Improved health indicators, mental and physical health outcomes, and sustainable lifestyle practices have been found among yoga practitioners. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of mixed styles of yoga practice on the health and behaviors of yoga practitioners. The relationship between yoga and body mass index (BMI), self-reported disease diagnosis, participation in other types of physical activity, adoption of healthy and sustainable lifestyle and dietary behaviors, perceived improvements in medical conditions that yoga was used to treat, quality of life resulting from yoga practice, and the reasons for beginning and continuing yoga were observed and tested in this study. Participants (N = 383) were adult yoga practitioners who were recruited using systematic sampling in Facebook social media. Data were analyzed using multiple linear regression, ANOVA, McNemar Chi square, and Spearman's correlation. Mean BMI for all yoga styles were in the normal range; however, ashtanga yoga was a significant predictor of low BMI. Self-reported disease diagnosis was significantly lower after beginning yoga practice. The majority of participants also engaged in other types of physical activity and adopted many healthy lifestyle practices. However, general/hatha and other styles of yoga were associated with adopting a greater number of other physical activities and general/hatha, ashtanga, and yoga therapy styles were associated with adopting a greater number of healthy and sustainable lifestyle and dietary behaviors. Medical conditions that yoga was used to treat and quality of life were perceived to be improved as a result of yoga practice. Results of this study confirm previous research findings that demonstrate numerous positive health outcomes from yoga practice.

Cette thèse s’intéresse aux questions de soutenabilité dans le financement de la santé au sein des pays à revenus faible et intermédiaire. Elle est articulée autour de quatre chapitres. Les deux premiers chapitres proposent respectivement d’explorer les déterminants de l’efficience technique des dépenses de santé et de leur niveau par habitant dans les pays à revenus faible et intermédiaire. Le premier chapitre analyse l’effet de l’ouverture commerciale sur l’efficience technique des dépenses de santé. Le second chapitre étudie l’effet de la pollution de l’air sur les dépenses de santé. Dans les deux derniers chapitres, nous nous focalisons sur les pays d’Afrique subsaharienne. Le troisième chapitre étudie le rôle que joue le financement prépayé de la santé pour l’amélioration de la santé dans les ménages tandis que le quatrième chapitre se fixe pour objectif d’analyser les déterminants des dépenses prépayées de santé en se focalisant plus particulièrement sur l’instabilité politique. / This thesis focuses on the sustainability issues in health financing in low-and middle –income countries. It is articulated around four chapters. The two first chapters propose to respectively explore the determinants of technical efficiency of health expenditures and their level per capita in low-and middle –income countries. The first chapter analyzes trade openness effect on the technical efficiency of health expenditures. The second chapter investigates air pollution effect on health expenditures. In the two last chapters, we focus on Sub-Saharan African countries. The third chapter studies the role that plays prepayment health financing for health improvement in households whereas the fourth one sets the goal to analyze the determinants of prepayment health expenditures, by particularly focusing on political instability.

Sickness absence not only causes significant costs for organizations but also leads to other negative consequences for individuals and societies. Previous research has shown that working with organizational values within Quality Management affects job satisfaction and results in increased profitability and customer satisfaction. There would, in addition, seem to be great gains if managers, by working with Quality Management, can manage to establish sustainable health among co-workers.   The purpose of the research described in this thesis was to examine how Quality Management could be practised in order to support sustainable health among co-workers and what it is within Quality Management that influences sustainable co-worker health. Accordingly, the purpose was also to contribute to the understanding of the relation between sustainable health and Quality Management. To fulfil this purpose, three research questions were asked. The results are described in three parts related to the three research questions and are the product of six case studies carried out in seven different organizations.   Interviews with managers and workshops with co-workers were carried out to investigate how Quality Management can be practised within organizations in order to promote sustainable co-worker health. These investigations took place in four organizations that had received awards. Three had been awarded for their excellence in leadership, work environment and co-workership, along with improved profitability; one for its successful implementation of quality programmes. The results are descriptions of methodologies, behaviours, values and organization structure used by the organizations to support sustainable health. These are exemplified with practical examples. The methodologies, behaviours, values, and organizational structure are considered possible for other organizations to adopt and all of them are already supported in the quality, management and leadership literature. Support from the health literature is also found for most of the behaviours, methodologies, values, and organizational structure.   Surveys and focus groups interviews were carried out in five different organizations in order to find out what is of most importance when practising Quality Management in order to influence sustainable co-worker health. The results pointed to ‘Leadership Commitment’ as the most central of the values for achieving sustainable health among the co-workers. Furthermore, the values ‘Continuous Improvements’, ‘Participation of Everybody’ and ‘Customer Orientation’ were found to be related to sustainable health among the co-workers. The values ‘Leadership Commitment’ and the value ‘Participation of Everybody’ were then further elaborated to find aspects of importance for sustainable co-worker health. From the value ‘Leadership Commitment’ four aspects were extracted. These were labelled ‘Empathy’, ‘Presence and Communication’, ‘Integrity’, and ‘Continuity’. The results showed relations between the value ‘Leadership Commitment’ within Quality Management and sustainable health among the co-workers. Thus it is essential for leaders to work in accordance with that value to achieve results in the work towards sustainable co-worker health. The results indicate that this requires management and leadership that are characterized by the aspects above. The leaders have to:   • Really understand the co-workers and their work situation. • Be present and available for co-workers and communicate with them. • Act as a role model, be fair and keep their promises. • Stay in their positions long enough to build up trust and confidence.   The value ‘Participation of Everybody’ has also been shown to be related to sustainable health among the co-workers. This indicates that it is important to work in accordance with that value in the struggle to achieve sustainable health among the co-workers. The results imply that this value is characterized by the aspects ‘Development’, ‘Influence’ and ‘Being informed’. This could be done by:   • Giving the co-workers opportunities to develop their skills and develop personally. • Letting the co-workers influence their work situation and taking suggestions and proposals from them seriously. • Having good communication within the whole organization.   To manage this; the managers have to delegate more and empower the co-workers.   These results were then further elaborated within another organization in order to develop a measurement approach that can clarify the extent to which the values, ‘Leadership Commitment’ and ‘Participation of Everybody’ permeate an organization. The developed measurement approach can be used to clarify the extent to which the organization is practising the health-promoting values within Quality Management and in what areas improvement is needed to increase co-worker health. The approach can also help the organization to detect those shortcomings within the management which are important for co-worker well-being. The developed measurement approach can be used to establish and enhance co-worker health by improving their well-being, satisfaction and motivation.

Our modern health care system requires technology that can deal with multidisciplinary and complex processes, operations, and situations. The EHR, by far, is one of the greatest health information technology innovations that satisfy these requirements because of its efficiency and the effectiveness of its features. This study sought to develop an in-depth understanding of how underserved patients' perspectives about their health and illness, can contribute to greater use of the EHR. It also sought to improve their health outcomes and maintain sustainable change in the lives of the underserved. A quantitative non-experimental design study was conducted over a 6-week period outside of three different internal medicine clinics, one in the Northwestern and the two others in the Southeastern regions of Washington, DC. Surveys were distributed directly to patients coming out of these health clinics, and participants sent their responses via mail. Data collection included 215 surveys out of 560, but, only 155 fit the overall study categories. A strong level of significance in the relationships between clinical outcome measures and the EHR was identified at a 95% confidence interval. There were considerable health determinants that demonstrated the essence of patients' perspectives and the need for its incorporation into health outcomes measures for the underserved populations. The study also identified sets of environmental health predictors which acted as facilitators and contributors to a holistic health management model designed to contribute to the needs of the underserved communities. The holistic health model and the individual care plan model derived from the study are applicable at the level of the underserved population. It can help achieve sustainable health outcomes that will save lives and promote better health.