The Effect of a 18-Week Supervised Exercise Program on Changes in Weight and Health Status in Overweight Individuals: The Healthy Weight Beginner and Intermediate Program

Background: According to the South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, approximately 69% of South African women and 29% of men are considered overweight/obese. In South Africa, overweight and obesity rates are on the rise and have reached epidemic proportions. Several conventional weight loss strategies have been employed and have been unsuccessful in addressing this issue. It is for this reason that this study strives to uncover if any improvement in weight and fitness status are associated with an improvement in health status. Methods: One of our main aims were to determine the success in weight loss and reduction in health risk factors in members who have completed 18-weeks of the Healthy weight programme. Therefore, this study is a retrospective, observational study of adults with a mean body mass index (BMI) of 32.63 ± 7.39 who completed an 18-week supervised exercise program. An online health questionnaire was completed followed by pre- intervention assessments which included: Anthropometric measures (height, weight, waist circumference, body fat percentage) followed by blood pressure, finger-prick random glucose and cholesterol measurements. A 12-min motion test to assess functional capacity were completed. All anthropometric, resting health measures and fitness tests were repeated at 12-weeks (post-beginner programme) and 18 weeks (post-intervention) after the start of the intervention. The intervention included 2 weekly classes with an optional gym class. The type of exercise intervention that was included in this study largely focused resistance training and cardiorespiratory fitness which targeted multiple large muscle groups. Each exercise session included 80 to 90 % exercise intensity as well as lumbopelvic core exercises. The data set was analysed as an intention to treat (ITT) protocol as some of the testing time points were missing. Results: Out of a possible 50 participants, 34 met the inclusion criteria of at least all 3 health measures taken on the 3 different occasions (baseline, post-beginner, postintervention). The 34 participants had a mean age of 47.26 ± 10.44 ranging between 24 years and 76 years old. 65 % of the participants were female. Anthropometric results showed significant changes in weight and waist circumference at 12- and at 18-weeks compared to baseline measures (p < 0.005). Additionally, body fat % significantly reduced at 12-weeks but increased slightly at 18 weeks diminishing the significant reduction compared to the baseline measure. In terms of fitness, participants succeeded in improving their average distance to complete a 12-min motion test by 14.5% (p < 0.001) at 12-weeks and 20% (p < 0.001) at 18-weeks compared to starting measures, respectively. After adjusting for multiple comparisons during post-hoc analysis, none of the health status outcomes (blood pressure, random glucose, random cholesterol) showed a significant improvement at any of the time points. In terms of associations, a change in body fat % could significantly explain some of the variance in the change (from baseline to 18-weeks) in cholesterol; and a change in weight could significantly explain some of the variance in the change in glucose over the same intervention time. Conclusion: The results of this study revealed the 18-week supervised exercise intervention led to a modest reduction (approximately 5%) in weight and a substantial improvement in fitness. However, no changes in health status were observed, suggesting that greater improvements in weight and fitness may be required to have a profound influence on health status

Change in politeness strategies with regards to gender differences in Disney Princess films over time.

The present study looks at how politeness is used with gender and archetypes in Disney Princess films and how this changes over time. Thirteen Disney film scripts, nine animated and four live-action remakes, were transcribed and analysed for their uses of politeness markers that were compliments, apologies, and tag questions. It was found that politeness word count overall increased around 1.5%. Films had on average a frequency of 7% of politeness markers in their dialogue. Compliments were the highest used politeness form, and interpersonal was the highest used politeness function when compared to formal politeness and sarcasm. The Princess archetype, and women characters in general, decreased politeness over time, while the Prince character, and male characters in general, increased politeness over time. The increase and decrease for Prince and Princess archetypes demonstrates a potential relationship between politeness usage, and could indicate a minimum politeness needed in films. The remake films showed a general trend of increased politeness, and this was mostly by male characters. This study shows there was politeness change over time in these films related to character archetypes and gender, which could lead to further research on these topics in real world data

Justice, culture and the political determinants of indigenous Australian health

Indigenous Australian health is distinguished by a median age of death in the order of 20 years less than that of the non-indigenous population (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009). This makes Australia unique among comparable post-colonial societies in failing to make substantive reductions to the indigenous/non-indigenous health differential. Relatively poor indigenous housing, educational attainment, labour market participation and access to traditional resources for economic purposes contribute to the differen- tial. These contributing variables have an inherently political character which is integral to examining the just distribution of public authority, the purpose of political activity, equal political participation and cultural responsiveness in the provision of health ser- vices as important theoretical considerations in reducing cross-cultural inequities in the burden of disease

Key fingerprint = AF19 FA27 2F94 998D FDB5 DE3D F8B5 06E4 A169 4E46 Security in Practice- Reducing the Effort GSEC Practical Assignment V1.4b Option 1

1 Abstract.....................................................................................................................

Is &#039;Close the Gap&#039; a useful approach?

There is widespread enthusiasm for the Australian government\u27s commitment to \u27Close the Gap\u27 in Indigenous disadvantage, health status and life expectancy. Yet despite the rhetoric, the pursuit of statistical equality for Indigenous Australians is not a novel or particularly promising approach.{C} It is also an approach that reduces Indigenous Australians to a range of indicators of deficit, to be monitored and rectified towards government-set targets. This illustrates a substantial imbalance in power and control over the Indigenous affairs agenda in Australia, which is the \u27gap\u27 that must be addressed for the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians to improve

Is 'Close the Gap' a useful approach to improving the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians?

There is widespread enthusiasm for the Australian government’s commitment to ‘Close the Gap’ in Indigenous disadvantage, health status and life expectancy. Yet despite the rhetoric, the pursuit of statistical equality for Indigenous Australians is not a novel or particularly promising approach. It is also an approach that reduces Indigenous Australians to a range of indicators of deficit, to be monitored and rectified towards government-set targets. This illustrates a substantial imbalance in power and control over the Indigenous affairs agenda in Australia, which is the ‘gap’ that must be addressed for the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians to improve