Vergelyking van die uitwerking van sedentêre en aktiewe werkomgewings op algehele welstand

The concept of wellness has changed over the decades with the ever-changing lifestyle of society as it adapts to technological advances. The contemporary view is that wellness is the primary responsibility of the individual and is accomplished by practising health-promoting behaviour. There are various factors that contribute to wellness in the sense of an individual’s long-term sense of overall well-being. One of the most essential factors is physical activity, and there is a large body of research that explores the benefits of a physically active lifestyle. This article is based on the assumption that the most accurate way to measure these benefits are to compare an active with a sedentary lifestyle. The purpose of this review is to clarify the concept of wellness and highlight the benefits of a physically active working environment as opposed to the disadvantages of a sedentary environment in attaining overall wellbeing.

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Flexible Work, Temporal Disruption and Implications for Health Practices: An Australian Qualitative Study

Work Employment and Society ◽

10.1177/0950017020954750 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 095001702095475

Author(s):

Ginny M Sargent ◽

Julia McQuoid ◽

Jane Dixon ◽

Cathy Banwell ◽

Lyndall Strazdins

Keyword(s):

Health Improvement ◽

Health Practices ◽

Flexible Work ◽

Physically Active ◽

Personal Lives ◽

Social Theories ◽

Employment Standards ◽

Temporal Predictability ◽

Health Promoting

Flexible work provisions are justified as enabling workers to manage their personal lives, including their health, around work. This study deploys social theories of practice to investigate how the temporal characteristics of flexible work can produce, alter and disrupt the health improvement efforts of workers, concentrating on healthy eating and keeping physically active. Drawing from in-depth interviews with 12 Australian workers, the study explores the temporal mechanisms linking flexible work to health practices, focusing on routines, rhythms and rituals (the three Rs). This research finds that work-time arrangements can provide the temporal scaffolding necessary for health practices (through routines, rhythms and rituals), but only when there is day-to-day, mid-term, and long-term work predictability. Australia’s flexible work policies do not provide this requisite temporal predictability. Health promoting employment provisions would have to reinstate employment standards from the 1970s, providing the desired predictability for flexible provisions to benefit workers.

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Getting Back on Track to Being Human

Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership ◽

10.24926/ijps.v4i1.151 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Darcia Narvaez

Keyword(s):

Toxic Stress ◽

Weed Species ◽

Dominant Culture ◽

Human Culture ◽

Free Riders ◽

Earth Systems ◽

Technological Advances ◽

Sustainable Societies ◽

The Individual

Cooperation and compassion are forms of intelligence. Their lack is an indication of ongoing stress or toxic stress during development that undermined the usual growth of compassion capacities. Though it is hard to face at first awareness, humans in the dominant culture tend to be pretty unintelligent compared to those from societies that existed sustainably for thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of years. Whereas in sustainable societies everyone must learn to cooperate with earth’s systems to survive and thrive, in the dominant culture this is no longer the case. Now due to technological advances that do not take into account the long-term welfare of earth systems, humans have become “free riders” until these systems collapse from abuse or misuse. The dominant human culture, a “weed species,” has come to devastate planetary ecosystems in a matter of centuries. What do we do to return ourselves to living as earth creatures, as one species among many in community? Humanity needs to restore lost capacities—relational attunement and communal imagination—whose loss occurs primarily in cultures dominated by child-raising practices and ways of thinking that undermine cooperative companionship and a sense of partnership that otherwise develops from the beginning of life. To plant the seeds of cooperation, democracy, and partnership, we need to provide the evolved nest to children, and facilitate the development of ecological attachment to their landscape. This will take efforts at the individual, policy, and institutional levels.

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Resilience and disaster research

Psihologijske teme ◽

10.31820/pt.28.3.4 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 529-547

Author(s):

Helena Bakić

Keyword(s):

Disaster Preparedness ◽

Historical Context ◽

Well Being ◽

Risk Groups ◽

Mental Health Disorder ◽

Individual Characteristics ◽

Future Research ◽

Psychological Well Being ◽

The Individual

Disasters pose a significant threat to the long-term well-being of individuals, communities and societies. Therefore, studying resilience, defined as the process of maintaining and recovering psychological well-being after adversity, is crucial for disaster preparedness and mitigation. The aims of this paper are to summarize the historical context of resilience research, present the key concepts, discuss current measurement approaches and propose future research directions. Key determinants of resilience - risk, positive adaptation and resources - are discussed with the focus on studies of adults affected by disasters. This narrative review demonstrates that research up to date has focused mostly on finding the individual characteristics that predict the absence of psychopathology or mental health disorder symptoms, while other types of resources or dynamic relations between key aspects of resilience have been neglected. Future studies should aim to include multiple measurement points, high- and low-risk groups, long-term follow-up and broader perspectives on both psychological well-being and potential resources.

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Nutraceutical Boom in Cancer: Inside the Labyrinth of Reactive Oxygen Species

International Journal of Molecular Sciences ◽

10.3390/ijms21061936 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 21 (6) ◽

pp. 1936 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Maura Calvani ◽

Amada Pasha ◽

Claudio Favre

Keyword(s):

Well Being ◽

Epidemiological Studies ◽

Long Term Results ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Cell Growth Arrest ◽

Host Interactions ◽

Health And Disease ◽

Pros And Cons ◽

The Individual

In recent years, epidemiological studies have shown that food is a very powerful means for maintaining a state of well-being and for health prevention. Many degenerative, autoimmune and neoplastic diseases are related to nutrition and the nutrient–organism interaction could define the balance between health and disease. Nutrients and dietary components influence epigenetic phenomena and modify drugs response; therefore, these food–host interactions can influence the individual predisposition to disease and its potential therapeutic response. Do nutraceuticals have positive or negative effects during chemotherapy? The use of nutraceutical supplements in cancer patients is a controversial debate without a definitive conclusion to date. During cancer treatment, patients take nutraceuticals to alleviate drug toxicity and improve long-term results. Some nutraceuticals may potentiate the effect of cytotoxic chemotherapy by inducing cell growth arrest, cell differentiation, and alteration of the redox state of cells, but in some cases, high levels of them may interfere with the effectiveness of chemotherapy, making cancer cells less reactive to chemotherapy. In this review, we highlighted the emerging opinions and data on the pros and cons on the use of nutraceutical supplements during chemotherapy.

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Risk and Protective Factors for Depression in Youth

Behaviour Change ◽

10.1375/bech.23.1.1 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

pp. 1-30 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Alison L. Shortt ◽

Susan H. Spence

Keyword(s):

Protective Factors ◽

Risk And Protective Factors ◽

Ecological Framework ◽

Preventive Interventions ◽

Factors Associated ◽

Health Promoting ◽

Protective Processes ◽

The Individual ◽

Over Time

AbstractRisk and protective processes and mechanisms associated with depression in youth are discussed within a developmental–ecological framework. Risk factors at the individual (genetics, biology, affect, cognition, behaviour) and broader contextual levels (e.g., family, school, community) are proposed to interact, leading to the development of depression in youth. Transactions between these individual and contextual factors are suggested to be dynamic and reciprocal, and these transactions are expected to change over time and developmental course. The ‘best bet’ for the prevention of depression may be multicomponent and multilevel interventions that address the multiple risk and protective factors associated with depression. Preventive interventions need to focus on building protective factors within young people themselves, as well as creating health-promoting environments at home and at school. These interventions likely need to be long term and geared towards assisting youth across successive periods of development.

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People–plant Relationships in an Office Workplace: Perceived Benefits for the Workplace and Employees

HortScience ◽

10.21273/hortsci.46.5.744 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 46 (5) ◽

pp. 744-752 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Jane Dyrhauge Thomsen ◽

Hans K.H. Sønderstrup-Andersen ◽

Renate Müller

Keyword(s):

Ornamental Plants ◽

Real Life ◽

Well Being ◽

Organizational Structures ◽

Working Environment ◽

Depth Information ◽

Office Work ◽

Initial Attempt ◽

Self Confidence ◽

The Individual

The study presented in this article represents an initial attempt to generate in-depth information about how ornamental plants in real-life office workplaces interact with workplace characteristics, thus influencing working environment and well-being of the employees. Using a qualitative, explorative, and inductive case-study design, the study provides an example of how a cross-disciplinary unit engaged in administrative office work at a Danish institution applied ornamental plants. The results document that ornamental plants are an integrated part of the workplace. The employees used ornamental plants in numerous ways to either actively manipulate different aspects of the surroundings or more passively cope with demands from the surroundings. Furthermore, the use of the ornamental plants was structured by a number of factors: culture and traditions, provisional orders, organizational structures, practices, values and history, company policies, and characteristics of the indoor architectural environment. Ornamental plants were perceived as affecting many aspects of the working environment (e.g., the physical surroundings, the social climate, image of the workplace, etc.), the individual's well-being (e.g., mood, general well-being, emotions, self confidence, etc.), and to some degree the workplace's competitiveness. However, the actual effects were the results of a complex interaction among the way the ornamental plants were applied, characteristics of the present ornamental plants (e.g., size, species and condition), and characteristics of the individual employee (e.g., personal experiences, preferences, and values).

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Self-interest

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy ◽

10.4324/9780415249126-l141-1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

John O’Neill

Keyword(s):

Economic Theory ◽

Well Being ◽

The Good Life ◽

Ethical Theories ◽

Self Interest ◽

Institutional Contexts ◽

Virtuous Life ◽

The Individual ◽

Other Regarding

The concept of self-interest is used in two distinct ways. It sometimes refers to what is in a person’s interests, to well-being understood as what makes their life go well. Self-interest can also refer to a motive or disposition of character: persons are said to act from self-interest when they aim at their own good or to be self-interested when they are disposed to pursue their own good. Are humans always really motivated by self-interest? Psychological egoists believe that all actions, including apparently other-regarding actions, spring from self-interested motivations. Some arguments for this view depend on a fallacious inference from the claim that a person gets pleasure from the satisfaction of an other-regarding desire to the claim that the agent acts in order to get pleasure. Recent appeals to the assumptions of economic theory also fail to establish the universality of self-interested motivation. The weak assumption that individuals aim to maximize preference-satisfaction does not entail that they are self-interested. Stronger assumptions about self-regarding interests used in the explanation of behaviour in markets cannot be extended to explanations of behaviour in non-market settings. Individuals’ identities are constituted by a variety of roles, relations and commitments, and in different institutional contexts under different descriptions individuals can have distinct and sometimes conflicting conceptions of their interests. What is the relation of self-interest and morality? Classical theories of morality claim that the virtuous life is the best life for the individual. This view ties morality to what is in a person’s interests. But this does not entail that agents are necessarily motivated by self-interest. In contrast, some contractual theories tie morality to self-interested motivation: moral rules are those that agents motivated by self-interest would agree upon in order to realize their long-term good given a rough equality of power. Ethical theories in the Kantian tradition reject any justification of ethical obligations that appeals to self-interest. In claiming that commitments to others and excellences of character are part of the good life, however, classical theories can avoid the more plausible versions of Kantian objections.

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German senior citizens’ capabilities for physical activity: a qualitative study

Health Promotion International ◽

10.1093/heapro/day077 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 34 (6) ◽

pp. 1117-1129 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Alexandra Sauter ◽

Janina Curbach ◽

Jana Rueter ◽

Verena Lindacher ◽

Julika Loss

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Social Interactions ◽

Capability Approach ◽

Senior Citizens ◽

Close Contact ◽

Individual Factors ◽

Active Lifestyle ◽

Physically Active ◽

Health Promoting ◽

Active Lifestyles

Abstract Sen’s capability approach (CA) has found its way into health promotion over the last few years. The approach takes both individual factors as well as social and environmental conditions into account and therefore appears to have great potential to explore opportunities for (‘capabilities’) and barriers to active lifestyles. Thus, our objective in this study was to investigate which capabilities senior citizens perceive to have available to them in order to be physically active. In Southern Germany, we conducted 26 semi-standardized interviews with senior citizens aged 66–97, as well as 9 interviews with key persons who have close contact to senior citizens in their work life. We identified 11 capabilities which the interviewees considered as important in leading an active lifestyle. They could be grouped into four domains: (1) individual resources, (2) social interactions and norms, (3) living conditions and (4) organizational environment. Results highlight the need for health-promoting interventions that widen the range of capabilities on social and environmental levels in a way that individuals can freely choose to be as physically active as they like. The results make clear that interventions should not only target and involve older adults themselves, but also their families, nursing home staff or community representatives, because these groups are important in shaping older adults’ capabilities for an active lifestyle.

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Marital strain trajectories over a quarter century and spouses’ loneliness: Couple-level and individual pathways

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships ◽

10.1177/0265407519879512 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 37 (3) ◽

pp. 821-842 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Kandauda A. S. Wickrama ◽

Tae Kyoung Lee ◽

Catherine Walker O’Neal

Keyword(s):

Extended Period ◽

Married Couples ◽

Later Life ◽

Well Being ◽

Quarter Century ◽

Individual Level ◽

The Individual ◽

Marital Strain ◽

Over 40 Years

Although research suggests that stressful marital experiences may lead to feelings of loneliness in later life, little is known about the influence of marital strain over an extended period of time on loneliness in later years. Thus, in the present study, drawing from family systems and cognitive theories along with common fate and actor–partner interdependence modeling approaches, we hypothesized a hybrid model comprised of two multilevel pathways explaining the persistent influence of marital strain on loneliness, including: (a) a couple-level pathway and (b) an individual pathway involving within-spouse and between-spouse effects. Specifically, we investigated the influences of individual- and couple-level trajectories of marital strain over a period of 25 years (from 1991 to 2015) on loneliness outcomes in later years with a sample of 257 couples in enduring, long-term (over 40 years) marriages. The results mostly supported both hypothesized pathways. Consistent with the pathway involving a couple-level process, couple-level trajectories of marital strain predicted couples’ later-life loneliness as reflected by both spouses’ reports of loneliness (shared perceptions). In addition, at the individual level, each spouses’ unexplained variances (unique perception) in marital strain trajectories predicted his/her own later-life loneliness outcomes (within-spouse effect or actor effect). Findings are discussed as they relate to intervention and prevention programs focusing on the well-being of married couples in later life.

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