Health Promotion Sciences Research Articles

Increasing physical activity among children and adolescents: Innovative ideas needed

For anyone paying attention, this is a disruptive time in science in general and in health promotion science in particular. Obesity is the most prevalent nutrition-related health problem around the globe.1 The issue of whether, as is commonly thought, obesity is causative of early mortality2 or whether it is only a marker of risk3, 4 has been raised. The lack of substantial and maintained change in child obesity prevention has been recognized,5 and numerous limitations in our conceptual and methodological approach to obesity prevention have been identified.6 The simple energy balance biological model upon which most obesity prevention programs have been predicated has been declared invalid,7, 8 with a multi-etiological model thought to be more appropriate.9 Physical activity (PA) is considered an important health-related behavior, which may be related to obesity.10 Higher levels of PA have been associated with longer life;11 a lower risk of cardiovascular disease;12 lower levels of several cancers,13 stroke,14 and diabetes;15 a higher quality of life;16 better mental health;17 higher cognitive functioning;18 and numerous other positive health outcomes. Thus, if the citizens of all nations had optimal levels of PA throughout their adult lives, they would live to be older, healthier, happier, more sentient, make fewer demands on the health care system, and likely be more productive,19 a state of affairs desired by many citizens, their employers, and their governments. Regular PA is essentially a habit,20 believed to begin in childhood. Children tend to have higher levels of PA at younger ages, but these behaviors decrease as they age.21 Thus, there has been substantial interest in PA among children, even the youngest, to document existing levels and understand the influences on these levels of activity (positive and negative).22 Based on this knowledge, interventions can be designed to promote and maintain optimal levels of PA throughout childhood and adolescence23, 24 for carryover into the adult years.

Ethics and health promotion practice: exploring attitudes and practices in Western Australian health organisations.

Issue addressed Evidence-informed practice underpinned by ethics is fundamental to developing the science of health promotion. Knowledge and application of ethical principles are competencies required for health promotion practice. However, these competencies are often inconsistently understood and applied. This research explored attitudes, practices, enablers and barriers related to ethics in practice in Western Australian health organisations. Methods Semistructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 health promotion practitioners, purposefully selected to provide a cross-section of government and non-government organisations. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and then themed. Results The majority of participants reported consideration of ethics in their practice; however, only half reported seeking Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) approval for projects in the past 12 months. Enablers identified as supporting ethics in practice and disseminating findings included: support preparing ethics applications; resources and training about ethical practice; ability to access HRECs for ethics approval; and a supportive organisational culture. Barriers included: limited time; insufficient resourcing and capacity; ethics approval not seen as part of core business; and concerns about academic writing. Conclusion The majority of participants were aware of the importance of ethics in practice and the dissemination of findings. However, participants reported barriers to engaging in formal ethics processes and to publishing findings. So what? Alignment of evidence-informed and ethics-based practice is critical. Resources and information about ethics may be required to support practice and encourage dissemination of findings, including in the peer-reviewed literature. Investigating the role of community-based ethics boards may be valuable to bridging the ethics-evidence gap.

Abstract PP01-01: A funny thing happened to me while trying to cure ovarian cancer; I became a cancer prevention research specialist

Abstract PP01-01: A funny thing happened to me while trying to cure ovarian cancer; I became a cancer prevention research specialist

Good practice characteristics of diet and physical activity interventions and policies: an umbrella review.

BackgroundThis umbrella review aimed at eliciting good practice characteristics of interventions and policies aiming at healthy diet, increasing physical activity, and lowering sedentary behaviors. Applying the World Health Organization’s framework, we sought for 3 types of characteristics, reflecting: (1) main intervention/policy characteristics, referring to the design, targets, and participants, (2) monitoring and evaluation processes, and (3) implementation issues. This investigation was undertaken by the DEDPIAC Knowledge Hub (the Knowledge Hub on the DEterminants of DIet and Physical ACtivity), which is an action of the European Union’s joint programming initiative.MethodsA systematic review of reviews and stakeholder documents was conducted. Data from 7 databases was analyzed (99 documents met inclusion criteria). Additionally, resources of 7 major stakeholders (e.g., World Health Organization) were systematically searched (10 documents met inclusion criteria). Overall, the review yielded 74 systematic reviews, 16 position review papers, and 19 stakeholders’ documents. Across characteristics, 25% were supported by ≥ 4 systematic reviews. Further, 25% characteristics were supported by ≥ 3 stakeholders’ documents. If identified characteristics were included in at least 4 systematic reviews or at least 3 stakeholders’ documents, these good practice characteristics were classified as relevant.ResultsWe derived a list of 149 potential good practice characteristics, of which 53 were classified as relevant. The main characteristics of intervention/policy (n = 18) fell into 6 categories: the use of theory, participants, target behavior, content development/management, multidimensionality, practitioners/settings. Monitoring and evaluation characteristics (n = 18) were grouped into 6 categories: costs/funding, outcomes, evaluation of effects, time/effect size, reach, the evaluation of participation and generalizability, active components/underlying processes. Implementation characteristics (n = 17) were grouped into eight categories: participation processes, training for practitioners, the use/integration of existing resources, feasibility, maintenance/sustainability, implementation partnerships, implementation consistency/adaptation processes, transferability.ConclusionsThe use of the proposed list of 53 good practice characteristics may foster further development of health promotion sciences, as it would allow for identification of success vectors in the domains of main characteristics of interventions/policies, their implementation, evaluation and monitoring processes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-015-1354-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Worksite wellness program implementation: a model of translational effectiveness

Occupational health promotion programs with documented efficacy have not penetrated worksites. Establishing an implementation model would allow focusing on mediating aspects to enhance installation and use of evidence-based occupational wellness interventions. The purpose of the study was to implement an established wellness program in fire departments and define predictors of program exposure/dose to outcomes to define a cross-sectional model of translational effectiveness. The study is a prospective observational study among 12 NW fire departments. Data were collected before and following installation, and findings were used to conduct mediation analysis and develop a translational effectiveness model. Worker age was examined for its impact. Leadership, scheduling/competing demands, and tailoring were confirmed as model components, while organizational climate was not a factor. The established model fit data well (χ (2)(9) = 25.57, CFI = 0.99, RMSEA = 0.05, SRMR = 0.03). Older firefighters, nearing retirement, appeared to have influences that both enhanced and hindered participation. Findings can inform implementation of worksite wellness in fire departments, and the prioritized influences and translational model can be validated and manipulated in these and other settings to more efficiently move health promotion science to service.

Types of Lay Health Influencers in Tobacco Cessation: A Qualitative Study

To identify types of health influencers in tobacco cessation based on the frequency and characteristics of brief intervention activities. Longitudinal qualitative interviews were completed with 28 individuals posttraining. Four individuals were categorized as Rarely Active, 5 as Active With Family and Friends, 9 as Active in the Workplace, and 10 as Proactive in Multiple Settings. Unique motivators, intervention behaviors, and barriers were documented. Some individuals displayed high levels of self-efficacy necessary for expanding the reach of community-based interventions. Training programs need to address the impact of contextual factors on initiating and sustaining intervention activities.

Self-reflections on health promotion in the UK and the USA

To compare and contrast the past 30-40 years of health promotion in the UK and the USA, and to identify two critical issues that relate to health promotion research and practice in both countries. Historiography and self-reflection. Although the USA and the UK share different histories of health promotion development, many of the critical issues that characterize the field are similar. Two issues are particularly notable: the concern with evidence; and the problem of translation of the science of health promotion to practice.

Physical Activity: The Science of Health Promotion Through Tailored Messages

Sedentary behavior warrants greater attention from rehabilitation nurses because physical fitness plays a role in the success of an individualized rehabilitation program. With one of every two adults being inactive, rates of sedentary lifestyle and obesity are increasing in the United States and are responsible for a large portion of our healthcare costs. Conversely, engaging in regular physical activity reduces the risks of obesity, premature death, myocardial infarction, diabetes, hypertension, colon cancer, depression, and anxiety. Because physical activity improves overall function, it is a component of many rehabilitation programs. Tailored health messages can be highly effective in helping people change unhealthy behaviors by providing information and behavior change strategies that are customized for the unique needs, interests, and concerns of different people. The rehabilitation nurse can help the client manage long-term health problems and maximize wellbeing by tailoring messages geared toward increasing physical activity levels. Although the exact mechanism responsible for the tailoring effect is not known, it is generally thought that the personally relevant information communicated in the message is more likely to improve motivation and health behavior change. The goal of a tailored message is to produce an individualized communication so that the participant can say, "This applies to me". This article examines tailored message approaches geared toward engaging people in intentional physical activity.

Enabling the Past: New Perspectives in the History of Disability

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes [1] Shakespeare, Disability Rights and Wrongs, 53. [2] See Switzer Switzer, Jacqueline Vaughn. 2003. Disabled Rights: American Policy and the Fight for Equality, Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. [Google Scholar], Disabled Rights, 12ff; O'Brien O'Brien, Ruth. 2001. Crippled Justice: the History of Modern Disability Policy in the Workplace, Chicago–London: University of Chicago Press. [Google Scholar], Crippled Justice, xi. [3] See Monaghan Monaghan, Peter. “Pioneering Filed of Disability Studies Challenges Established Approaches and Attitudes.” Chronicle of Higher Education, 28 January (1998). [Google Scholar], “Pioneering Field of Disability Studies Challenges Established Approaches”; Hahn Hahn, Harlan. 1993. The Potential Impact of Disability Studies on Political Science (and Vice Versa). Policy Studies Journal, 21(4): 740–751. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], “The Potential Impact of Disability Studies on Political Science”, 740–51. [4] Bryan Bryan, Willie V. 2002. Sociopolitical Aspects of Disabilities: the Social Perspectives and Political History of Disabilities and Rehabilitation in the United States, Health Promotion Sciences, College of Public Health, University of Oklahoma. Springfield: Charles Thomas. [Google Scholar], Sociopolitical Aspects of Disabilities: the Social Perspectives and Political History of Disabilities and Rehabilitation in the United States. [5] Longmore and Umansky Longmore, P.K. and Umansky, L., eds. 2001. The New Disability History: American Perspectives, New York: New York University Press. [Google Scholar], The New Disability History: American Perspectives. [6] Kudlick, “Disability History: Why We Need Another Other”, 763–93. [7] Perspectives, November 2006, 3–12: Gerber, “Enabling History”; Baynton, “Disability in History”; Kudlick and Longmore, “Disability and the Transformation of Historians’ Public Sphere”. [8] See essay on Teaching Radical History by Geoffrey Reaume, R. A. R. Edwards and Katherine Sherwood in Radical History Review Meade, T. and D. Serlin., eds. “Disability and History.” Radical History Review, Issue 94 (Winter 2006). [Google Scholar]. [9] Bourke, Dismembering the Male; Seth Koven Koven, Seth. October 1994. Remembering and Dismembering: Crippled Children, Wounded Soldiers and the Great War in Britain. American Historical Review, 99(4): 1167–202. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], “Remembering and Dismemberment”, 1167–1202; Reznik Reznik, Jeffrey. 2005. Healing the Nation: The Culture of Caregiving in Britain During the Great War, Manchester: Manchester University Press. [Google Scholar], Healing the Nation. For other United States scholarship on disabled veterans, see Gerber, “Heroes and Misfits: The Troubled Social Reintegration of Disabled Veterans in The Best Years of Our Lives”, 5454–74. [10] Campbell and Oliver Campbell, J.C. and Oliver, M. 1996. Disability Politics: Understanding our Past, Changing Our Future, London and New York: Routledge. [Google Scholar], Disability Politics. [11] Borsay, Disability and Social Policy in Britain Since 1750, 208. [12] Hubert, Madness, Disability and Social Exclusion. [13] Dale and Melling, Mental Illness and Learning Disability Since 1850. [14] Turner and Stagg Turner, D.M. and Stagg, K., eds. 2006. Social Histories of Disability and Deformity, Abingdon: Routledge. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], Social Histories of Disability and Deformity. [15] Ernst, Histories of the Normal and the Abnormal. [16] Covey, Social Perceptions of People with Disabilities in History, 3. [17] Frawley Frawley, Maria. 2004. Invalidism and Identity in Nineteenth Century Britain, Chicago–London: University of Chicago Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], Invalidism and Identity in Nineteenth Century Britain. [18] Mitchell and Snyder Mitchell, D.T. and Snyder, S.L. 1997. The Body and Physical Difference: Discourses of Disability, Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], The Body and Physical Difference. [19] Garland Thompson, Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Disability in American Culture and Literature, 6. [20] Snyder and Mitchell Snyder, S. and Mitchell, D.T. 2006. Cultural Locations of Disability, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], Cultural Locations of Disability, 33–34. [21] Morris, “Human Dregs at the Bottom of Our National Vats”, 142–60. [22] Livingston, “Insights from an African History of Disability”, Radical History Review, 2006, 111–26. See also Livingston Livingston, J. 2005. Debility and the Moral Imagination in Botswana, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. [Google Scholar], Debility and the Moral Imagination in Botswana, Indiana University press, Bloomington, 2005. [23] See Ó Catháin, “Blind, But Not to the Hard Facts of Life”: The Blind Workers’ Struggle in Derry, 1928–1940”, Radical History Review, 9–21.

Dietary assessment methods: where do we go from here?

Douglas Taren*, Johanna Dwyer, Laurence Freedman and Noel W Solomons University of Arizona, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, Division of Health Promotion Sciences, 2231 East Speedway Boulevard, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA: Schools of Medicine, Nutrition and the Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, and Frances Stern Nutrition Center, Tufts–New England Medical Center Hospital, Boston, MA, USA: Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, and Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Tel Hashomer, Israel: Center for Studies on Sensory Impairment, Aging and Metabolism (CeSSIAM), Guatemala City, Guatemala

Prevention and health promotion on the international scene: the need for a more effective and comprehensive approach.

The last decade has shown a boom in international networks and projects in health promotion and prevention. The growth of international collaboration is considered to be of crucial importance for the future development of the field. Several arguments are discussed in support of a further expansion of collaboration across countries and regions. The author criticizes the current lack of effectiveness in international collaboration in health promotion and prevention and identifies main barriers to effective collaboration. To make significant progress in research, evidence-based programs and policies, and their implementation worldwide, the creation of a comprehensive system of functional and effective linkages is needed across the core task areas, across disciplines, across system levels, and across countries and cultures. The quality of prevention and health promotion research as well as its impact on the health of communities depends on the degree to which research institutes and other stakeholders are embedded in an effective network of interorganizational and international relationships capable of performing a broad range of essential and functionally related tasks. It is critical that the dynamics of effective international collaboration become a legitimate subject of prevention and health promotion science.

The Art and Science of Health Promotion

Science seldom proceeds in the straightforward logical manner imagined by outsiders. Instead, its steps forward (and sometimes backward) are often very human events in which personalities and cultural traditions play major roles.

Book reviews

Journal Article Book reviews Get access Health promotion models and values by RS Downie, Carol Fyfe and Andrew Tannahill. 1990. Oxford University Press, Oxford. £12.95. 200 pages. Rachel Jewkes Rachel Jewkes Health Promotion Sciences Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical, Medicine UK Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Health Policy and Planning, Volume 8, Issue 1, March 1993, Pages 94–95, https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/8.1.94 Published: 01 March 1993

Book reviews

Journal Article Book reviews Get access Herbal medicine and health promotion: a comparative study of herbal drugs in primary health care by Amanda le Grand and Peter Wondergem. 1990. Amsterdam, Royal Tropical Institute. Helen Lambert Helen Lambert Health Promotion Sciences Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical, MedicineUK Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Health Policy and Planning, Volume 7, Issue 4, December 1992, Pages 399–400, https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/7.4.399 Published: 01 December 1992

Behavioral epidemiology: the science of health promotion

Behavioral epidemiology: the science of health promotion

Health promotion—science or ideology?

This article is the author's American Psychological Association Division 38 Presidential Address, which was delivered at the 1987 APA meetings. It challenges health psychologists to be wary of becoming zealots in health promotion activities without continuing to recognize that health promotion programs should be anchored in sound science. This is discussed in terms of the biomedical research support for a recommended health practice or in terms of the psycho-socio-behavioral research support for techniques applied or advocated in intervention programs. To illustrate this problem in health promotion, the research foundations for recommendations of cholesterol control programs and the "Say No to Drugs" campaigns are explored. Other concerns relating to the appropriate role for the health psychologist in health promotion activities are also discussed.