scholarly journals Obesity and Diet Predict Attitudes towards Health Promotion in Pre-Registered Nurses and Midwives

Author(s):  
Holly Blake ◽  
Kathryn Watkins ◽  
Matthew Middleton ◽  
Natalia Stanulewicz

Nurses and midwives are integral to public health promotion; in the UK, they are advised to act as role models by their governing body, but overweight or obesity rates are high. We explored whether obesity and dietary habits are related to attitudes towards healthy role modelling and health promotion practice. A total of 346 pre-registered UK nurses and midwives (92.6% female; 18–53 years) completed an online survey. Items included body composition, dietary habits assessed by the Lifestyle Behaviour Questionnaire (LBQ), attitudes towards being role models for health (RA: role attitudes) and attitudes toward health promotion practice (ATHPP): 33.8% of the sample self-reported as overweight or obese; 67.6% did not consume 5-a-day portions of fruit/veg; 31.5% reported a healthy diet; and 89.6% believed their diet could be healthier. Positive RA was significantly linked to health promotion engagement (HP) (ß = 0.33, p < 0.001). Positive ATHPP was significantly predicted by lower BMI (ß = −0.08, p = 0.078), positive RA (ß = 0.67, p < 0.001), lower HP (ß = −0.25, p < 0.001) and male gender (ß = 0.09, p = 0.02). Greater confidence in patients valuing healthcare professional’s advice was predicted by healthier diet (ß = 0.11, p = 0.03), lower BMI (ß = −0. 16, p < 0.01), more positive RA (ß = 0.14, p < 0.01) as well as HP engagement during training (ß = 0.20, p < 0.01). One’s own motivation to promote health, similarly to ATHPP, was predicted by RA (ß = 0.17, p = 0.001) and previous HP engagement (ß = 0.39, p < 0.001). Findings show that overweight and obesity are prevalent in pre-registered nurses and midwives; the majority did not consume a healthy diet. Individual’s body composition, diet and attitudes towards role modelling are positively associated with their attitudes towards, and confidence in, health promotion practice. Experiences of health promotion practice during training can have either a positive or a negative influence on attitudes. Mentors and educators could actively promote healthy lifestyles for pre-registered nurses and midwives and facilitate more opportunities for health promotion practice during placements, which includes time for reflection.

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 2157-2166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Sharp ◽  
Joan L. Bottorff ◽  
Kate Hunt ◽  
John L. Oliffe ◽  
Steven T. Johnson ◽  
...  

Men in high income countries have poorer dietary habits and higher rates of overweight and obesity than women. A major challenge with engaging men in health promotion is the perception that attention to one’s health runs counter to masculine identities. Contemporary health promotion programs are believed to hold little “manly” appeal and often fail to engage and retain men. The HAT TRICK program was designed to engage men with their health by delivering an intervention in collaboration with a semi-professional ice hockey team. The program included 12 weekly sessions promoting healthy eating, active living, and social connectedness among men. Gender-sensitized elements were reflected in the program design, setting, content, and delivery. Semistructured telephone interviews were conducted with 23 men to explore perspectives of their participation in the gender-sensitized intervention. Participants were white (100%) with a mean age of 53 years ( SD ± 9.9), Body Mass Index (BMI) of 37 kg/m2 ( SD ± 6.8), and waist circumference of 127 centimeters ( SD ± 14.5). Inductive thematic analysis revealed three overarching themes, including: (a) Harnessing nostalgia for past masculinities: “Closet athletes from 30 years ago,” (2) Offsetting resistance to change with sensible health advice: “Don’t give up drinking beer, just have less,” and (3) Gendered social spaces for doing health: “A night out with the guys,” The findings support the value of gender-sensitized approaches to men’s health promotion. Further research is needed to identify which gender-sensitized elements are critical to engaging men in healthy lifestyle changes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 339-347
Author(s):  
Tereza Sofková ◽  
Michaela Hřivnová ◽  
Marie Chrásková

Abstract Appropriate dietary habits and healthy nutrition play a part in weight control. Set positive principles make precondition for satisfactory state of the body and its composition. Body mass index (BMI) is most commonly used to assess optimal body mass in relation to health risks. However, BMI does not enable the representation of individual body components and may lead to misdiagnosis in one person. The aim of our study was to evaluate dietary habits and selected body composition parameters based on BMI. Moreover, we evaluated these parameters in relation to the daily frequency of meals. The research group consisted of 318 female students of pedagogical disciplines of Palacký University in Olomouc, aged between 18 and 30 years. (22.3±2.5 years). The survey was conducted in March 2018 and 2019. Data on dietary habits were acquired through a questionnaire survey that focused on the daily frequency of meals. Multi-frequency bioimpedance analysis using InBody 720 analyser was used to determine body composition parameters. In the normal weight BMI (BMI_N) category, the selected parameters (BFP: body fat percentage, VFA: visceral fat, FFM: fat-free mass) based on general recommendations for body composition are met. In the overweight and obesity (BMI_O) category, the mean BFP values fall, as expected, into the obesity category (≥35%). We may conclude that statistically significantly lower relative risk of damage to health assessed by the body fat and visceral fat (BFM, BFP, VFA, BFMI) was found to be significantly lower in women who consume 5 meals per day compared to women who consume 4 or less daily portions of food. The differences between the BMI categories for individual meals during the day were statistically insignificant for the group we investigated. We evaluate the dietary habits positively based on the low frequency of skipping meals.


2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 81-88
Author(s):  
Stacia Reader ◽  
Charmaine Aleong

While overweight and obesity continue to be significant public health problems in the United States, especially among minority and disadvantaged youth, there are also many initiatives in the school environment that aim to combat these concerns. The effectiveness of these interventions is of course a major point of interest. This paper describes issues raised in an early-stage cross-sector partnership between a community-based organization (CBO) and an urban community college for tackling obesity in public school children. Seven college students worked as paid interns in the CBO�s New York City Public School-based health promotion program located in the Bronx. As part of the program, college students paired with chefs to educate schoolchildren about healthy eating. This study examines the successes, challenges and lessons learned from the themes that arose in the college students� pre and post surveys and logs, faculty journal entries and notes from a debriefing session with CBO staff. The college students reported multiple successes such as applying their nutrition knowledge, an interest in working in their community and positive changes in some of the schoolchildren�s and college students� eating behaviors. Challenges included a short and chaotic lunch period, which discouraged healthy eating, and a lack of buy-in from the school staff and parents. This study highlights the issue of cultural relatability and the effectiveness of role models originating in the community. When this factor is taken into account, crosssector partnerships, which develop programming to expose individuals to healthy, affordable food, may have a long-term impact on the participants and the community in which they live.


Author(s):  
Donna Murnaghan ◽  
Courtney Laurence ◽  
Brandi Bell ◽  
Melissa Munro-Bernard

The voice of youth is crucial to advancing solutions that contribute to effective strategies to improve youth health outcomes. The problem, however, is that youth/student voices are often overlooked, and stakeholders typically engage in decision-making without involving youth. The burden of chronic disease is increasing worldwide, and in Canada chronic disease accounts for 89 per cent of deaths. However, currently, youth spend less time being physically active while engaging in more unhealthy eating behaviours than ever before. High rates of unhealthy behaviours such as physical inactivity, unhealthy eating and tobacco use are putting Canadian youth at risk of health problems such as increased levels of overweight and obesity, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Focus group methodology was utilised to conduct 7 focus groups with 50 students in grades 7–12 from schools in Prince Edward Island, Canada. The key themes that emerged included: (1) youth health issues such as lack of opportunities to be physically active, cost and quality of healthy food options, and bullying; (2) facilitators and barriers to health promotion, including positive peer and adult role models, positive relationships with adults and competitiveness of school sports; and (3) lack of student voice. Our findings suggest that actively engaging youth provides opportunities to understand youth perspectives on how to encourage them to make healthy choices and engage in healthy behaviours. Attention needs to be paid to inclusive knowledge exchange practices that value and integrate youth perspectives and ideas as a basis for building health promotion actions and interventions.Keywords: knowledge exchange, youth health, youth engagement


2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (8) ◽  
pp. 1131-1147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelia Hurley ◽  
Joellen Edwards ◽  
Jann Cupp ◽  
Michael Phillips

This study purposed to determine the relationship between nurses’ personal health practices and their perceptions of themselves as role models for health promotion, and assess the relationship of personal and professional characteristics both on perception of self as role model and on the practice of healthy behaviors. In this study of 804 Tennessee registered nurses, 4% report smoking, 24.9% drink alcohol, 34% are overweight, and 30% are obese. Approximately 70% do not meet the weekly physical activity recommendations of 150 min, and 36.2% follow guidelines for a healthy diet only 50% of the time or less. There were significant correlations between following a healthy diet or physical activity and the Self as a Role Model of Health Promotion (SARMHEP) scores. Based on the regression analysis, working in an acute care or ambulatory setting negatively affected the SARMHEP, as opposed to age and sex having a positive effect on the SARMHEP score.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-118
Author(s):  
Md Rizwanul Ahsan ◽  
Sabrina Makbul ◽  
Probir Kumar Sarkar

Background: Now a days unhealthy lifestyle primarily responsible for the dramatic increase obesity among children and adolescents. Objective: The purpose of the study is to see the effects of a multidisciplinary lifestyle intervention to reduce obese children and adolescents. The main outcome was cardiometabolic risk based on the waist-to-height ratio (WHTR) measurement. Secondary outcomes were (1) changes in body composition; (2) adherence to a Mediterranean diet; and (3) physical performance. Methods: The study involved 64 overweight/obese children or adolescents conducted at Dhaka Shishu Hospital from October 2017 to September 2018. The intervention was multidisciplinary including nutrition, exercise, and psychological aspects based on a family-based approach; it was delivered for six months for children and three months for adolescents. Before and after the intervention, several anthropometric measures height, body weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and body composition, cardiometabolic risk index waist-to-height ratio (WHTR), and dietary habits of the participants and their families were evaluated. In addition, a set of functional motor fitness tests was performed to evaluate physical performance measures. Results: After the intervention both children and adolescents showed a significant reduction in body weight, BMI, waist circumference, fat mass, and WHTR index and an improvement of fat-free mass, adherence to the Mediterranean diet, and physical fitness performance. Conclusion: A short term family-based multidisciplinary approach is effective in ameliorating the health status, dietary habits, and physical performance in children and adolescents. DS (Child) H J 2019; 35(2) : 111-118


Author(s):  
Fatma Elsayed ◽  
Aram Alhammadi ◽  
Alanood Alahmad ◽  
Zahra Babiker ◽  
Abdelhamid Kerkadi

The prevalence of obesity has been increased in Qatar, with the transition from healthy to unhealthy dietary habits. Behavioral factors that are associated with obesity are, long-term imbalanced energy intake, high screen time, skipping breakfast and physical inactivity. Changes in body composition and percent body fat (PBF) increase the risk of non-communicable disease. This study is the first study conducted in Qatar to investigate the relationship between dietary patterns and body composition among young females at Qatar University. This cross-sectional study consisted of 766 healthy female students Qatari and non-Qatari aged from 18-26 years randomly selected from different colleges at Qatar University. A validate questionnaire was used in order to collect data about healthy and unhealthy dietary patterns. Anthropometric measurements involved body weight, height, waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), waist circumference (WC), body mass index (BMI) and body composition using “Seca285”, “Seca203” and “InbodyBiospace 720”. Dietary patterns were identified by using factor loading. Linear regression was used to estimate confidence intervals and regression coefficient. More than half of the participants had a normal weight (65.1%), whereas 22.8 % and 12.0% were overweight and obese, respectively. Fat mass, BMI and PBF were slightly increased with age, but there was no significant difference. Factor analysis identified two dietary patterns: unhealthy patterns and healthy patterns. The frequent intake of vegetables and fruits was significant among high PBF female students (p=0.045 and p=0.001, respectively). The frequent intake of fast food was higher for overweight female students but there was no significant difference (p=0.289), whereas, the frequent intake of sweetened beverages was associated with higher significant rate of normal weight among female students (p = 0.009). No significant relation was found between dietary patterns, BMI and PBF. In conclusion, body composition is not significantly associated with healthy and unhealthy eating patterns among young females.


Author(s):  
Sarah Jenner ◽  
Regina Belski ◽  
Brooke Devlin ◽  
Aaron Coutts ◽  
Thomas Kempton ◽  
...  

(1) Background: Many professional Australian Football (AF) players do not meet recommended sports nutrition guidelines despite having access to nutrition advice. There are a range of factors that can influence players′ ability to meet their nutrition goals and awareness of the barriers players face is essential to ensure that dietary advice translates into practice. Therefore, this qualitative research study aimed to explore the factors influencing AF players’ dietary intakes and food choice. (2) Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve professional male AF players. (3) Results: Less experienced players restricted their carbohydrate intake to meet body composition goals, particularly during preseason and surrounding body composition assessment. During the competition season players had a greater focus on performance and placed more emphasis on carbohydrate intake in the lead up to matches. Players felt nutrition goals were easier to achieve when dietary choices were supported by their families and peers. One-on-one consultations provided by a sports dietitian were players′ preferred mode of nutrition intervention. Individualized nutrition advice is required for less experienced AF players who may be vulnerable to unsustainable dietary habits. Experienced AF players can support junior teammates by promoting positive team culture related to body composition, nutrition and performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 5S-7S
Author(s):  
Jill Sonke ◽  
Lourdes Rodríguez ◽  
Melissa A. Valerio-Shewmaker

The arts—and the arts and culture sector—offer fertile ground for achieving a culture of health in the United States. The arts and artists are agents of change and can help enable this vision and also address the most critical public health issues we are contending with, including COVID-19 and racism. The arts provide means for engaging dialogue, influencing behaviors, disrupting paradigms and fueling social movements. The arts uncover and illuminate issues. They engage us emotionally and intellectually. They challenge assumptions. They call out injustice. They drive collective action. They heal—making arts + public health collaboration very relevant in this historic moment. In this special Health Promotion Practice supplement on arts in public health, you’ll find powerful examples and evidence of how cross-sector collaboration between public health and the arts can advance health promotion goals and impacts, and make health promotion programs not only more accessible to diverse populations but also more equitable and effective in addressing the upstream systems, policies, and structures that create health disparities. You will see how the arts can empower health communication, support health literacy, provide direct and measurable health benefits to individuals and communities, and support coping and resilience in response to COVID-19. This issue itself exemplifies cross-sector collaboration, as it was created through partnership between Health Promotion Practice, the Society for Public Health Education, ArtPlace America, and the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine, and presents voices from across the public health, arts, and community development sectors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane I. Lopez ◽  
Lauren Chacon ◽  
Denise Vasquez ◽  
Louis D. Brown

Abstract Background Hispanic immigrants continue to experience higher rates of overweight and obesity compared to their non-Hispanic counterparts. Acculturation may contribute to unhealthy weight gain among immigrant populations by shifting dietary patterns from high fruit and vegetable consumption to unhealthier high fat diets. Healthy Fit, a culturally tailored community health worker (CHW) intervention, aims to reduce obesity related outcomes by providing physical activity and nutrition education and resources in a low-income Hispanic population. This study aims to evaluate outcomes of Healthy Fit participants and examine changes in body composition in relation to level of acculturation at baseline and follow-up. Method In this longitudinal observational study, CHWs recruited 514 participants from community events and agencies serving low-income Hispanic populations in El Paso, Texas from 2015 to 2016. Following an in-person health screening, eligible participants received nutrition and physical activity education guided by fotonovelas, comic-like educational books. Telephone follow-ups made at 1, 3, and 6 months by CHWs encouraged follow-through on referrals. 288 participants completed the screening again during the 12-month follow-up. Results The sample was predominantly Hispanic (96%), female (82%), uninsured (79%), had a household income of less than $19,999 (70%), foreign-born (79%), preferred Spanish (86%) and few rated themselves as good or excellent for English proficiency (27%). Overall, Healthy Fit participants significantly improved (i.e., decreased) BFP by 0.71% (t = 2.47, p = 0.01) but not BMI (b = .01, t = − 0.14, p = .89). Contrary to expectations, acculturation was not associated with lower BMI (b = 0.09, p = 0.84) or BFP (b = 0.13, p = 0.85) at baseline. However, acculturation predicted changes in both BMI (b = 0.30, p = 0.03) and BFP (b = 1.33, p = 0 .01) from baseline to follow-up. Specifically, the low acculturation group improved in body composition measures over time and the high acculturation group did not improve in either measure. Conclusion Findings suggest Healthy Fit was most effective among less acculturated individuals. The influence of acculturation on the efficacy of nutrition and exercise interventions suggests that Hispanics should not be treated as a homogenous subgroup.


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