Health-promoting Factors Research Articles

Health-promoting factors for teenager’s mental health; social relations and everyday digital activity

Health-promoting factors for teenager’s mental health; social relations and everyday digital activity

Health-promoting factors for teenager’s mental health; social relations and everyday digital activity

Health-promoting factors for teenager’s mental health; social relations and everyday digital activity

Effects of office workstation type on physical activity and stress

ObjectiveOffice environments have been causally linked to workplace-related illnesses and stress, yet little is known about how office workstation type is linked to objective metrics of physical activity and stress....

Antioxidant and antihypertensive protein hydrolysates in fish products - a review

Fish proteins are a good source of bioactive peptides (BAPs). Such BAPs are derived through enzymatic hydrolysis of food proteins and can potentially by applied as health-promoting factors against chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including arterial hypertension, cardiovascular disease and obesity. Antihypertensive and antioxidant BAPs derived from fish could represent a good alternative to synthetic drugs. This article reviews the literature on BAPs derived from fish and fish products, with an emphasis on antihypertensive and antioxidant properties and the impact of technological processes on the activity of BAPs. The review shows that BAPs isolated from fish exhibit quite good stability when applied under moderate physical conditions and after simulated in vitro digestion. Processing can increase the susceptibility of peptides to digestion in the digestive tract as well as improving absorption and immune system responses. Therefore, it is important to determine the optimal conditions under which proteins (and peptides) can be processed in order to maintain their bioactivity. Future research efforts on BAPs should be directed towards an elucidation of their activity after technological processes.

From breaking point to breakthrough during the ICU stay: A qualitative study of family members' experiences of long-term intensive care patients' pathways towards survival.

To explore family members' experiences of long-term intensive care unit (ICU) patients' pathways towards survival and to highlight family members' efforts to promote the patient's health during the ICU stay. Although considerable research has been devoted to the substantial burden of long-term ICU patients, less attention has been paid to health-promoting factors that facilitate patients' health and survival during ICU stays. Support from family members can improve patient outcome. However, there is little knowledge of the specific contributions provided by family members. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach, within the context of Antonovsky's salutogenic theory and Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of the body, involving the body as the fundament of experience and understanding. In-depth qualitative interviews. Thirteen family members of long-term ICU patients were interviewed once, at six to 18months after ICU discharge. The consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research were used. Three themes were identified: (i) A body at a breaking point; (ii) family members' presence; and (iii) breaking through. In the perspective of the family members, their beloved ones were at a breaking point between life and death. The family's presence was significantly health promoting, demonstrating and communicating love and sensitivity. Moreover, family members' understanding of the patient's unique characteristics and personality was crucial to the patient's experience of being understood, recognised and acknowledged. Inner strength represented a life force capable of moving the patient from the breaking point towards a breakthrough towards life. Family members purposely used their knowledge about the patient to trigger, nurture and release the patient's inner strength. Family presence helps to trigger, arouse and release a patient's inner strength, representing important health-promoting factors facilitating patients' health and survival during an ICU stay. Insights into the unique and vital health-promoting influence of family participation indicate the responsibility of the ICU team to provide support for families.

Internet-based resilience training and prevention of mental disorders

Resilience is associated with apositive and resource-oriented perspective. Therefore, it seems especially attractive for health promotion and prevention. In recent years, interventions to foster resilience have been increasingly developed, which train resilience factors and are mainly conducted in aface to face group format. The question is raised what potential internet-based interventions (i-interventions) that train resilience factors have for health promotion and prevention. Based on anarrative overview, the possibilities for i‑interventions that train resilience factors for health promotion and prevention are investigated and the state of research is described. The effects of the i‑interventions presented here, which aim at fostering resilience, on measures of mental health and well-being are heterogeneous and vary between low to high effects. Stronger evidence for the efficacy of these measures exists for more general i‑interventions that also train resilience factors but are conceptualized for the prevention of specific disorders, such as depression or for stress reduction. Given the heterogeneous nature of intervention contents, theoretical foundations and therapeutic methods used, the heterogeneity of the evidence is discussed. In addition, perspectives for the further development of resource-oriented resilience interventions are outlined.

Variety-specific nutrient acquisition and dehydration-induced proteomic landscape of grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.)

Grasspea, a stress-resilient pulse crop, has largely remained outside the realm of phytochemical and functional genomics analyses despite its high nutritional significance. To unravel the intervarietal variability in nutrient acquisition of grasspea, we conducted a series of physicochemical experiments using two cultivated varieties, LP-24 and Prateek. The analyses revealed high percentage of starch, cellulose, peroxides, carotenoids, phytic acid and minerals in cv. LP-24, whereas large amounts of protein, soluble carbohydrates and antioxidants in Prateek. To dissect the mechanism of stress tolerance, 3-week-old seedlings of cv. LP-24 and Prateek were afflicted with dehydration for a period of 144 h. The physicochemical indices indicated better adaptation in cv. LP-24, with high abundance of proline, phenolics and flavonoids. Dehydration-responsive proteome landscape of cv. LP-24 revealed 152 proteins with variance at a statistically 94% significance level. The comparative proteomics analysis led to the identification of 120 dehydration-responsive proteins (DRPs), most of which were associated with carbohydrate metabolism, amino acid synthesis, antioxidant reactions and cell defense. We report, for the first time, the dehydration-induced proteome landscape of grasspea, whose genome is yet to be sequenced. The results provide unique insights into variety-specific nutrient acquisition attributes and dehydration-tolerance of grasspea. Biological significanceGrasspea is a great source of protein and antioxidants with nitrogen fixing ability, besides its tolerance to multivariate environmental stress as compared to major legume species. This represents the first report on nutrient profile and health-promoting attributes of grasspea. The cultivars under study are nutritionally enriched that possess high protein, amino acids and health-promoting factors and may therefore be projected as a vital part of a healthy diet. Grasspea is known for its hardy nature, water-use efficiency and efficacy as a stress-tolerant pulse. Further, this study portrays the dehydration-responsive proteomic landscape of grasspea. The proteomics analyses provide crucial insights into the dehydration response, presumably orchestrated by proteins belonging to an array of functional classes including photosynthesis, protein and RNA metabolism, protein folding, antioxidant enzymes and defense. The interplay of the differentially regulated proteins might aid in reinforcing the mechanisms of dehydration avoidance and/or tolerance.

Facilitating and limiting factors of workplace health promotion at Rhodes University, South Africa.

Workplace health promotion programs, when well designed and implemented are beneficial to both employees and their employers. To investigate the factors that affect workplace health promotion initiatives intended for support staff at Rhodes University. To explore ways in which future initiatives that aim to reduce the prevalence of non-communicable diseases in the workplace may be improved. A qualitative study, using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with key stakeholders and support staff. All interviews and focus group discussions were voice recorded and then transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were uploaded into NVivo® 10 for coding and thematic analysis. Key stakeholders reported that health promotion initiatives have been attempted and were advertised, however the turnout was poor. The support staff in turn, stated that past initiatives were not tailored to their health needs and they lacked context-specificity and cultural sensitivity. They also suggested improvements for future initiatives such as convenient venues and using films and short plays as a means of delivering health information. Based on inputs from key stakeholders and support staff, there are several factors that affect the success of health promotion initiatives in the workplace. Employees, who are the recipients of the planned initiatives, need to be involved in all stages of the planning and implementation.

Oral health promotion in children suffering from systemic diseases

Introduction: Modern dental medicine steadily aims at preserving the oral health status of the population. This is done not only by operative techniques and removal of affected hard tooth tissues but also by using preventive, non-operative and minimally invasive techniques. Measures are implemented to promote oral health in children and adolescents. Aim: The aim of the present review is to clarify the role of oral health promotion in children suffering from systemic diseases. Materials and Methods: A literature review has been done on the basis of 30 referenced scientific publications from scientific databases.When doing the following literature review, we intended to discuss the already suggested methods of promoting oral health and hygienic status in children and adolescents suffering from certain systemic diseases and conditions and if no methods are already implemented - to suggest possible ones. Results: Our scientific interest marks the specifics of the oral status among children with anemia, epilepsy, diabetes mellitus (type 1), and problems with maintaining a balanced diet. In order to reduce the risks to the general health and well-being of the child by neglecting their oral health, lack of knowledge of the parents and late visits to dental specialists must be minimized. Conclusion: Raising awareness through informational campaigns, visiting hospitalized children, making educational presentations and brochures and demonstrating the correct brushing techniques on phantom jaw models, regular dental check-ups, professional dental and self-care are key factors in oral health promotion. Medical doctors treating the given systemic disease, doctors of dental medicine, general practitioners and parents should work together to keep the balance between general and oral health.

Assessment of psychosocial factors at work: A systematic review

Abstract This paper presents a systematic review of Brazilian and international studies on the assessment of psychosocial factors, published between 2009 and 2015, with emphasis on the analysis of assessment instruments. One of the main interests of this review was to identify, in the published articles, the use of principles of Positive Psychology in the analysis of factors of prevention, promotion and health protection of workers. A total of 5,724 articles were found. Articles that were repeated or not written in Portuguese, English or Spanish were excluded. Thus, after analysis, 410 articles remained. Of these, 69 articles that dealt directly with the evaluation of psychosocial factors at work were selected. Most studies address the pathogenesis of psychosocial factors, but there is increasing number of studies that combine the analyses of pathogenic factors with motivational factors in health promotion and in the study of preserved positive aspects. We found that although the findings indicate an incipient movement concerning some protective factors (social support, creativity, engagement, etc.), there are still few studies in the Positive Psychology approach. We suggest that further studies test integrative theoretical models or stressors and motivational factors to deepen the understanding of the protective factors and positive aspects associated with psychosocial factors at work.

Social Thermalism in Brazilian Public Health: perception of the public health secretaries from municipalities with thermal water sources

Given the immense Brazilian potential, social thermalism are little explored practice as a factor for health promotion. In 2006, the National Policy on Integrative and Complementary Practices was created in Brazil, where the Social Thermalism was included as observatories in public health. However, there are still no results materialized in social thermalism in the country, which means that there is a need for more research, not only about the mineralogical characteristics of mineralmedicinal and thermal water sources, but also public management mechanisms for that thermalism is incorporated into the national health system as a structured practice and beneficial to the quality of community life. Within this scenario, the objective of this study was focused on identifying the perception of members of the Municipal Health Secretaries in ten municipalities, in Santa Catarina estate - south of Brazil, thermal source retainers. The present investigation was done in a qualitative and descriptive way by means of surveys recorded and later transcribed. This initiative was approved by the Ethics Committee of the State Secretariat of Health of Santa Catarina. In the ten cities, two managers in charge of primary health care and ten municipal health secretaries were interviewed about their level of knowledge about balneoterapy, the probability of developing the activity in their region and the possible challenges for implementing social thermalism as an local activity. The data obtained through the surveys were worked through the content analysis and the results were segregated into three categories: (1) General knowledge of managers and secretaries of health about social hydrotherapy; (2) potential for insertion / development of social thermalism in the local public health system; and (3) Difficulties in the implementation of social thermalism as a structured practice in the public health system. With that, it was diagnosed that even if there is a lack of known about this practice, all the interviewees agree that the inclusion of thermalism in the structure of public health will be able to provide preventive and strengthening treatment to the quality of life of citizens. However, the constant change of the Municipal Health Secretaries in the ten municipalities was identified as the main weakness for the continuous structuring and financial contribution of the state in the potential projects.

Resilience and Chronic Disease: A Systematic Review

Resilience (RS) may be an important factor in disease prevention and health promotion. RS has an impact on the treatment of various chronic diseases and the symptomatology of chronic disease may be related to psychological processes such as stress, RS, and mental illness like depression and anxiety. Adverse conditions can act as risk factors; these are occurrences of stress capable of interfering in the progression of the disease and quality of life. Protective factors are more important than risk factors with respect to RS. Also, resilience may influence the process of illnesses and health outcomes. Psychological interventions are needed to promote RS.

Health-Promoting Factors related to lifestyle among nursing students in University of Hail

Health promotion is an important determinant of individual health status which held the individual responsible for his own health. Health promotion behaviors are directed toward achieving a higher level of wellness, personal fulfillment, and self actualization. Health related behaviors in young age are important factor that affects the individual risk for non-communicable diseases and other disorders later in life. It is evident that promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors among university students is essential to decrease disease risk later in adulthood, thus it is important to investigate their health promoting behaviors. Therefore, this research was conducted to determine the level of nursing university student's engagement in health promoting behaviors and its association with socio-demographic factors.

Are Probiotic Really Safe for Humans?

Probiotic bacteria have been used as a health-promoting factor for a very long time. Nowadays, products containing probiotic bacteria are becoming more and more popular on the market. The term probiotics refers to the products belonging to the following groups: probiotic drugs (medicinal products – live biotherapeutic products for human use), medical devices, probiotic foods (e.g. foods, food ingredients, dietary supplements or food for special medical purposes), directly fed microorganisms (for animal use) and designer probiotics (genetically modified probiotics). Safety assessment of bacterial strains used as probiotics should be carefully studied. Even though probiotic bacteria have the generally recognized as safe (GRAS status), there are several reports about side effects triggered by the presence of these organisms. Microorganisms used as probiotics may cause systemic infections, stimulate the immune system, disturb metabolism and participate in horizontal gene transfer.

Modeling multiple health behaviors and general health.

Multiple Health Behavior Change assumes health behaviors are related to one another, although research evidence is mixed. More research is needed to understand which behaviors are most closely related and how they collectively predict health. Principle component analysis and structural equation modeling were used to establish a model showing relations between health behaviors, including fruit/vegetable consumption, aerobic and strength exercise, alcohol intake, and smoking, and how these behaviors relate to general physical and mental health functioning in a large, national sample. Although health behaviors were found to coalesce into a health-promoting factor of diet, and exercise, a better overall model fit was found when all behaviors were modeled as separate independent variables. Results suggest that health behaviors relate to one another in complex ways, with perceived health status serving as a mediating variable between specific health behaviors and a factor of physical and mental health. Future research should further investigate how other health behaviors relate to perceptions and overall health, especially among subpopulations.

Probiotic Features of Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from a Diverse Pool of Traditional Greek Dairy Products Regarding Specific Strain-Host Interactions.

The increased consumers' interest on the positive role of food in wellbeing and health underscores the need to determine new probiotic microorganisms. Triggered by the fact that artisanal food products can be a valuable source of novel probiotic strains, 106 lactic acid bacteria, all isolated from traditional Greek dairy products, namely Feta, Kasseri, Xynotyri, Graviera, Formaela, Galotyri, and Kefalotyri cheeses as well as yogurt and milk, were studied for probiotic properties. Based on their survival at pH 2.5 and their stability in the presence of bile salts, 20 strains were selected for further analysis. These strains exhibited diverse susceptibility to commonly used antibiotics, while none was hemolytic. Seven out of the 20 strains produced functional bile salt hydrolases in vitro. The only antimicrobial activity detected of Streptococcus thermophilus ACA-DC 26 against the oral pathogen Streptococcus mutans LMG 14558T was attributed to compound(s) of proteinaceous nature. Two Lactobacillus plantarum strains, namely ACA-DC 2640 and ACA-DC 4039, displayed the highest adhesion according to a collagen-based microplate assay and by using ΗΤ-29 and Caco-2 cells. Co-cultivation of THP-1 cells with selected strains indicated a tendency for anti-inflammatory modulation by Lactobacillus plantarum ACA-DC 2640 as well as Streptococcus thermophilus ACA-DC 26 and ACA-DC 170, as shown by an increase in IL10 mRNA levels. Moreover, milk cell-free supernatants of Lactobacillus plantarum ACA-DC 2640 and ACA-DC 4039 exhibited strong angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibition. To conclude, new isolates presenting interesting probiotic features were described and should be further investigated as health-promoting factors.

Sexuality as a health-promoting factor - theoretical and clinical considerations.

Sexuality is an important aspect of existence and a fulfilling intimate life can be a facilitator of well-being, self-esteem, and general resilience. Moreover, it can strengthen coping, adherence, and survivorship skills of chronically ill patients. Health-care professionals should, therefore, routinely address issues of sex and intimacy.

Social media indicators of the food environment and state health outcomes

ObjectivesContextual factors can influence health through exposures to health-promoting and risk-inducing factors. The aim of this study was to (1) build, from geotagged Twitter and Yelp data, a national food environment database and (2) to test associations between state food environment indicators and health outcomes. Study designThis is a cross-sectional study based upon secondary analyses of publicly available data. MethodsUsing Twitter's Streaming Application Programming Interface (API), we collected and processed 4,041,521 food-related, geotagged tweets between April 2015 and March 2016. Using Yelp's Search API, we collected data on 505,554 unique food-related businesses. In linear regression models, we examined associations between food environment characteristics and state-level health outcomes, controlling for state-level differences in age, percent non-Hispanic white, and median household income. ResultsA one standard deviation increase in caloric density of food tweets was related to higher all-cause mortality (+46.50 per 100,000), diabetes (+0.75%), obesity (+1.78%), high cholesterol (+1.40%), and fair/poor self-rated health (2.01%). More burger Yelp listings were related to higher prevalence of diabetes (+0.55%), obesity (1.35%), and fair/poor self-rated health (1.12%). More alcohol tweets and Yelp bars and pub listings were related to higher state-level binge drinking and heavy drinking, but lower mortality and lower percent reporting fair/poor self-rated health. Supplemental analyses with county-level social media indicators and county health outcomes resulted in finding similar but slightly attenuated associations compared to those found at the state level. ConclusionsSocial media can be utilized to create indicators of the food environment that are associated with area-level mortality, health behaviors, and chronic conditions.

Adolescent lifestyle profiles and personal and community competences

Revealing how health-related lifestyle behaviors are associated with competences during adolescence can contribute to understanding the complexity of factors that intervene in adolescents’ health. The objectives of this study were to explore the clustering of different lifestyle behaviors and their connection to personal and community competence. Participants were 795 adolescents who were taking part in the initial assessment of a Spanish community-based intervention program. They were asked to complete four self-report measures: the Lifestyle Questionnaire, the Self-Concept and Social Realization Questionnaire, the Coping Scale for Children and Youth Questionnaire, and the Perceived Community Support Questionnaire. Cluster analysis was then used to discover different patterns of lifestyle behaviors and associate them with sociodemographic and competence factors. The cluster analysis revealed three groups of adolescents: a first group that presented all-round healthy habits, a second group with abusive screen use and a third group with unhealthy habits related to going out at night. These clusters were modulated by age, student status, psychosocial risk status and mothers’ level of education. Further analysis showed higher levels of Self-worth, Task-oriented strategy, Empathy and Community participation in the Healthy group compared to those in the Unhealthy group, whereas the Screen-user group had more Behavioral avoidance than the Healthy group and less Community integration than both of the other groups. The identification of personal and community competences as health-promoting factors associated with adolescents’ lifestyles may help professionals to prioritize certain strengths for best results in intervention programs.

Health and well-being at work: The key role of supervisor support

This study aims to explore whether and in what way social support from different sources and domains makes an additional or different and independent contribution to various health and work-related outcomes. Cross-sectional data were used from an employee survey among the workforces of four service companies from different industries in Switzerland. The study sample covered 5,877 employees of working age. The lack of social support from a spouse, relatives, friends, direct supervisors, closest colleagues at work and other co-workers in case of problems at work and at home were assessed and studied individually and jointly as risk factors with respect to a total number of eight outcomes. Health-related outcomes covered poor self-rated health, musculoskeletal disorders, stress feelings and burnout symptoms. Work-related outcomes included feeling overwhelmed at work, difficulty with switching off after work, job dissatisfaction and intention to turnover. Social support from multiple sources in contrast to only individual sources in both life domains was found to be more frequent in women than in men and proved to be most protective and beneficial with regard to health and well-being at work. However, after mutual adjustment of all single sources of social support from both domains, a lack of supervisor support turned out to be the only or the strongest of the few remaining support measures and statistically significant risk factors for the studied outcomes throughout and by far. Being unable to count on the support of a direct supervisor in case of problems at work and even at home was shown to involve a substantially increased risk of poor health and work-related outcomes (aOR = up to 3.8). Multiple sources of social support, and particularly supervisor support, seem to be important resources of health and well-being at work and need to be considered as key factors in workplace health promotion.