8,988 research outputs found

    Sociodemographic, nutritional and health status factors associated with adherence to Mediterranean diet in an agricultural Moroccan adult's population

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    Background. Numerous studies have demonstrated beneficial effects of adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) on many chronic diseases, including chronic kidney disease (CKD). Objective. The aim of this study was to assess the adherence of a rural population to the Mediterranean diet, to identify the sociodemographic and lifestyle determinants and to analyze the association between adherence to MD and CKD. Material and Methods. In a cross-sectional study, data on sociodemographic, lifestyle factors, clinical, biochemical parameters and diet were collected on a sample of 154 subjects. Adherence to MD was assessed according to a simplified MD score based on the daily frequency of intake of eight food groups (vegetables, legumes, fruits, cereal or potatoes, fish, red meat, dairy products and MUFA/SFA), using the sex specific sample medians as cut-offs. A value of 0 or 1 was assigned to consumption of each component according to its presumed detrimental or beneficial effect on health. Results. According to the simplified MD score, the study data show that high adherence (44.2%) to MD was characterized by intakes high in vegetables, fruits, fish, cereals, olive oil, and low in meat and moderate in dairy. Furthermore, several factors such as age, marital status, education level, and hypertension status were associated with the adherence to MD in the study population. The majority of subjects with CKD have poor adherence to the MD compared to non-CKD with a statistically insignificant difference. Conclusions. In Morocco, maintaining the traditional MD pattern play crucial role for public health. More research is needed in this area to precisely measure this association

    Facilitating prosociality through technology: Design to promote digital volunteerism

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    Volunteerism covers many activities involving no financial rewards for volunteers but which contribute to the common good. There is existing work in designing technology for volunteerism in HumanComputer Interaction (HCI) and related disciplines that focuses on motivation to improve performance, but it does not account for volunteer wellbeing. Here, I investigate digital volunteerism in three case studies with a focus on volunteer motivation, engagement, and wellbeing. My research involved volunteers and others in the volunteering context to generate recommendations for a volunteer-centric design for digital volunteerism. The thesis has three aims: 1. To investigate motivational aspects critical for enhancing digital volunteers’ experiences 2. To identify digital platform attributes linked to volunteer wellbeing 3. To create guidelines for effectively supporting volunteer engagement in digital volunteering platforms In the first case study I investigate the design of a chat widget for volunteers working in an organisation with a view to develop a design that improves their workflow and wellbeing. The second case study investigates the needs, motivations, and wellbeing of volunteers who help medical students improve their medical communication skills. An initial mixed-methods study was followed by an experiment comparing two design strategies to improve volunteer relatedness; an important indicator of wellbeing. The third case study looks into volunteer needs, experiences, motivations, and wellbeing with a focus on volunteer identity and meaning-making on a science-based research platform. I then analyse my findings from these case studies using the lens of care ethics to derive critical insights for design. The key contributions of this thesis are design strategies and critical insights, and a volunteer-centric design framework to enhance the motivation, wellbeing and engagement of digital volunteers

    KYT2022 Finnish Research Programme on Nuclear Waste Management 2019–2022 : Final Report

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    KYT2022 (Finnish Research Programme on Nuclear Waste Management 2019–2022), organised by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, was a national research programme with the objective to ensure that the authorities have sufficient levels of nuclear expertise and preparedness that are needed for safety of nuclear waste management. The starting point for public research programs on nuclear safety is that they create the conditions for maintaining the knowledge required for the continued safe and economic use of nuclear energy, developing new know-how and participating in international collaboration. The content of the KYT2022 research programme was composed of nationally important research topics, which are the safety, feasibility and acceptability of nuclear waste management. KYT2022 research programme also functioned as a discussion and information-sharing forum for the authorities, those responsible for nuclear waste management and the research organizations, which helped to make use of the limited research resources. The programme aimed to develop national research infrastructure, ensure the continuing availability of expertise, produce high-level scientific research and increase general knowledge of nuclear waste management

    An exploration of adherence and persistence in overactive bladder and other long-term conditions

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    Background and aims Overactive bladder is a common, bothersome, and chronic condition associated with symptoms of urinary urgency, incontinence, increased daytime micturition frequency and nocturia. Despite exerting a significant burden on quality of life, adherence, and persistence behaviours with OAB are particularly poor in comparison with other long-term conditions. The aims of the present work were to explore themes relating to medicine-taking behaviours in OAB and other long-term conditions and to suggest ways to improve them. Methods A systematic literature review was undertaken to understand the current landscape of qualitative work exploring adherence and persistence with OAB patients. A qualitative study involving 1:1 semi-structured interviews was conducted with OAB patients to explore the context and drivers for adherence and persistence behaviours using thematic analysis. A comparative analysis was then undertaken with qualitative papers exploring medicinetaking behaviours in a chronic bowel condition, type II diabetes, and multimorbidity to explore the themes identified in the OAB study for convergence and divergence in other conditions and to contextualise the learnings from the former study. Results The systematic literature review revealed a gap in the literature of qualitative exploration of adherence and persistence behaviours in OAB patients. The OAB study found a range of drivers for non-adherent behaviours including a perceived lack of treatment efficacy, side effects, unclear instructions, and drug and condition hierarchies, as well as the rich context within which these themes sit. The comparative analysis study supported the findings of the OAB study demonstrating evidence of key themes transcending across conditions, including a perceived lack of treatment efficacy and side effects, as well as nuances associated with the OAB experience. Conclusions The present work has identified key drivers for non-adherent behaviours in OAB patients and sets out a number of recommendations categorised within the World Health Organisation’s 5 dimensions of adherence. These include addressing the poor understanding and illness perception of OAB by patients and others, by improving the provision and availability of information, as well as the work of patient support groups; scrutiny on the support within primary care to OAB patients before and after diagnosis; and the encouragement of realistic expectations of the condition and treatment with mindful use of prescriber’s language at the point of prescribing. The present work has further highlighted the utility of conceptual models of adherence such as COM-B and the NCF in understanding medicine-taking behaviours in the context of OAB

    Handbuch kommunikationswissenschaftliche Erinnerungsforschung

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    Building Resilience in Graduate Nurses Through Online Virtual Simulation

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    Resilience has become a popular topic in nursing research. Nurses experience enormous stress throughout their training process that extends into their first employment as they transition into practice. Simulation training is a standard for training nurses and for continuing professional education within academia. Most simulation training for nurses is focused on building critical thinking skills. While critical thinking is an essential quality equipping nurses to meet professional demands, resilience is a crucial quality to overcome the stress of both training and practice. Resilience is believed to play an essential role in the retention of new graduate nurses and preventing burnout creating longevity in clinical practice and efficiently coping with adversities and traumatic exposure often seen in the clinical setting. While there are many factors that influence resilience, this study used reflective questions related to Bandura’s (2009) model of mindfulness and self-efficacy in concert with Swift River computer virtual clinical simulation. The resilience scores of nurses before and after completing virtual computer simulation with reflective questions were compared. Resilience was measured using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. The resilience score of the graduate nurses was lower than the national average both in the beginning and after the simulation. While this comparative study showed no statistical evidence using a single simulation exercise, more longitudinal studies are needed, as the virtual simulation is here to stay, and resilience continues to be a concern

    Enhancing Scotland’s Childsmile programme through Community Linking to address child oral health inequalities

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    Dental caries in primary teeth affects over 530 million children globally, and outcomes are significantly associated with social circumstances. Scotland’s national child oral health improvement programme Childsmile has in part been responsible for improvements in oral health over the past decade, but inequality based on socioeconomic factors persists. Community Linking/Social Prescribing aims to reduce inequality through addressing the social determinants of health by engaging patients with community services/third-sector support. The Childsmile programme employs Dental Health Support Workers who provide targeted and tailored interventions to families most in need. Part of the role of Dental Health Support Workers is to link families experiencing wider social and economic problems to external community services/resources where tailored support can be offered. This thesis describes research which aims to optimise Childsmile’s Community Linking/Social Prescribing pathway for families of young children to improve oral health and tackle the social determinants of health to reduce inequalities. Methodology: A mixed methods approach was employed, and three studies were conducted. Study one used secondary analysis of population-wide individuallevel linked routine administrative data and health data to investigate Community Linking practice within Childsmile. The second study was a Systematic Overview of systematic reviews and guidelines to assess best practices for Community Linking, drawing from literature across Primary Care health services and using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) model to guide analysis and reporting. The third study was an online national survey of Dental Health Support Workers to assess the feasibility and acceptability of Community Linking. The first and the second study informed the survey content, and again the CFIR guided survey design. IBM SPSS v26 was used to describe quantitative data, and QRS NVivo v12 was used for qualitative thematic analysis. Results: Secondary analysis of linked data showed just over a fifth of families were referred to a Dental Health Support Worker for additional support over the study years, reflecting the targeted nature of this Childsmile intervention. Among these families, the percentages who were linked to external community services/resources increased from 1.8% (219/12169) in 2011 to 21.0% (1227/5833) in 2015, with the main support services being related to nutrition/diet and parent/baby support groups. Families living in the most deprived areas of Scotland and those determined by their Health Visitor to have greater support needs were more likely to be linked to wider community services by Dental Health Support Workers; however, there was significant variation in linking rates. The Systematic Overview key findings highlight several programme delivery aspects associated with best practice, such as basing programmes on high-quality evidence, obtaining resources, and being flexible in approach, developing trust among partners and assessing participants' needs to provide a tailored pathway. An optimum level of training, mentoring, and feedback is required for Community Health Workers. The Community Health Workers' characteristics should be such that they are perceived as leaders in the community and are respected. The services should be accessible and perceived by the participants as beneficial. Inter-sectoral working is also key. Partners should have enough time to develop understanding, communicate, network, and implement and evaluate the Community Linking implementation. The Systematic Overview showed a need for a multilevel pragmatic approach. The Online Survey of Dental Health Support Workers had a response rate of 58% (59/102) from 13/14 geographical health boards. Results demonstrated high awareness of Community Linking: 88% (52/59) of respondents agreed that this is a good way to improve child oral health, and 72% (42/59) had some experience of Community Linking in their current role. Feedback from community services and families was lacking. More than three quarters, 85% (50/59), said they would be able to identify appropriate community organisations for Community Linking. Thematic illustrations of open-ended responses showed: workload and time barriers when working with families; the importance of collaborative working, for example, with social services and education; training of staff to overcome these barriers, such as local area knowledge; the importance of building trust with families; and the importance of actively facilitating and supporting access to services. Conclusion: Community Linking is a relatively new concept in dental public health. It is implemented within the Childsmile programme via Dental Health Support Workers and is considered a route to help families in need of support and address socio-economic inequalities in oral health. According to our findings, future implementation work in Childsmile is broadly supported by moderate quality evidence and perceptions on acceptability and feasibility. Programme theory is articulated in Chapter 7, which shows the need to tailor links to need and foster integrated working, with clear communication routes between referrers and community organisations, including those for monitoring and evaluation. Staff are supportive of this as a route to a range of positive health outcomes. Nevertheless, workload/resource barriers need to be considered, and support and training are required in terms of available community resources and building sustainable links

    Mobile Arts for Peace: Small Grants Evaluation Report

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    The Mobile Arts for Peace (MAP) project is an international study that seeks to provide a comparative approach to peace-building utilising interdisciplinary arts-based practices, working with communities in Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal and Rwanda (see figure 1.1). This research was commissioned by the project lead organisation, the University of Lincoln, and has been delivered by the University of Northampton’s Institute for Social Innovation and Impact (see Appendix A for research biographies). This report focuses on the Small Grants awarded across the four countries, and acts as a follow-up to the Phase One Report that was produced in the winter of 2021. The delivery of the Small Grants projects has taken place over the last 12 months across the above four countries, and this report seeks to demonstrate, through a narrative case-study approach, how the Small Grants work delivered has promoted arts-based peacebuilding and supported community cohesion. The research reported in this document took place between February and October 2022 and focused on the below research aim and four key research questions. Aim: To evaluate the efficacy of the MAP Small Grants projects and understand their impact in communities. Specifically: 1. What outputs were delivered through the Small Grants projects? 2. What outcomes for beneficiaries/stakeholders were delivered through the Small Grants projects? 3. What impacts delivered for communities and societies across the four countries were delivered through the Small Grants projects? The report is structured as follows: first, the methodological approach undertaken in the evaluation will be presented; second, the case-studies across the four countries will be presented and discussed, utilising data gathered by the in-country research teams and the arts-based outputs produced; third, the findings will be summarised, with specific recommendations also made for the implications related to the MAP Large Grant evaluation projects and the recently awarded MAP Medium Grant projects. References and Appendices can also be found at the end of the report

    The ageing Caribbean: 20 years of the Madrid Plan of Action

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    This report assess the situation of older persons and reviews the actions taken in Caribbean countries and territories, particularly over the past five years, to implement the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing and related regional agreements. It contributes to the global and regional reviews of the Plan of Action, 20 years on from its adoption in 2002, and includes recommendations to further address population ageing and the rights of older persons in the Caribbean.Abstract .-- Introduction .-- I. Ageing, economic security and public policy .-- II. Ageing, health and care .-- III. Enabling and supportive environments .-- IV. Conclusions and key recommendations
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