Doctor of Philosophy / This study explores the health beliefs and preventive health behaviours of older Hong Kong Chinese people resident in Australia. Participation in physical activity was used as the case study. There were two frameworks used to shape the research. Because of their perceived influence on the health beliefs and practices of Hong Kong Chinese people, the traditional Chinese philosophies of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism provided the philosophical framework. The Theory of Planned Behaviour provided a theoretical framework for understanding the target group's preventive health behaviour. Data was collected by means of in-depth interviews, participant observation and case study. Twenty-two informants were interviewed, their transcripts analysed, summarised and typologised, identifying six states of physical activity participation. Findings demonstrated that this target group possessed a holistic view of health, with food taking a special role in preventive care and self-treatment at times of illness. The Cantonese terms used to denote “physical activity” caused confusion among the target group. Most interpreted it as meaning deliberate planned body movement, strength-enhancing activities or exercise, although some did see it as including mundane daily activities and chores. Lack of time, no interest and laziness were reported as the main reasons for low participation in deliberate planned physical activity. Cultural, social and environmental determinants were the intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing attitudes toward physical activity, as well as perceived social supports and perceived control over physical activity participation barriers. To a large extent, these interactive determinants of health were rooted in the three traditional Chinese philosophies mentioned above. The thesis concludes by arguing that rather than simply advocating activities designed for other populations, health promotion strategies and education need to create links to the traditions of this target group and also clarify their conception of physical activity.

Chronic Diseases are the major cause of mortality around the world, accounting for 7 out of 10 deaths each year in the United States. Because of its adverse effect on the quality of life, it has become a major problem globally. Health care costs involved in managing these diseases are also very high. In this thesis, we will focus on two major chronic diseases Asthma and Diabetes, which are among the leading causes of mortality around the globe. It involves design and development of a predictive analytics based decision support system which uses five supervised machine learning algorithm to predict the occurrence of Asthma and Diabetes. This system helps in controlling the disease well in advance by selecting its best indicators and providing necessary feedback. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The purpose of this study was to investigate the preferred method of learning about heart disease by adult learners. This research study also investigated if there was a statistically significant difference between race/ethnicity, age, and gender of adult learners and their preferred method of learning preventative heart disease care. This research study further explored the effectiveness of adult education on reducing or preventing serious, life-threatening heart disease, including heart attack. This research is of significant importance as the adult population and age in many developed countries is increasing. It was anticipated that the study would unearth the effectiveness of various educational methods of providing information to adult learners to inform them how to prevent heart attacks. For this quantitative investigation, participants were limited to students enrolled in at least one college course (three credit hours) at the Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton campus who were 25 years of age or older. During the course of this study, three methods of learning; formal, informal, and non-formal, as well as two delivery methods; online and traditional, were evaluated. Over one third of the study’s participants (35%) preferred to receive healthrelated information via email (35%). This major finding was statistically significant (x² (6) = 82.171; p < .001). Further, statistically significant findings were manifest for study participants for omnibus age grouping and in the 25-35 years of age grouping, for those who were White and Hispanic by ethnic background, and for both females and males participating in this study. The results of this research may assist health department administrators in utilizing varying methods for distributing health information, keeping the preferred knowledge acquisition method of students on college and university campuses especially in mind. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Introduction - Eighty five per cent of Australians visit a GP each year, but do not receive all of the preventive care which is indicated for them. There have been no controlled trials of the effects of on-screen preventive care reminders in Australian general practice, and there is little published research examining characteristics of patients, doctors and consultations associated with the performance of preventive services in general practice. This study aimed to measure the effects of opportunistic reminders and to explore previously unexamined patient, GP and consultation factors associated with performance of preventive activities. The hypotheses were : a ) that general practitioners who were using a computer medical record system would take at least fifteen per cent more of opportunities to perform preventive care activities if they were reminded ; b ) that this would occur without any significant increase in the number of consultations or in patient billings ; and c ) that every characteristic of patients, GPs, consultations and preventive opportunities would be significantly associated with the performance of the preventive activities. Method - All patients who attended a ten GP fully computerised practice during one year were enrolled and randomised either to an intervention group, for whom the GPs received opportunistic on-screen reminders about eleven preventive activities, or to a 'usual care' control group. Performance by the GPs of the preventive activities was recorded automatically and correlated with routinely-collected demographic and clinical information about the patients and billing data. Results - For the intervention group compared to the control group, the GPs took thirty two per cent more of the preventive opportunities without any increase in numbers of services or in patient billings. Every characteristic of patients, GPs, consultations and preventive opportunities was independently associated with the performance of at least two of the preventive activities. Discussion - This trial has shown that a low cost minimally-intrusive intervention in the form of automated opportunistic reminder messages can significantly improve GPs' performance of preventive care activities. The findings of this trial may help to improve the design and effectiveness of opportunistic reminders in clinical software, and provide direction about possible changes to the health system which may foster increased provision of preventive care. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Population Health and Clinical Practice, Discipline of General Practice, 2006.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

No abstract available. / Thesis (MMed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Univ., 2004. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Australia, 2007.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1994. / Includes tables and appendices. Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Nancy Lovejoy. Dissertation Committee: Marvin Sontag. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-71).