Health Promotion and Wellness in Aging

2020 ◽  
pp. 12-28
Author(s):  
Maria Cristina Campos de Sousa Faria
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Aging In Place ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Aging And Health ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
Psychological View ◽  
Five Axes

The older population is growing and living longer than ever. That is why we must create more and more services suitable for this age group, so that it can grow old with quality of life. In order to better understand their needs and the type of intervention which can be implemented in the community to protect the health and wellbeing in this age group, from the age of 65, the authors have sought to identify and understand the synergies they can establish between health promotion and wellness in aging. To take this task forward, they focused their attention on five axes: principles of health promotion, social representations of aging, the focus on gender in the analysis of aging and health, empowering and wellbeing of older adults, and healthy aging in place. In this work they start from a bio-psycho-social-environmental view of aging and present the contributions of the psychological view for promoting health in aging. At the end, a reflexive synthesis will be carried out on the topics covered and suggestions will be presented to improve the health and wellbeing of aging in place.

Exploring the place of spirituality in Canadian health promotion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karina Gerhardt-Strachan
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Sampling Frame ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Canadian Health ◽  
Commission Report ◽  
Social Environmental

Abstract The field of health promotion advocates a socioecological approach to health that addresses a variety of physical, social, environmental, political and cultural factors. Encouraging a holistic approach, health promotion examines many aspects of health and wellbeing, including physical, mental, sexual, community, social and ecological health. Despite this holism, there is a noticeable absence of discussion surrounding spirituality and spiritual health. This research study explored how leading scholars in Canadian health promotion understand the place of spirituality in health promotion. Using the fourth edition of Health Promotion in Canada (Rootman et al., 2017) as the sampling frame of recognized leaders in the field, 13 semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with authors from the book. This study is situated within a critical health promotion approach that utilizes methodologies aiming for social justice, equity and ecological sustainability. I argue that by avoiding spirituality within health promotion frameworks and education, the secularism of health promotion and its underlying values of Eurocentric knowledge production and science remain invisible and rarely critiqued. This study intends to open up possibilities for centering spiritual and non-Western epistemologies and ways of knowing that have been marginalized, such as Indigenous understandings of health and wellbeing. Restoring right relations with Indigenous peoples in Canada has taken on new urgency with the calls to action of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission report (NCTR, 2015). This is one important way that health promotion can fulfill its promise of being inclusive, relevant and effective for human and planetary wellbeing.

scholarly journals Visualization approaches to support healthy aging: A systematic review

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uba Backonja ◽  
Nai-Ching Chi ◽  
Yong Choi ◽  
Amanda K Hall ◽  
Thai Le ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Health Behaviors ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Aging In Place ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Data Visualizations ◽  
Informatics Tools

Background: Health technologies have the potential to support the growing number of older adults who are aging in place. Many tools include visualizations (data visualizations, visualizations of physical representations). However, the role of visualizations in supporting aging in place remains largely unexplored.Objective: To synthesize and identify gaps in the literature evaluating visualizations (data visualizations and visualizations of physical representations), for informatics tools to support healthy aging.Methods: We conducted a search in CINAHL, Embase, Engineering Village, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science using a priori defined terms for publications in English describing community-based studies evaluating visualizations used by adults aged ≥65 years.Results: Six out of the identified 251 publications were eligible. Most studies were user studies and varied methodological quality. Three visualizations of virtual representations supported performing at-home exercises. Participants found visual representations either (a) helpful, motivational, and supported their understanding of their health behaviors or (b) not an improvement over alternatives. Three data visualizations supported understanding of one’s health. Participants were able to interpret data visualizations that used precise data and encodings that were more concrete better than those that did not provide precision or were abstract. Participants found data visualizations helpful in understanding their overall health and granular data.Conclusions: Studies we identified used visualizations to promote engagement in exercises or understandings of one’s health. Future research could overcome methodological limitations of studies we identified to develop visualizations that older adults could use with ease and accuracy to support their health behaviors and decision-making.

scholarly journals Boosting urban health and well-being through cross-sectoral cooperation

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
A Liinamo ◽  
K Matinheikki-Kokko ◽  
I Gobina ◽  
A Villeruša
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Baltic Sea Region ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Health And Well Being

Abstract In the future, health promotion would require developed strategies that lead to stronger cross-sectoral cooperation. Cross-sectoral cooperation enables the integration of fragmented resources and competencies, which benefit service solutions for urban health. Healthy Boost “Urban Labs for Better Health for All in the Baltic Sea Region”, funded by the EU Interreg Baltic Sea Region -program, aims to develop the Model for cross-sectoral cooperation, which will be tested in the cities of the Baltic Sea Region during 2020-21. The self-assessment tool for cross-sectoral cooperation was developed, and the self-assessment among the nine cities in seven countries from the Baltic Sea Region was conducted in 2019. The results indicated to what extent the staff (n = 329) in the cities have recognized the cross-sectoral cooperation for health and wellbeing as strategically crucial in their policies, communication, and in the design of their organizational functions. The daily practices were evaluated in terms of how systematically cities have implemented cross-sector actions for health and wellbeing. The biggest challenges for cooperating across sectors for the cities were coordination and systematic identification of the community needs for health promotion. The cooperative actions were less systematic than expected in the strategic approach. The variation among respondents' assessments was high within the cities that lead to a conclusion about existing gaps in coordination, communication, and leadership of cross-sectoral work within the cities. The Likert type self-assessment measurement was statistically reliable in both strategic and operational dimensions of cooperation. Key messages Evaluation and measurements are needed to identify cross-sectoral actions to health and well-being. The evidence-based Model developed in the Healthy Boost project will guide partners towards systematic cross-sectoral cooperation processes.

scholarly journals Healthy aging profile in octogenarians in Brazil

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Cristina Viana Campos ◽  
Efigênia Ferreira e Ferreira ◽  
Andréa Maria Duarte Vargas ◽  
Lúcia Hisako Takase Gonçalves
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Tree ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Population Based ◽  
P Value ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Monthly Income ◽  
Tree Model ◽  
Socioeconomic Characteristics

ABSTRACT Objective: to identify the healthy aging profile in octogenarians in Brazil. Method: this population-based epidemiological study was conducted using household interviews of 335 octogenarians in a Brazilian municipality. The decision-tree model was used to assess the healthy aging profile in relation to the socioeconomic characteristics evaluated at baseline. All of the tests used a p-value < 0.05. Results: the majority of the 335 participating older adults were women (62.1%), were aged between 80 and 84 years (50.4%), were widowed (53.4%), were illiterate (59.1%), had a monthly income of less than one minimum wage (59.1%), were retired (85.7%), lived with their spouse (63.8%), did not have a caregiver (60.3%), had two or more children (82.7%), and had two or more grandchildren (78.8%). The results indicate three age groups with a healthier aging profile: older adults aged 80 to 84 years (55.6%), older adults aged 85 years and older who are married (64.9%), and older adults aged 85 and older who do not have a partner or a caregiver (54.2%). Conclusion: the healthy aging profile of octogenarians can be explained by age group, marital status, and the presence of a caregiver.

Visioning the future of health promotion

2021 ◽  
pp. 175797592110357
Author(s):  
Ilona Kickbusch
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Human Impact ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Public Purpose ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Sustainable Societies ◽  
Transformative Approach ◽  
Improve Health

COVID-19 has shown us clearly that the world must commit to a transformative approach that promotes health and wellbeing. Living in the Anthropocene – an epoch defined by human impact on our ecosystems – moves us into unknown territory. The challenge is to find a way of living that aims to meet the needs of all people within the means of the living planet. We will require foresight, agility and resilience to be well prepared. The global risks we face are enormous and they are interconnected – yet the opportunity to accelerate change for the better is extraordinary as well. We have models, knowledge and technologies at our disposal that could significantly improve health and wellbeing and create fairer and more sustainable societies – yet they have not been used widely to serve the public purpose and to address inequities.

Future directions for the concept of salutogenesis: a position article

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
G F Bauer ◽  
M Roy ◽  
P Bakibinga ◽  
P Contu ◽  
S Downe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Health Promotion And Education ◽  
Salutogenic Model ◽  
And Coping

Abstract Aaron Antonovsky advanced the concept of salutogenesis almost four decades ago (Antonovsky, Health, Stress and Coping. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 1979; Unravelling the Mystery of Health. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 1987). Salutogenesis posits that life experiences shape the sense of coherence (SOC) that helps to mobilize resources to cope with stressors and manage tension successfully (determining one’s movement on the health Ease/Dis-ease continuum). Antonovsky considered the three-dimensional SOC (i.e. comprehensibility, manageability, meaningfulness) as the key answer to his question about the origin of health. The field of health promotion has adopted the concept of salutogenesis as reflected in the international Handbook of Salutogenesis (Mittelmark et al., The Handbook of Salutogenesis. Springer, New York, 2016). However, health promotion mostly builds on the more vague, general salutogenic orientation that implies the need to foster resources and capacities to promote health and wellbeing. To strengthen the knowledge base of salutogenesis, the Global Working Group on Salutogenesis (GWG-Sal) of the International Union of Health Promotion and Education produced the Handbook of Salutogenesis. During the creation of the handbook and the regular meetings of the GWG-Sal, the working group identified four key conceptual issues to be advanced: (i) the overall salutogenic model of health; (ii) the SOC concept; (iii) the design of salutogenic interventions and change processes in complex systems; (iv) the application of salutogenesis beyond health sector. For each of these areas, we first highlight Antonovsky’s original contribution and then present suggestions for future development. These ideas will help guide GWG-Sal’s work to strengthen salutogenesis as a theory base for health promotion.

Stigma and Health/Risk Communication

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel A. Smith ◽  
Xun Zhu ◽  
Madisen Quesnell
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Risk Communication ◽  
Interpersonal Communication ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Behavioral Changes ◽  
Community Networks ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Health And Wellbeing

Stigmas are profoundly negative stereotypes of a social group and its members that have diffused and normalized throughout a community. Being marked as a member of a stigmatized group does more than designate someone as different: stigmas denote people as discredited, devalued, and disgraced. Stigmas shape health and risk communication and are considered the leading—but least understood—barrier to health promotion. Communication and stigmas are dynamically connected. Communication is critical to a stigma’s existence, spread, expression, coping, and elimination. Using mediated and interpersonal communication, community members are socialized to recognize and react to stigmatized people. People use communication to enact the devaluation and ostracism of stigmatized people, and stigmatized people use communication to cope with stigmatization. Stigmas also shape communication: stigmas compel non-marked persons to engage in stigmatization and ostracism of marked persons, reduce marked people’s disclosure and encourage secrecy, and shape the characteristics of personal and community networks. Last, campaigns have used communication to attempt to eliminate existing stigmas. The accumulating research, conducted from diverse assumptions about human behavior (cultural determinism, evolutionary, socio-functional), shows how easily and effectively stigmas may be socialized; how challenging they are to manage; how many facets of health and wellbeing are devastated by their existence; and how difficult it is to attenuate them. While much has been uncovered about stigma, health, and risk, many questions remain. Among these include: How can one design messages that effectively alert the general public about imminent health threats and that successfully promote desirable behavioral changes without evoking stigma processes? How do different reactions to stigmatization influence targets and their social networks? What factors increase resistance or vulnerability to messages containing stigma-inducing content? How can one create an effective, reliable means to eliminate existing stigmas?

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