Barriers and Facilitators of Health Promotion and Obesity Prevention in Early Childhood: A Focus on Parents Results from the IDEFICS Study

Background: Childhood obesity has increased dramatically during the past thirty years. Parents are key persons in their children’s lives and their efforts to create healthy lifestyles are very important. However, social and economic determinants of health also affect parents’ opportunities to promote a healthy lifestyle. Aims: To explore barriers and facilitators in promoting healthy lifestyles and preventing childhood obesity, focusing on parental roles. Methods and main findings: Three studies originated from the Identification and Prevention of Dietary- and Lifestyle-induced health Effects in Children and InfantS (IDEFICS) study of determinants for two to nine-year-old children’s health in eight European countries. The fourth study was a qualitative interview study conducted in southwest Sweden. Paper I: In focus group discussions (20 focus groups with children and 36 with parents), parents described lack of time, financial constraints, availability and food marketing techniques as barriers for promoting healthy eating. School policies about food varied; only Sweden and Estonia provided free school lunches. Children described great variation in the availability of unhealthy foods and beverages in their homes. Paper II: Objectively measured Body Mass Index (BMI) of children (n=16 220) were compared to parents’ perception of and concern for their children’s health and weight status. In all weight categories and all countries, a substantial proportion of parents failed to accurately judge their child’s weight status. In general, parents considered their children to be healthy, irrespective of their weight status. Parents of children with overweight or obesity systematically underestimated their children’s weight status across eight European countries. Accurate parental weight perception in Europe differed according to geographic region. Paper III: Swedish IDEFICS participants (n=1825) were compared with an age- and sex-matched referent population (n=1825), using registers from Statistics Sweden and the Swedish Medical Birth Register. Longitudinal child growth data (n=3650) were collected from child health centers and school health services. Families with low income, less education, foreign background or single parenthood were underrepresented in the IDEFICS study. BMI at inclusion had no selection effect but, at eight years of age, the obesity prevalence was significantly greater among referents. Paper IV: A qualitative content analysis was used to interpret the findings from interviews with nurses (n=15) working at child health centers in the southwest of Sweden. The BMI Chart to identify overweight and obesity in children facilitated greater recognition but nurses used it inconsistently, a barrier to prevention. Other barriers were obesity considered a sensitive issue and that some parents wanted overweight children. Conclusion: Parents may not perceive their child’s growth trajectory from overweight to obesity, and the preschool years may pass without effort to change lifestyle. Therefore, objective measurement and information of children’s BMI weight status by healthcare professionals is of great importance. To reach all parents and avoid selection bias, health surveys or health promoting activities must be tailored. Health promoting activities at the family level as well as the societal level should start early in children’s lives to prevent childhood obesity. Keywords: parents, children, obesity, weight perception, registers, prevention, health promotio

Virtual Social Networking for business purposes

The concept of social media is high on the agenda for contemporary senior executives. Decision makers, such as CEOs, as well as support workers, such as consultants, are striving to make profitable use of existing virtual social networks (VSNs) such as Facebook or LinkedIn which present possible platforms for the concept of social media. This study focuses specifically on VSNs in the workplace. The research was undertaken to develop an understanding, from the organization’s perspective, of the benefits and disadvantages involved in maintaining a VSN account for the purpose of encouraging knowledge sharing, collaboration, innovation and other commercial activities. The study involved a review of the literature in the field and the development of an online survey platform. The literature review uncovered a tendency to treat VSNs as a process rather than by their function. Subsequently, a framework has been developed which classifies the various VSNs in use according to their functionality i.e. as primarily business-related, socially–related or as blended virtual networks. The framework further classifies the VSNs according to whether they are publicly or privately accessible. The methodology adopted was quantitative statistical analysis with qualitative variables, with a focus on descriptive statistics. A hybrid of snowball and convenience sampling was applied. A survey questionnaire was developed and spread via VSNs among 337 employees of different kinds of organizations in order to identify how and why they use VSNs. The main benefits of VSN use, from the organization’s perspective, were identified as quick and informal communication, relationship encouragement, and knowledge sharing. Industry types that tended to use VSNs most were Repair and Maintenance, Personal and other services, and private households employing staff. Approximately half of employees (53.1%) were encouraged to use VSNs for business purposes and maintained a corporate account (58.8%), mostly with Facebook (64.4%). The use of business-related VSN use was found to be dependent on job level. Most companies in the survey had been maintaining a corporate account for between 1 and 3 years and updated it daily under the rules of social media guidelines that had been introduced by 69% of organizations. The power of VSNs nowadays is illustrated by the fact that 87.7% of respondents regarded them as a serious business tool. Furthermore, 35.35% of organizations were planning to introduce the usage of VSNs in the future. VSN features identified and used were predominantly advertising (68.1%) and information purposes and PR (56.9%) aiming to contact principally potential and existing customers. The surveyed organizations not using VSNs identified security reasons such as cyber bullying and cyber stalking (51.6%) as well as privacy issues and data leakage (44.7%) as the main issues. The findings of this study contribute to our understanding of VSN use in the business context and can act as guidelines for organizations planning to adopt VSNs as part of their strategy. The relevant theoretical, historical and critical contexts of embedding the use of VSNs into business practices are discussed. Managerial implications on how organizations can utilize VSNs for business purposes in a profitable way are also made

Die Entwicklung der betrieblichen Kinderbetreuung in den letzten 5 Jahren in Sachsen und ihre arbeitsökonomische Bedeutung

Die vorliegende Diplomarbeit befasst sich mit dem aktuellen Stand und der Bedeutung von betrieblicher Kinderbetreuung im System der Kindertagesstätten in Sachsen. In der gesellschaftlichen Debatte um die bessere Vereinbarkeit von Beruf und Familie geht es darum, familienfreundliche Bedingungen in den Unternehmen zu schaffen, um die verstärkte Einbeziehung von Frauen, speziell von Müttern, in den Arbeitsmarkt zu ermöglichen. Die Arbeit begründet die verstärkte Notwendigkeit der Erwerbsbeteiligung von Frauen aus Sicht des Wertewandels in der Gesellschaft und der demographischen Entwicklung in den letzten Jahrzehnten

Improved Learning Support with Minor Costs and Little Efforts : Students with a Disability in Higher Education and Their Perspectives of the Learning Support

In line with the sustainable development goals of Agenda 2030, the higher education institutions strive to achieve the values of an accessible and inclusive higher education for all students. The number of students with disabilities in higher education is rising in several countries. Studies exploring the students’ perspectives of the learning support are lacking. This study explored the students’ perspectives of the learning support provided for students with disabilities in higher education. Interviews with twelve students with various disabilities studying at a university in Sweden were held between 2018 and 2020. Data were analyzed using content analysis. Findings resulted in four categories: 1) A need for specific learning support based on each individual disability, 2) A satisfaction with the given learning support, 3) The student’s disability in relation to their work-based internship, 4) The students’ proposals to ease the study journey. In general, students appreciated having a mentor, a note taker, being able to sit in a smaller room during exams or having extended examination time. The students suggested improvements that could be realized with minor costs and small efforts. To meet the criteria of an inclusive and accessible higher education institution, a good learning support is of great importance. © 2021 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.Funding: The Federation of Nurses Educated at Sahlgrenska Academy, Gothenburg, Sweden (Kamratförbundet Sahlgrensringen).</p

Contenidos didácticos avanzados con el sistema de producción modular MPS

Working in the industry is complex. This was found early last century Frederick W. Taylor , so he dedicated himself to breaking down work in phases until it was only necessary to perform a sequence of movements that few workers had to practice to achieve maximum productivity . Thus was born the concept of " Taylorism " and at that time , he also claims that Ford said, though never confirmed , that the customer could buy any car, if it is a Ford and is black. Meanwhile not only we are never satisfied with black cars. Rather we tend to customize our cars growing , acquiring additional equipment such as air conditioning , heating seats , practicable ceilings , fog lights , navigation systems or ski . But the trend towards individualization is not limited to cars . It also affects other areas of our lives , whether housing , furniture or clothing. To all this the demand for shorter delivery , high quality products and reasonable prices adds .El trabajo en la industria es complejo. Así lo constató a principios del siglo pasado Frederick W. Taylor, por lo que se dedicó a desglosar el trabajo hasta obtener fases en las que sólo era necesario realizar una secuencia de pocos movimientos que los trabajadores tenían que practicar hasta alcanzar un máximo nivel de productividad. De esta manera, nació el concepto del "taylorismo" y en aquella época, también se afirma que Ford dijo, aunque nunca se confirmó, que el cliente podía comprar cualquier tipo de coche, siempre y cuando sea un Ford y sea de color negro. Entretanto ya no nos damos por satisfechos sólo con automóviles negros. Más bien tendemos a personalizar cada vez más nuestros coches, adquiriendo equipos opcionales como aire acondicionado, calefacción para los asientos, techos practicables, faros antiniebla, sistemas de navegación o portaesquíes. Pero, la tendencia en favor de la individualización no se limita a los automóviles. También afecta otros ámbitos de nuestras vidas, ya sean la vivienda, los muebles o la vestimenta. A todo ello se suma la exigencia de tiempos de suministro más cortos, productos de máxima calidad y precios razonables