4,726 research outputs found
Life in Health 2021: Research and Practice
This proceedings contain a selection of papers from the international interdisciplinary conference Life in Health 2021, which took place from 9 to 10 September 2021 in the Czech Republic at the Faculty of Education, Masaryk University. The papers focus on general as well as specific approaches to public health protection and promotion. The findings presented are based on research data and are applicable in health education and general education of children and the whole population
An investigation into mild traumatic brain injury identification, management, and mitigation
Concussion is classified as a mild traumatic brain injury which can be induced by biomechanical forces such as a physical impact to the head or body, which results in a transient neurological disturbance without obvious structural brain damage. Immediate access to tools that can identify, diagnosis and manage concussion are wide ranging and can lack consistency in application. It is well documented that there are frequent incidences of concussion across amateur and professional sport such as popular contact sports like rugby union.
A primary aim of this thesis was to establish the current modalities of ‘pitch side’ concussion management, identification, and diagnosis across amateur and professional sporting populations. Furthermore, the research sought to understand existing concussion management and concussion experiences by means of recording the player’s experiences and perceptions (retired professional rugby union players). These qualitative studies sought to gain insights into concussion experiences, the language used to discuss concussion and the duty of care which medical staff, coaching personnel, and club owners have towards professional rugby players in their employment.
In addition, possible interventions to reduce the incidence of concussion in amateur and professional sports were investigated. These included a ‘proof of concept’ using inertial measurement units and a smartphone application, a tackle technique coaching app for amateur sports. Other research data investigating the use of neurological function data and neuromuscular fatigue in current professional rugby players as a novel means of monitoring injury risk were included in this research theme.
The findings of these studies suggest that there is an established head injury assessment process for professional sports. However, in amateur sport settings, this is not the existing practice and may expose amateur players to an increased risk of post-concussion syndrome or early retirement. Many past professional rugby union players stated that they did not know the effects of cumulative repetitive head impacts. They discussed how they minimised and ignored repeated concussions due to peer pressure or pressure from coaches or their own internal pressures of maintaining a livelihood. These data suggest that players believed that strong willed medical staff, immutable to pressures from coaching staff or even athletes themselves, were essential for player welfare and that club owners have a long-term duty of care to retired professional rugby union players. However, there are anecdotal methods suggested to reduce concussion incidence. For example, neck strengthening techniques to mitigate against collision impacts. There is, no longitudinal evidence to suggest that neck strength can reduce the impacts of concussion in adult populations . Additionally, other factors such as lowering the tackle height in the professional and amateur game is currently being investigated as a mitigating factor to reduce head injury risk.
The final theme of the thesis investigated possible methods to reduce injury incidence in amateur and professional athletes. The novel tackle technique platform could assist inexperienced amateur coaches on how to coach effective tackle technique to youth players. The findings from the neurological function data suggests that this may be an alternative way for coaches to assess and gather fatigue data on professional rugby union players alongside additional subjective measures and neuromuscular function data. Recently, the awareness of concussion as an injury and the recognition of concussion in many sports settings has improved. These incremental improvements have led to increased discussion regarding possible measures to mitigate the effects of concussion. There are many additional procedures to be implemented before a comprehensive concussion management is universally available, particularly in amateur and community sports. These necessary processes could be technological advances (e.g., using smart phone technology) for parents and amateur coaches to assist in the early identification of concussion or evidence-based concussion reduction strategies
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Exploring third-party certification programmes in commodity value chains
This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonCertification programmes have become a widely adopted practice across commodity
industries and serve as a mechanism for encouraging sustainable agriculture aimed at
improving livelihoods, reducing poverty, and conserving the environment. Certification has
also become critical in shaping the value creation and capture potential of producers,
manufacturers, and consumers embedded in the value chains of many commodity industries.
However, recent years has seen commodity certification programmes struggling to yield the
expected benefits for which they were putatively established. Drawing on temporal myopia
(TM) as a theoretical lens, this study explores the existential challenges facing the loosely
coupled actors in CVCs, that has led to the floundering of these certification programmes.
Focusing on the Ghana cocoa industry, the study provides a fine-grained explication of how
the differential and competing organizing practices of these actors cumulatively contribute to
the near collapse of these certification programmes. Adopting an interpretive approach and
an exploratory qualitative research design, data for the empirical inquiry were chiefly
collected using semi-structured interviews with cocoa farmers (25), the Ghana Cocoa Board
(5), certification organisations (5), cooperatives (7) and produce buying companies (10). This
was supplemented with focus group discussions (44), and publicly available documents on
certification programmes. The study makes three main findings. First, the study unpacks the
state of the art of certification programmes to understand how loosely coupled actors respond
to certification practices, emphasizing how the activities of various loosely coupled actors
contribute to those structures and procedures, which provides understanding of the
organising practices required in certification programmes. Second, it highlights how TM
accounts for the floundering of certification programmes in CVCs. Third, it demonstrates how
environmental, social, and institutional factors may interact with the certification
requirements, rubrics, and standards, to precipitate a range of organising practices that may
operate in combination or serially to facilitate (or impede) certification programmes. The
contribution of the thesis is also three-fold. First, broadening our understanding of the state
of the art to certification in organising, this study extends our understanding of how loosely
coupled actors in CVCs frame, make meaning, and respond to certification practices. Second,
the study shows how taken for granted everyday organizing practices of the loosely coupled
actors could serially combine to precipitate the near collapse of the certification programmes which frequently seek to promote sustainable production and livelihoods. Third, the study
offers deeper insights into how temporal myopia serves as a blocking mechanism which
induces these loosely coupled actors’, to focus on short term gains within the contingencies of
the socio-economic environment in which they operate.Ghana Scholarship Secretaria
Fasting with diabetes during Ramadan: An updated review
Introduction: In reality, many Muslims have an intense spiritual urge to participate in fasting, even those who could get an exemption. There are many cultural variations in the Muslim population in different parts of the world, even in the same country with different social and family backgrounds. Thus, persons with diabetes should seek medical advice before planning to fast or proceed to fast during Ramadan.
Materials: This was a narrative, non-systematic review of the international literature from the major medical online database (PubMed and Google Scholar) in 2023. The term “Ramadan fasting” and “Diabetes” was used to search, and the relevant literature was captured and narrated in a concise thematic account.
Results: Practically, there are certain risks associated with fasting for patients with diabetes, which might exacerbate their existing illnesses. Along with the globally increasing prevalence of diabetes, there is an increased number of the population who intend to or fast. The article captured a wide array of topics related to Ramadan fasting by patients with diabetes, including its epidemiology, risk stratification, lifestyle modification, assessment of safety and efficacy profiles of pharmacotherapies, hypo or hyperglycemia, and the impact of diabetes education.
Conclusion: Fasting with diabetes poses a range of risks and thus pre-Ramadan risk stratification is essential. Particular attention should focus on the patient’s current risk factors, complications, comorbidities, and the roles of newer antihyperglycemic medicines and advanced technology for safer fasting practices to mitigate the risks of hypoglycemia and or hyperglycemic crises.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Journal 2023;16(1): 41-57
Exploring the past, present, and future of training for staff working with individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder
Background
Mental health professionals have reported that they often lack the knowledge and skills to
work with individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Hence, it is crucial to
provide BPD-specific training, so service users receive optimal care from competent
professionals. However, a range of training programmes is available with no evidence about
their components. It is necessary, at first, to determine staff training needs, which can form
the basis for training development and ensure it is appropriately targeted.
Aim
The thesis had two aims. The first was to understand the training needs of mental health
professionals working with individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and to
identify effective training components. The second was to reflect and discuss the role of nonverbal
cues in qualitative interviews through videoconferencing to inform other researchers
working in this area.
Method
Three studies were conducted: 1) the scoping review mapped and analysed the components of
available training programmes for staff working with individuals diagnosed with BPD from
18 peer-reviewed journal articles using Framework Synthesis, 2) the qualitative study
interviewed 17 mental health professionals about their training needs and their perspectives
on effective training components and analysed the data using Reflexive Thematic Analysis,
3) the methodological study discussed how non-verbal data could influence online qualitative
interviews through examples and researcher reflections from the qualitative study.
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Findings
Scoping review
Eleven training components were charted and mapped through the scoping review: type of
training, duration, setting, aim, trainer, trainees, materials and teaching methods, content
(knowledge, skills, service user perspectives), supervision, challenges for implementation,
and evaluation/feedback.
Qualitative study
The socio-ecological model was used as a framework to categorise staff training needs at a
multi-faceted level, which generated the following overarching themes and themes:
intrapersonal needs (knowledge-related needs are subjective, understanding is fundamental,
skills for working with service users and colleagues), needs at the organisational level
(practical arrangements for training, systemic issues that influence training application and
sustainability), and needs at the national level (consistency in training nationwide, disciplinespecific
areas for training development). During the interviews, participants were asked if
they were a training developer how would they design their ideal training; participant
responses produced 13 training components.
Methodological study
It illustrated through examples and researcher reflections how different non-verbal cues
(chronemics, kinesics, proxemics, paralinguistics, environmental factors, and physical
appearance) could influence online qualitative interviews. Since these play a role in online
data collection, researchers must incorporate thinking about the kind of data they wish to
collect and analyse during the design phase of the research. If they choose to incorporate nonverbal
cues, there are several ways to achieve this by using practical resources such as
matrices and software, involving linguists, and practising reflexivity.
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Conclusion
Many training programmes are available for staff working with individuals diagnosed with
BPD. However, they need to be reported in more detail as there is insufficient information
about their components. Furthermore, service users and staff need to be involved in training
development to make it more efficient in practice and to ensure that their needs are reflected
in training. Staff training needs are related to knowledge, understanding, and skills embedded
within the larger organisational and national context, which needs consideration. It is hoped
that the training components reviewed and those produced by participants will provide a
reference point for training developers. Lastly, the methodological paper concluded that
researchers need a more nuanced understanding of data in online qualitative research, as nonverbal
data could influence the interviews
A Sociological Study of the Use of Cannabis.
This thesis is about the use of cannabis amongst students from a university in the south of England.* Its aims are to illuminate the nature of cannabis use by adopting a phenomenological perspective, to extend previous 'naturalistic' work on this topic, and thereby to demonstrate the value of asking phenomenological questions.
In the first chapter, the main findings and features of previous naturalistic research on cannabis use are critically reviewed. It is suggested that, when examined from a phenomenological point of view, such research takes for granted and leaves unexpiated several important aspects of the phenomenon of cannabis and that it thereby only partially illuminates its nature. Subsequent chapters focus attention on these neglected issues.
In chapter two, the nature of the social types of cannabis users which are employed by the members themselves is examined. Particular attention is paid to members' grounds for typing users in terms of the two predominant social types in use at the time of this research - the 'head' and the 'freak'. It is suggested that these grounds may be expressed sociologically in terms of four main constructs: centrality, context, community and commitment. In chapter three, the nature of cannabis as a substance from the perspective of the users is analysed, with particular emphasis being placed on members' categories of cannabis and their methods of interpretive work whereby they decide (a) whether a substance is cannabis at all, (b) what type of cannabis it is and (c) the quality of cannabis. Chapter four presents a sequential analysis of the procedural basis of the use of cannabis, with special attention being directed to the use of different methods of consuming the drug and to the social organisation of collective consumption.
In chapter five, the focus is on the effects of cannabis. Here particular attention is given to members' conceptions of their experiences of the drug, to their understandings of the production of different kinds of effects, to their interpretive work involved in 'making sense' of these effects, and to their methods for achieving IV or avoiding certain kinds of cannabis experiences.
The subject matter of chapter six is the morality of cannabis use. The focus here is on how members account for their initial and subsequent use of the drug, their conceptions of its morality, their grounds for defining its proscription as unwarranted, and their methods for sustaining their version of the morality of cannabis use in social interaction.
Chapter seven discusses users' cultural solutions to the problem of acquiring cannabis. The main focus is on their methods of quantifying cannabis, their understandings of the cannabis market and their practices and procedures for conducting cannabis transactions.
Chapter eight analyses members’ conceptions of the risks of being a cannabis user, firstly in the sense of the perceived consequences of discovery and, secondly, in terms of the perceived chances of being apprehended. Members’ concealment strategies, taken in the light of their assessments of the risks involved, are then described and their grounds for their selective use analysed.
In chapter nine, some formal phenomenological and structural conditions underlying the use of cannabis in this setting are discussed, together with some substantive and theoretical implications of the preceding chapters. Finally, in chapter ten, some suggestions for future research are made.
* Pseudonyms are used throughout this thesis in order to protect the anonymity of the students and the university
Dialogue without barriers. A comprehensive approach to dealing with stuttering
The book Dialogue without barriers: A comprehensive approach to dealing with stuttering
is the result of Norwegian-Polish cooperation undertaken in the project LOGOLab –
Dialogue without barriers. Three partners have been involved in the production of this
book, namely, the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland, the UiT Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø, and the Agere Aude Foundation for Knowledge and Social
Dialogue. The project was implemented under the Education Program financed by
the EEA Grants (EEA / 19 / K1 / D1 / W / 0031). The EEA Grants represent the contribution of Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway towards a green, competitive, and inclusive Europe. The most important goal of the LOGOLab project was to raise the
standards of speech-language therapy in stuttering by incorporating the principles
of Evidence-based practice, taking into account the assumptions of inclusive education and community-based model of intervention. An essential strategy for achieving
this goal has become the dissemination of reliable and up-to-date knowledge about
stuttering, and the development of appropriate social attitudes towards stuttering.
The improvement of the quality of academic education for speech-language therapy
students and of vocational training for certified speech-language therapists should
also be mentioned. An additional aim was to provide reliable information for leaders
of the self-help movement, who support people with stuttering non-institutionally
Influence of the natural environment on health: evaluation of different environmental contexts (urban, green spaces) and intervention proposals
Urbanization has grown during the last decades, with an increase in population concentrated in cities. Cities are usually relatively nature-poor, and the loss of green urban space likely leads to less contact with the natural world for urban dwellers. It is known that the natural environment could provide important advantages, and the loss of contact with this type of environment has potential negative impacts on the quality of life. The use of green urban space demonstrated stronger benefits for mental health and stress reduction.
In general, exposure to green urban space is linked to a reduction in mortality rates, due to the promotion of a healthy lifestyle. Green urban space could be an optimal environment in which to perform physical activity. Undertaking regular physical activity is one of the major determinants of health. The benefits of exercise have been widely demonstrated through a wide range of studies. Benefits are linked to the treatment and prevention of most chronic and non-communicable diseases, that are not contagious, but they are usually long-lasting. Regular physical activity could reduce mental health problems, such as anxiety. The World Health Organization proposed to improve physical activity programs through the implementation of interventions in green urban spaces. Green urban space provides a safe, accessible, and attractive place to perform physical activity.
All the interventions aimed to promote the practice of physical activity and to reduce sedentary behavior are important. It is well known that physical activity has several positive effects, a great amount of the population remains inactive. A good strategy could be to show people how integrated physical activity into their all-day life, for example through the use of green urban space or active commuting. The results in the present thesis showed the effectiveness of performing physical activity in a natural environment and of active commuting
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