Spirituality, Religion, and Sleep

2021 ◽  
pp. 227-240
Author(s):  
Frederic C. Craigie

Spirituality is a vital element of integrative health and well-being. Research is demonstrating that spiritual and religious beliefs and practices are associated with sleep quality, as they are for many aspects of waking life. This chapter examines literature and clinical approaches to explore questions about the definition of spirituality and religion, how spirituality influences health, how spirituality influences sleep, what can be gleaned from current descriptive and interventional research, and what mechanisms might underlie associations of spirituality with sleep. The authors then present material on approaches to working with spirituality in the practice of integrative medicine and care, touching on the personal groundedness and well-being of clinicians, clinical approaches to supporting meaningful living in patients, and organizational approaches to creating affirming, empowering, and satisfying work environments. The authors also include a short section on spirituality and dreams.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Minna Tiainen ◽  
Outi Ahonen ◽  
Leena Hinkkanen ◽  
Elina Rajalahti ◽  
Alpo Värri

Digital transformation is changing the ecosystem and at the same time professionals’ competencies worldwide. Minimising health care and social welfare costs while increasing citizens’ health and well-being is challenging. Technology and digital tools play an important role in reaching this goal. However, there are inequalities concerning technology, and this has many impacts. Digitalisation brings challenges not only to health care and social welfare professionals but to citizens, too. Working with or using services in digital environments demands new skills. This has social and ethical impacts, e.g. how is equal access to services ensured. Health and social care professionals should have different competencies to respond to this, such as societal competencies. The purpose of this article is to describe how the definition of competencies in health care and social welfare version 1.0 (developed in the national SotePeda 24/7 project) was finalised as the final version 2.0 for Finnish healthcare and social welfare education by experts’ evaluation. Data was collected through an electronic questionnaire administered to selected experts (N=140) during January 2020. The number of experts who responded to the study was 52. These experts (social and health, business and IT) work or have worked in tasks related to the digitalisation of social and health care. The questionnaire was based on version 1.0 of the definition of digital competencies of health care and social welfare informatics. The questionnaire was mainly quantitative, but it also included open-ended qualitative questions. The experts agreed to a large extent on the version 1.0 definition, but some adjustments were made to the definition based on our study. The resulting definition is intended for use in the planning, implementation and evaluation of health care and social welfare education, but it can also be used for polytechnic education. The aim is to develop the digital skills of educators, degree students and in-service trainees in a multidisciplinary way (social and health, business and IT) to meet the needs of working life.


Author(s):  
James R. Fleming

The debate over climate change, both from natural causes and human activity, is not new. Although the Baron C.-L. de Montesquieu is undoubtedly the best known Enlightenment thinker on the topic of climatic determinism, others, notably the Abbé Du Bos, David Hume, and Thomas Jefferson, observed that climatic changes exerted a direct influence on individuals and society and that human agency was directly involved in changing the climate. Climate—from the Greek term klima, meaning slope or inclination—was originally thought to depend only on the height of the Sun above the horizon, a function of the latitude. A second tradition, traceable to Aristotle, linked the quality of the air (and thus the climate) to the vapors and exhalations of a country. The Hippocratic tradition further linked climate to health and national character. As late as 1779, the Encyclopdédie of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond D’Alembert defined “climat” geographically, as a “portion or zone of the surface of the Earth, enclosed within two circles parallel to the equator,” in which the longest day of the year differs in length on its northern and southern boundaries by some quantity of time, for example one-half hour. The article goes on to mention Montesquieu’s position on “l’influence du climat sur les mœurs, le charactère, et les loix des peuples.” The second definition of climate provided by the Encyclopdédie was medical, identified primarily as the temperature of a region and explicated through its effects on the health and well-being of the inhabitants. The idea that climate influenced culture was derived in part from the writings of ancient and medieval philosophers, geographers, and historians, including the works of Hippocrates, Albertus Magnus, and Jean Bodin. With no established science of climatology, Enlightenment thinkers apprehended climate and its changes primarily in a literary way. They compared the ancient writings to recent weather conditions, linked the rise and fall of creative historical eras to changes in climate, and promoted a brand of climatic determinism based on geographic location and the quality of the air.


SLEEP ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. A414-A415
Author(s):  
J Blanc ◽  
N Williams ◽  
G Jean-Louis ◽  
S Lemon ◽  
M Rosal

Abstract Introduction This study examined the relationships between sleep quality and depressive symptoms, and whether this relationship is moderated by frequency of water intake in a sample of Latino adults. Methods Participants in this community-based study were 574 Latino adults from Lawrence, Massachusetts. Assessments included surveys and anthropological measures. Variables in this study included sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index- PSQI), depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale -CES-D) and frequency of water intake in the previous three months (investigator-developed question). Covariates included demographics, stress (Perceived Stress Scale-PSS), and body mass index (BMI). Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to explore associations between sleep and depressive symptoms. Potential moderating effect of frequency of water intake was assessed using hierarchical, moderated, multiple regression analysis. Results The sample was 51.2% female, with a mean age of 46.6 years (SD=15.4) and mean BMI of 29.6 (SD=5.9); 31% of the sample had CES-D scores > 22 (cut off for elevated depressive symptoms), the mean PSQI score was 13.11(SD=3.4) and 92% reported water intake two or more times daily. Sleep quality correlated positively with depression (r=.558; p=.000). After adjusting for covariates, sleep quality was strongly associated with depression (B = .417; SE=13; p =.000). The relationship between sleep quality and depressive symptoms was moderated by frequency of water intake (B= -.186, SE =1.107; p= 0.11). Conclusion This study is among the first to examine the association between sleep quality and depressive symptoms among Latino adults, and to show that frequency of water intake may moderate this association in this population. Support This study was supported by funding from the NIH: R01 MH085653; 1U48DP006381; and T32HL129953.


Author(s):  
Padmini Swaminathan

The Indian economy has experienced economic growth post-1991 but has demonstrated an inability to generate adequate employment and even less of “quality” employment for much of its labor force. This article is based on data collected from conversations with women workers on the theme of “women, work and health,” with an emphasis on, one, task allotment and working conditions in the household; and two, those related to conditions of work at the worksite and the gendered experience of such work. While narratives cannot establish causality between particular work environments and related adverse outcomes, they nevertheless provide crucial insights into what is likely to be blighting these women's lives. Advocates of women's work outside their home need to pay attention to both their remuneration for work and the costs to their health and well-being of such employment, so that policies aimed at employment generation also are sensitive to the adverse outcomes of such employment.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuliya Mysyuk ◽  
Guy Widdershoven ◽  
Martijn Huisman

Abstract Background Living environment has long been considered an important determinant of health. The aim of this study was to explore older people’s experiences with their living environment, their definition of, and their view on its possible impact on mental health and well-being.MethodsThis qualitative study was conducted in Amsterdam among 20 participants, 11 males and 9 females aged 55 to 70 years. We used photovoice as a visual tool to explore older persons’ unique experiences with, and perceptions of their living environment.ResultsOur findings show that social environment plays an important role in defining and shaping the living environment of older people. Older people’s living environment is a place where they feel safe and comfortable, have social contact with others, and stay active and involved.ConclusionPhotovoice was an effective method for documenting visual representation of salient aspects of older people’s living environment and capturing their experiences.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (04) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rene Canady ◽  
Jorge Jimenez ◽  
Danesh Thirukumaran

Race describes cultural, historical, and oppressive relationships in society. The use of race in biomedical and scientific studies has been a powerful tool that can reinforce and alter society’s current assumptions about race. Some of the historical uses of race include evidence for race-based medicine, biological inferiority, and genocide. These uses have all used race as a crude proxy for genetic makeup, rather than a biological expression of the social environment that infiltrates the health and well-being of every American. By defining race and its social and cultural impacts on identity and the human experience within research, the field of biomedicine will improve clarity and integrity in addressing historical, scientific, and clinical inequalities. Currently, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) does not contain a definition of race and uses homogeneous ethnical categories when reporting population statistics. We propose that the definition of race be added in the collection of race data as a requirement of the OMB for nationally conducted research.


Author(s):  
Jonas Svensson

This chapter suggests an explanatory framework for the iconic dimension of the Qur’an as sacred scripture; that is, of physical copies of the book, for example as objects of veneration, respect, and protection, and as sources of a power with perceived effects on health and well-being. It suggests that diverse beliefs and practices within the iconic dimension are consequences of a “personification” of the scripture, which in turn can be explained as a result of two basically human mental abilities and proclivities: conceptual blending and psychological essentialism. The chapter also notes different aspects of the iconic dimension identified in previous research and discusses it in relation to the overall theoretical framework. Finally, it suggests that the framework has wider application for the iconic dimensions of sacred scriptures in general, it and can be useful for explaining the psychological infrastructure of human sacralization as such.


2021 ◽  
pp. 239496432110480
Author(s):  
Marisa Faggini ◽  
Bruna Bruno ◽  
Anna Parziale

Currently, healthcare is worldwide one of the most critical service domains, dealing with human being health and well-being. Its importance and significance are also reflected through the Agenda 2030 and its SDGs, which point to guarantee health and well-being for all at all ages. In this sense, this article aims to better investigate if and how specific paths of value creation contribute to healthcare sustainability. The analysis has been conducted assuming a system perspective, which led to approach those dynamics, supported digital technologies and platforms, that boost the sustainability of complex service systems such as healthcare. To this end, a case study analysis has been conducted, investigating the potential of a digital platform in boosting an ongoing path of value creation able to contribute to short- and long-term sustainability of healthcare domain and of the related services. The results of this analysis pointed out that digital platforms can acts as value generation enablers, paving the way for the definition of sustainable paths of value creation.


2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Chawla

This review examines different ways that contact with nature can contribute to the health and well-being of children. Applying the capabilities approach to human development for a broad definition of well-being, it traces research from the 1970s to the present, following shifting research approaches that investigate different dimensions of health. A compelling body of evidence exists that trees and natural areas are essential elements of healthy communities for children. They need to be integrated at multiple scales, from landscaping around homes, schools, and childcare centers, to linked systems of urban trails, greenways, parks, and “rough ground” for children’s creative play.


Children ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren C. Bates ◽  
Gabriel Zieff ◽  
Kathleen Stanford ◽  
Justin B. Moore ◽  
Zachary Y. Kerr ◽  
...  

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, social restrictions to contain the spread of the virus have disrupted behaviors across the 24-h day including physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep among children (5–12 years old) and adolescents (13–17 years old). Preliminary evidence reports significant decreases in physical activity, increases in sedentary behavior, and disrupted sleep schedules/sleep quality in children and adolescents. This commentary discusses the impact of COVID-19-related restrictions on behaviors across the 24-h day in children and adolescents. Furthermore, we suggest recommendations through the lens of a socio-ecological model to provide strategies for lasting behavior change to insure the health and well-being of children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic.


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