partir de uma construção social em que os saberes da medicina e da justiça tratam-no como sendo / ABSTRACT: This is a social research study based on the assumptions of interpretative sociology (Verstehen), in dialogue with authors from the areas of anthropology, psychoanalysis and social psychology, in which twelve subjects presented their personal histories and respective meanings in relation to the consumption of licit and illicit drugs in private contexts. From these narratives it was possible to comprehend that the consumption of drugs is directly related to the social context in which the subjects live, thereby bringing to light the moral, aesthetic and social aspects of their uses. It is possible to affirm the following results from the research: that the issue of drug consumption includes the excessive medicalization and psychiatrization of behaviors, in addition to excessive testing among users of prescribed drugs; the relationship between social vulnerability and poverty is a superficial indicator in the understanding of drug use, considering that vulnerability is not and should not be circumscribed to poverty since people from the most favored social strata also use a wide range of drugs for reasons similar to those of individuals in economically disadvantaged situations; the scientific community´s narrative in the treatment of drugs as a public health problem legitimizes biomedical knowledge; drug use exists as part of contemporary lifestyles and ways of life to provide relief, anesthesia and recreation during our social time; the production of scientific categories for drug users and their lifestyles ends up transforming this know-how into a market for the scientific and medical-legal community; and, finally, that drug use is not a public health problem a priori, especially with regard to the use of so-called illicit drugs, but exists within the context of a set of moral codes. In this context, it is the excessive use of prescription drugs and their testing on consumers that should be regarded as a public health problem, while the consumption of illicit drugs becomes a public health issue only to the extent that the user and/or his/her environment justify their consumption as \'problematic\' as a result of the social construction in which medical and legal knowledge considers them as such

Despite having the highest life expectancy rate in the world, Hong Kong people do not necessarily lead a healthy life and may suffer from various ailments due to unhealthy lifestyle. For example, more than half of the adult population does not meet the recommended standard of physical activity set by the World Health Organization. Health status of individuals is influenced by different factors such as healthcare input, biological endowment, environment, and lifestyle. Among these factors, only the factor of lifestyle can be managed by an individual. What people can do to improve their health status is to manipulate or change their lifestyle. The present study examines the relationship between lifestyle parameters and self-rated health status of the adult population in Hong Kong. The relationship between physical activity, eating behavior, smoking behavior, and alcohol drinking behavior of individuals on self-rated physical and mental health were analyzed. A total of 1,277 samples were collected among 18 districts in Hong Kong. Structural equation modeling and regression analysis were employed to specify the relationship between lifestyle behavior and individual self-rated health status. Two-way analysis of variance was used to examine the lifestyle behavior across gender and three categorical groups (i.e. age group, education level, marital status). For the physical health, the relationships between eating behavior and physical health, smoking dependence and physical health, alcohol dependence and physical health were negative but statistically insignificant. For the mental health, the relationships between eating behavior and mental health, and smoking dependence and mental health were negative but statistically insignificant. The present study is the pioneer to use latent variables of cigarette dependence and alcohol dependence as a measure of substance use in the empirical tests of Grossman model. Also, this study overcomes the limitations that using one categorical item in measuring self-rated health. The results of the present study provide information on lifestyles and health that can be used by policy-makers, the community, and other stakeholders to promote advocacy and revamp public health policies and practices. It can also provide evidence to guide the development and implementation of public health promotion campaign.