A-Z of Health Promotion: Book Review

With its accessibility, format and comprehensive coverage of key concepts, the A-Z of Health Promotion by Glenn Laverack makes a unique contribution to the market. Outlining 72 key concepts and 140 other terms, the book is highly recommended for those new to, or already practicing, health promotion as well as students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Moreover, the international ‘flavour’ of case studies and examples means that it has relevance for a global audience. The book’s format allows for easy navigation and for readers to move from concept-to-concept in an order that best suits their needs. Given the authors’ considerable expertise, it is unsurprising that the entries have an empowerment theme with less focus on disease or lifestyle/behavioural approaches in health promotion programmes. In summary, the book makes a refreshing contribution and is an invaluable sourcebook that effectively captures and presents complex ideas in health promotion

Pocket Guide to Health Promotion: Book Review

The Pocket Guide to Health Promotion by Glenn Laverack is a book that has been written for the practitioner and undergraduate student market. The combination of communicating complex concepts in easy-to-understand ways and the use of international case studies to contextualise theory makes this a very attractive text. The book is expertly written by one of the leading commentators in the field and, reflecting the author’s expertise, the book is particularly strong on international issues; community-based health promotion; policy and health activism; and empowerment. While The Pocket Guide to Health Promotion is very comprehensive, it does stop short of discussing some issues – the book, for example, does not discuss behaviour change and social marketing in detail. However, the book remains a must have for practitioners and for undergraduate students studying courses with a health promotion element

Dual-topology insertion of a dual-topology membrane protein.

Some membrane transporters are dual-topology dimers in which the subunits have inverted transmembrane topology. How a cell manages to generate equal populations of two opposite topologies from the same polypeptide chain remains unclear. For the dual-topology transporter EmrE, the evidence to date remains consistent with two extreme models. A post-translational model posits that topology remains malleable after synthesis and becomes fixed once the dimer forms. A second, co-translational model, posits that the protein inserts in both topologies in equal proportions. Here we show that while there is at least some limited topological malleability, the co-translational model likely dominates under normal circumstances

Bacteriorhodopsin folds through a poorly organized transition state.

The folding mechanisms of helical membrane proteins remain largely uncharted. Here we characterize the kinetics of bacteriorhodopsin folding and employ φ-value analysis to explore the folding transition state. First, we developed and confirmed a kinetic model that allowed us to assess the rate of folding from SDS-denatured bacteriorhodopsin (bRU) and provides accurate thermodynamic information even under influence of retinal hydrolysis. Next, we obtained reliable φ-values for 16 mutants of bacteriorhodopsin with good coverage across the protein. Every φ-value was less than 0.4, indicating the transition state is not uniquely structured. We suggest that the transition state is a loosely organized ensemble of conformations

Expert views of peer-based interventions for prisoner health.

Purpose: Formalised support services for prisoners that rely on peer methods of delivery show promising health and social outcomes but there is also conjecture that negative effects, both at an individual and organisational level, can occur. Design/methodology/approach: Individuals with recognised professional expertise from various sectors (including ex-prisoners) were invited to contribute to an expert symposium to share their perceptions of the positive and negative effects of peer interventions in prison. Discussions and debate were audio recorded with the consent of all delegates and verbatim transcripts were analysed using Framework Analysis. Findings: According to the participants, peer interventions in the prison setting created both positive and negative impacts. It was clear from the evidence gathered that peer interventions in prisons can impact positively on health outcomes, but these effects were perceived to be more well-defined for peer deliverers. The notion that peer deliverers can be subjected to ‘burnout’ suggests that supervisory processes for peer workers need to be considered carefully in order to avoid the intervention from being counter-productive. Organizationally, one of the salient issues was the adverse effects that peer interventions cause to the security of the prison. Originality/value: To our knowledge, this is the first time an expert symposium has been conducted to specifically examine peer interventions in prison and to consider the effects, both positive and negative, of such schemes

Child–parent interaction in relation to road safety education : Part 2 – main report

• Children and young people are particularly vulnerable road users. • Child pedestrian injury rates are poor compared with the rest of Europe. • The factors that impact on children’s road safety and their capability in traffic are numerous, multi-faceted and complex. • • The systematic review conducted by Cattan et al. (2008) as the initial phase of this study shows that: • parents see themselves as being responsible for developing their children’s road safety awareness and skills; • holding hands is the most common road-crossing interaction between parents and children; • adults rarely make use of road-crossing events to give oral instructions; • few parents and children are consistent in their road-crossing behaviour; • roadside training by volunteer parents for groups of children can lead to significant improvements in children’s road safety behaviour; • belief in fate seems to influence the likelihood of parents using restraints, such as seat belts or car seats, with their children; and • parents’ understanding of the child’s perspective in carrying out road safety tasks and their motivation to actively involve their child in making decisions at the roadside can be improved through training. • Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1986) suggests that the modelling role of parents can make a significant contribution to children’s learning about road use and their development of traffic competence whether or not parents are aware of this. • The main aim of this study was to explore the way parents influence children and young people aged 0–16 years to be safer road users. • This study included children and young people aged 5–16 and parents of children aged 0–16 years old

Health promotion co-existing in a high-security prison context : a documentary analysis

Purpose: There is interest in promoting health in prison from governmental levels, but, to date, understanding how best to do this is unclear. This paper argues that nuanced understanding of context is required in order to understand health promotion in prison and examines the potential for empowerment, a cornerstone of health promotion practice, in high-security prison establishments. Design/methodology/approach: Independent prison inspections, conducted by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons for England and Wales (HMIP), form a critical element in how prisons are assessed. Documentary analysis was undertaken on all eight high-security prison reports using framework analysis. Findings: Analysis revealed elements of prison life which were disempowering and antithetical to health promotion. While security imperatives were paramount, there were examples where this was disproportionate and disempowered individuals. The data shows examples where, even in these high-security contexts, empowerment can be fostered. These were exemplified in relation to peer approaches designed to improve health and where prisoners felt part of democratic processes where they could influence change. Practical implications: Both in the UK and internationally, there is a growing rhetoric for delivering effective health promotion interventions in prison, but limited understanding about how to operationalise this. This paper gives insight into how this could be done in a high-security prison environment. Originality/value: This is the first paper which looks at the potential for health promotion to be embedded in high-security prisons. It demonstrates features of prison life which act to disempower and also support individuals to take greater control over their health

Investigating the Influence of Metabolic Syndrome on Cancer Immunotherapy

Cancer is a significant cause of morbidity in New Zealand, with breast and colorectal cancers being amongst the most commonly diagnosed. Therapeutic research has moved into immunotherapies, harnessing the immune system to target tumours. One approach uses virus-like particles (VLP) to activate the immune system against specific antigens found on tumour cells. This has been successful in normal weight murine models of breast and colorectal cancer. Obesity is a highly prevalent disease and contributes to the development of many cancers and may impact the efficacy of treatment. Uric acid is known to be highly immunogenic and chronic hyperuricemia (elevated serum urate) is likely to influence the immune system. The project aimed to test a known efficacious VLP therapy combined with anti-programmed death ligand (PD-L)1, against models of breast and colorectal cancer in obese and hyperuricemic mice. Mice were grafted with either breast or colorectal cancer and treated with an empty vehicle, VLP alone, or VLP + anti-PD-L1. Tumours were either immunohistochemically stained or T-cells were stained for markers of exhaustion. Populations of immune cells were also determined in the blood. Slight increases in survival were observed in obese and hyperuricemic mice with breast cancer treated with VLP, although these mouse strains had reduced survival compared to lean mice when treated with VLP + anti-PD-L1. Obese and hyperuricemic mice had reduced levels of tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) infiltrate compared to lean mice. TILs tended to have a greater phenotype associated with exhaustion in obese mice. In colorectal cancer, survival rates increased in obese mice in both treatment groups. Obese mice had similar levels of TIL infiltration to lean mice, which was reduced in hyperuricemic mice. Treatment with VLP increased TIL frequency in obese and hyperuricemic mice but not in lean mice. There were no differences in TIL exhaustion in lean and obese mice. Obese mice had higher counts of circulating neutrophils and inflammatory monocytes in the blood, but had reduced lymphoid-derived dendritic cell and B-cell counts compared to lean mice. This data suggests that obese and hyperuricemic mice may have reduced responses to immunotherapy, however this varies based on cancer type. Reduced TIL infiltration and increased T-cell exhaustion seen in the breast cancer model may play a role in this. To examine the effect of obesity on cancer treatment in patients, data from stage I and II colorectal cancer patients were analysed for obesity metrics, muscle mass, and blood parameters to compare survival in designated subpopulations. Analysing data about visceral fat showed that obese females had the lowest rate of survival, with non-obese females and all males having similar survival levels. Conversely, measuring waist circumference showed that non-obese females had lower rates of survival than obese females, while obese males had lower rates than non-obese males. Patients with low muscle mass tended to have higher survival compared to those with normal muscle mass. Obesity resulted in higher levels of lymphocytes and albumin, but lower levels of neutrophils and platelets. Sarcopenic patients had decreased levels of lymphocytes. Using visceral fat as a measurement of obesity gives different survival rates compared with standard measures. This may be useful clinically when considering body composition during prognosis. Future research will investigate the effect of body composition on the survival of stage III and IV colorectal cancer patients and may facilitate the development of more personalised and effective treatment regimens