THE PROBLEM OF NON-FORMAL ADULT EDUCATION QUALITY SERVICE PROVISION IN LOCAL MUNICIPALITIES OF LITHUANIA

This article analyzes one of the most important and, simultaneously, the most problematic factors in the development of adult education as the implementation quality of Non-formal Adult Education (hereinafter NAE) at the local government level. The aim of this article is to reveal the understanding of Lithuanian municipal non-formal adult education coordinators about improving the quality of non-formal adult education services. The study has centered on a focus group (12 people) in which Lithuanian non-formal adult education coordinators from different municipalities discussed and shared their diverse opinions. According to the focus group participants, the quality assessment of educational services in local communities is required by the institutions or foundations financing the services, which at the same time indicate the criteria for assessing the quality of services and their fulfillment when reporting on the implementation of educational services. According to the participants of the study, Lithuanian municipalities should have more power in decision making on planning educational programs and services to meet the needs of the local population; they should expect stable funding guarantees from state institutions, which must first and foremost be interested in improving non-formal education services quality assessment.

Nonformal Adult Education Coordinators as Developers of Educational Activities and Community Interaction

The growing importance of communities and they interaction is witnessed by the growing interest in these areas: in the emphasis on community development and in the need to bring educational and social services closer to local communities. The organization of educational and learning activities in communities promotes the concentration of the local community, self-help

Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants

Summary Background Comparable global data on health and nutrition of school-aged children and adolescents are scarce. We aimed to estimate age trajectories and time trends in mean height and mean body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight gain beyond what is expected from height gain, for school-aged children and adolescents. Methods For this pooled analysis, we used a database of cardiometabolic risk factors collated by the Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends from 1985 to 2019 in mean height and mean BMI in 1-year age groups for ages 5–19 years. The model allowed for non-linear changes over time in mean height and mean BMI and for non-linear changes with age of children and adolescents, including periods of rapid growth during adolescence. Findings We pooled data from 2181 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in 65 million participants in 200 countries and territories. In 2019, we estimated a difference of 20 cm or higher in mean height of 19-year-old adolescents between countries with the tallest populations (the Netherlands, Montenegro, Estonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina for boys; and the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark, and Iceland for girls) and those with the shortest populations (Timor-Leste, Laos, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea for boys; and Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Timor-Leste for girls). In the same year, the difference between the highest mean BMI (in Pacific island countries, Kuwait, Bahrain, The Bahamas, Chile, the USA, and New Zealand for both boys and girls and in South Africa for girls) and lowest mean BMI (in India, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, and Chad for boys and girls; and in Japan and Romania for girls) was approximately 9–10 kg/m2. In some countries, children aged 5 years started with healthier height or BMI than the global median and, in some cases, as healthy as the best performing countries, but they became progressively less healthy compared with their comparators as they grew older by not growing as tall (eg, boys in Austria and Barbados, and girls in Belgium and Puerto Rico) or gaining too much weight for their height (eg, girls and boys in Kuwait, Bahrain, Fiji, Jamaica, and Mexico; and girls in South Africa and New Zealand). In other countries, growing children overtook the height of their comparators (eg, Latvia, Czech Republic, Morocco, and Iran) or curbed their weight gain (eg, Italy, France, and Croatia) in late childhood and adolescence. When changes in both height and BMI were considered, girls in South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and some central Asian countries (eg, Armenia and Azerbaijan), and boys in central and western Europe (eg, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, and Montenegro) had the healthiest changes in anthropometric status over the past 3·5 decades because, compared with children and adolescents in other countries, they had a much larger gain in height than they did in BMI. The unhealthiest changes—gaining too little height, too much weight for their height compared with children in other countries, or both—occurred in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, New Zealand, and the USA for boys and girls; in Malaysia and some Pacific island nations for boys; and in Mexico for girls. Interpretation The height and BMI trajectories over age and time of school-aged children and adolescents are highly variable across countries, which indicates heterogeneous nutritional quality and lifelong health advantages and risks

Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities(.)(1,2) This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity(3-6). Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55% of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017-and more than 80% in some low- and middle-income regions-was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing-and in some countries reversal-of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories.Peer reviewe

Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults

Background Underweight and obesity are associated with adverse health outcomes throughout the life course. We estimated the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity, and their changes, from 1990 to 2022 for adults and school-aged children and adolescents in 200 countries and territories. Methods We used data from 3663 population-based studies with 222 million participants that measured height and weight in representative samples of the general population. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends in the prevalence of different BMI categories, separately for adults (age ≥20 years) and school-aged children and adolescents (age 5–19 years), from 1990 to 2022 for 200 countries and territories. For adults, we report the individual and combined prevalence of underweight (BMI <18·5 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2). For schoolaged children and adolescents, we report thinness (BMI <2 SD below the median of the WHO growth reference) and obesity (BMI >2 SD above the median). Findings From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity in adults decreased in 11 countries (6%) for women and 17 (9%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 that the observed changes were true decreases. The combined prevalence increased in 162 countries (81%) for women and 140 countries (70%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. In 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity was highest in island nations in the Caribbean and Polynesia and Micronesia, and countries in the Middle East and north Africa. Obesity prevalence was higher than underweight with posterior probability of at least 0·80 in 177 countries (89%) for women and 145 (73%) for men in 2022, whereas the converse was true in 16 countries (8%) for women, and 39 (20%) for men. From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of thinness and obesity decreased among girls in five countries (3%) and among boys in 15 countries (8%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80, and increased among girls in 140 countries (70%) and boys in 137 countries (69%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. The countries with highest combined prevalence of thinness and obesity in school-aged children and adolescents in 2022 were in Polynesia and Micronesia and the Caribbean for both sexes, and Chile and Qatar for boys. Combined prevalence was also high in some countries in south Asia, such as India and Pakistan, where thinness remained prevalent despite having declined. In 2022, obesity in school-aged children and adolescents was more prevalent than thinness with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 among girls in 133 countries (67%) and boys in 125 countries (63%), whereas the converse was true in 35 countries (18%) and 42 countries (21%), respectively. In almost all countries for both adults and school-aged children and adolescents, the increases in double burden were driven by increases in obesity, and decreases in double burden by declining underweight or thinness. Interpretation The combined burden of underweight and obesity has increased in most countries, driven by an increase in obesity, while underweight and thinness remain prevalent in south Asia and parts of Africa. A healthy nutrition transition that enhances access to nutritious foods is needed to address the remaining burden of underweight while curbing and reversing the increase in obesit

Heterogeneous contributions of change in population distribution of body mass index to change in obesity and underweight NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC)

From 1985 to 2016, the prevalence of underweight decreased, and that of obesity and severe obesity increased, in most regions, with significant variation in the magnitude of these changes across regions. We investigated how much change in mean body mass index (BMI) explains changes in the prevalence of underweight, obesity, and severe obesity in different regions using data from 2896 population-based studies with 187 million participants. Changes in the prevalence of underweight and total obesity, and to a lesser extent severe obesity, are largely driven by shifts in the distribution of BMI, with smaller contributions from changes in the shape of the distribution. In East and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the underweight tail of the BMI distribution was left behind as the distribution shifted. There is a need for policies that address all forms of malnutrition by making healthy foods accessible and affordable, while restricting unhealthy foods through fiscal and regulatory restrictions

Educational activities for older people as a part of social work

The article is an attempt to highlight the value of the educational activities for the quality of human life and educational practices of social workers in gerontology. The article introduces the research results obtained from the focus group. 10 social workers with the experience of organizing educational activities in social care institutions for older people participated in the research. Organising of social events for social workers means implementation of leisure, culture, art related activities through utilizing inner resources of the organisation and by outsourcing of educational activities. Organizing educational activities for social workers is a creative process. It offers learning experience and, while dealing with limitations of resources, allows for collaboration with organisations that are involved in cultural and art activities

Peculiarities of biographical research for the analysis of the informal teacher education

The article reviews peculiarities of biographical research. Emphasis is placed on the experiences determined by the biographical circumstances, which have served educators as impetus for informal studies, as well as founding layers for the growth of pedagogical professional competencies. When discussing lifelong learning and the growing demands on educators' professionalism, it is most important to understand how the competences of the teaching profession develop in informal learning; next, it is possible to identify the structures that enable this process. The aim of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of a biographical method and the expression of pedagogical competences of the pedagogical professionals formed through informal learning and stimulated by biographical circumstances. The analysis and results of the obtained data base on the study logic of the construction of the abduction theory according to Peirce and the Grounded theory methodology according to Strauss and Corbin [1]. The research revealed that the processes of informal learning, critical for the competencies of an educator‘s profession, take their route in childhood. Learning experiences in childhood, as well as further biographical experiences not only determine the interest in the pedagogical profession, but also determine pedagogical abilities and values

Experience of social workers in assurance of quality service for older adults in care institutions (Lithuanian context)

The aim of the article is to outline the characteristics of the work experience (feelings, efforts and interactions) of the social workers employed in social care institutions for older people in the attempt to provide quality services in practice and the perspectives of this practice. Qualitative research data collection method was used. The answers to the research question were collected by a semi-structured interview. Data analysis carried out by the inductive theme analysis method revealed that the participants of the survey feel the load of responsibility, ambiguity of a complex function and challenges of quality services in relation to the implementation of the service standards; disappointment and hesitations related to the organization of work and professional status. The strengths of the social workers lie in their commitment to the interaction with the service receivers, involvement in the service quality valuation processes in the institution, and in identifying the challenges

The perspective of Gestalt therapy in social work practice

The paper analyzes social work integrating the principles of Gestalt therapy, such as dialogue and phenomenological approach, internalization, responsibility and creative adaptation. The main perspectives of Gestalt therapy, which are related to the cases of social work, contexts and possibilities of therapeutic work, are highlighted. The article also reveals obstacles (e.g. dominant, patronizing, controlling and expert model of client assistance, isolated and restricted by directives the reality of social work, institutionalized social work practices and bureaucratic dependence of social security) that impede the development of therapeutic social work in Lithuania. It can be argued that the perspective for Gestalt therapies is available to social workers who seek therapeutic social work practice methodologies, help relationships, and empower clients for change