Health & Lifestyle Medicine

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://research.avondale.edu.au/handle/123456789/458

Browse

Filters

Settings

Search Results

  • Item
    Exploring General Practitioners’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices towards E-Cigarette Use/Vaping in Children and Adolescents: A Pilot Cross-Sectional Study in Sydney
    (MDPI, 2024-09-01) Singh, Rajiv; Burke, Michael; Towns, Susan; Rahman, Muhammad Aziz; Bittoun, Renee; Shah, Smita; Liu, Anthony; Bhurawala, Habib
    Background: The increasing use of e-cigarettes/vaping in children and adolescents has been recognised as a global health concern. We aim to explore the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of General Practitioners (GPs) in Sydney regarding the use of e-cigarettes in children and adolescents and identify the barriers to addressing this issue. Methods: This pilot study was a cross-sectional study conducted using an electronic questionnaire with a Likert scale and free-text responses. Results: Fifty-three GPs participated in the study (male = 24 and female = 29) with a mean age of 50 ± 5.5 years. There was strong agreement (mean 4.5) about respiratory adverse effects and addictive potential. However, there was less awareness of cardiac side effects and the occurrence of burns. There is a lack of conversation about e-cigarettes in GP practice and a deficit of confidence in GPs regarding managing e-cigarette use in children and adolescents. Conclusions: Our pilot study has shown that GPs are somewhat knowledgeable about the potential adverse effects of the use of e-cigarettes in children and adolescents, though there is a lack of knowledge of the complete spectrum of adverse effects and more importantly, there is a paucity of a structured approach to discuss the use of e-cigarettes with children and adolescents, and there is a low level of confidence in addressing these issues. There is a need for educational interventions for GPs to increase awareness of the potential adverse effects of using e-cigarettes and build confidence in providing management to children and adolescents regarding the use of e-cigarettes.
  • Item
    Accountability
    (CRC Press, 2024) Matthews, Simon
    Accountability refers to the notion that an individual may be called upon to justify his or her actions or inactions. In the area of health behaviour change, this leads to an immediate disconnect with other elements of the change process - that the behaviour change goals is ideally set by the client, not the provider.
  • Item
    Appreciative Inquiry
    (CRC Press, 2024) Matthews, Simon
    Is there more to healthcare than solving health problems and health crises? By contrast, appreciative inquiry (AI) is described as a collaborative quest for what is best - in an individual and their environment - and the systematic uncovering of what leads to thriving.
  • Item
    National Health and Medical Research Council Statement on Electronic Cigarettes: 2022 Update
    (Wiley, 2024-02-05) Freeman, Becky; Peters, Matthew J.; Bittoun, Renee; Brightwell, Richard; English, Dallas R.; Thomas, David P.; Otlowski, Margaret FA; Zwar, Nicholas A.; Chamberlain, Catherine
    Introduction: Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use in Australia has rapidly increased since the 2017 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) statement on e-cigarettes. The type of products available and the demographic characteristics of people using these products have changed. New evidence has been published and there is growing concern among public health professionals about the increased use, particularly among young people who do not currently smoke combustible cigarettes. The combination of these issues led NHMRC to review the current evidence and provide an updated statement on e-cigarettes. In this article, we describe the comprehensive process used to review the evidence and develop the 2022 NHMRC CEO statement on electronic cigarettes. Main recommendations: • E-cigarettes can be harmful; all e-cigarette users are exposed to chemicals and toxins that have the potential to cause adverse health effects. • There are no health benefits of using e-cigarettes if you do not currently smoke tobacco cigarettes. • Adolescents are more likely to try e-cigarettes if they are exposed to e-cigarettes on social media. • Short-term e-cigarette use may help some smokers to quit who have been previously unsuccessful with other smoking cessation aids. There are other proven safe and effective options available to help smokers to quit. Changes in management as a result of this statement: The evidence base for the harms of e-cigarette use has strengthened since the previous NHMRC statement. Significant gaps in the evidence base remain, especially about the longer-term health harms of using e-cigarettes and the toxicity of many chemicals in e-cigarettes inhaled as an aerosol.
  • Item
    Intergenerational Programs may be Especially Engaging for Aged Care Residents With Cognitive Impairment: Findings from the Avondale Intergenerational Design Challenge
    (SAGE, 2017-06) Baker, Jess Rose; Webster, Lindl; Lynn, Nigel; Rogers, Julie; Belcher, Jessica
    Intergenerational programs are an authentic way to engage elders in meaningful activity and report benefits to both elders and youth. The Avondale Intergenerational Design Challenge (AVID) randomly assigned small teams of technology students aged 13 to 15 years (total N = 59) to 1 of 24 aged care residents with a range of cognitive impairment. Students met with the resident 4 times over 15 weeks and ultimately crafted a personalized item for them. Students showed no change in self-reported attitudes to elders, empathy, or self-esteem post-AVID or at 3-month follow-up, compared to a 3-month within-subject control period pre-AVID. Compared to usual lifestyle activities, residents showed significant improvements in self-reported positive affect and negative affect after student visits and were observed to be significantly more engaged during visits, especially residents with greater cognitive impairment. The personal and guided nature of intergenerational programs may be especially effective in engaging elders with cognitive impairment in meaningful activity.
  • Item
    The Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP)
    (2012-01-01) Morton, Darren

    Over 2,000 years ago Hippocrates asserted: "Food and exercise... work together to produce health". Evidence for the wisdom of this Hippocratic council emerged throughout the 20th Century as large epidemiological studies, including the Framingham Heart Study, Nurses Health Study, EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) and the Adventist Health Study, highlighted the relationship between lifestyle and disease.

  • Item
    Live More Active: Activate Your Life for Good
    (2014-01-01) Morton, Darren

    We are made to move-and things go wrong when we don't. Live More: Active brings together the latest scientific and medical research regarding our inactivity crisis and, importantly, how to beat it. More than a collection of information, it also offers the inspiration to activate your life for good through a 21-day program that show what to do-and why-and how to overcome the challenges that often drain our motivation. Live More: Active can help you create better activity habits so you can live more.

  • Item
    Seven Secrets for Feeling Fantastic: A Proven Plan for Vibrant Living
    (2006-01-01) Morton, Darren

    In the past decade, neurophysiologists have discovered some staggering insights into how our brain works. These new insights provide strategies for changing the way we feel, empowering us to feel good on a more consistent basis.

    We all want to feel fantastic but people of all ages are depressed, stressed or anxious. It is an epidemic debilitating individuals, families and communities.

    Seven Secrets for Feeling Fantastic explores how God put us together so we can be happy-and be all He desires us to be.

  • Item
    The 'Stitch' Story: Epidemiology and Aetiology of Exercise Related Transient Abdominal Pain
    (2010-01-01) Morton, Darren

    The 'stitch' is an unwelcomed abdominal pain experienced by numerous sportspeople. Yet despite being so well-known, the condition has historically been poorly understood. While many anecdotal reports of the pain have appeared in popular magazines, no empirical research of the condition was conducted for almost fifty years-from 1951 to 1999. In 'The Stitch Story', Dr Darren Morton documents his quest to understand the phenomenon by conducting large scale epidemiological studies through to evoking the pain in subjects within a laboratory in order to take measurements. The result is a series of investigations that have redefined the medical community's understanding of the pain. Of the ten papers relating to stitch that have been published in peer-reviewed journals over the past decade, nine have arisen from the work contained in 'The Stitch Story'. [from book back cover].

  • Item
    The Influence of Gender and Age on the Outcomes of and Adherence to a Digital Interdisciplinary Mental Health Promotion Intervention in an Australasian Nonclinical Setting: Cohort Study
    (2021-11-11) Renfrew, Melanie; Morton, Jason K.; Morton, Darren; Przybylko, Geraldine

    Background: The global prevalence of mental health disorders is at a crisis point, particularly in the wake of COVID-19, prompting calls for the development of digital interdisciplinary mental health promotion interventions (MHPIs) for nonclinical cohorts. However, the influence of gender and age on the outcomes of and adherence to MHPIs is not well understood.

    Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the influence of gender and age on the outcomes of and adherence to a 10-week digital interdisciplinary MHPI that integrates strategies from positive psychology and lifestyle medicine and utilizes persuasive systems design (PSD) principles in a nonclinical setting.

    Methods: This study involved 488 participants who completed the digital interdisciplinary MHPI. Participants completed a pre and postintervention questionnaire that used: (1) the “mental health” and “vitality” subscales from the Short Form 36 (SF-36) Health Survey; (2) the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21); and (3) Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWL). Adherence to the digital interdisciplinary MHPI was measured by the number of educational videos the participants viewed and the extent to which they engaged in experiential challenge activities offered as part of the program.

    Results: On average, the participants (N=488; mean age 47.1 years, SD 14.1; 77.5% women) demonstrated statistically significant improvements in all mental health and well-being outcome measures, and a significant gender and age interaction was observed. Women tended to experience greater improvements than men in the mental health and well-being measures, and older men experienced greater improvements than younger men in the mental health and vitality subscales. Multiple analysis of variance results of the adherence measures indicated a significant difference for age but not gender. No statistically significant interaction between gender and age was observed for adherence measures.

    Conclusions: Digital interdisciplinary MHPIs that utilize PSD principles can improve the mental health and well-being of nonclinical cohorts, regardless of gender or age. Hence, there may be a benefit in utilizing PSD principles to develop universal MHPIs such as that employed in this study, which can be used across gender and age groups. Future research should examine which PSD principles optimize universal digital interdisciplinary MHPIs.