Overweight and obesity have reached epidemic proportions in many Asian countries. These countries also face a grave burden of obesity-related disorders such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases, which develop at a younger age than in Western populations. These disorders are also manifested in childhood. The major causative factors are related to the lifestyle changes occurring...

Depression during the prenatal and postpartum periods is associated with poor maternal, perinatal and child outcomes. This study examines the effectiveness of a culturally and linguistically tailored, social support-based, healthy lifestyle intervention led by trained community health workers in reducing depressive symptoms among pregnant and early postpartum Latinas. A sample of 275 pregnant L...

BACKGROUND Healthy lifestyle habits during adolescence can prevent many of the diseases and disabilities in adulthood and later. The aim of the study was to examine the role of education in improving lifestyles among Iranian adolescents. METHODS This group randomized controlled trial was conducted during October 2010 until January 2011 in Tehran. Participants for this study were selected thro...

Emphasis must also be given on voluntary risk reductions, which will require increased awareness and change in attitude of people. Voluntary blood donations have to be made a part of a healthy lifestyle. Enlightening people about the benefits of voluntary blood donations and making it important for appraisals, admissions and employment can overcome this problem. All this, however, requires stro...

BACKGROUND The first Youth Risk Behaviour Survey in South Africa was carried out to establish the prevalence of key health risk behaviours among high school students. Though physical inactivity is a commonly reported contributory factor to chronic diseases of lifestyle in South Africa, there is no reliable national database on the participation of children and adolescents in physical activity. ...

OBJECTIVES To determine the sociodemographic associations of obesity in Ghana. DESIGN A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on a sample of 6300 adults aged 25 years and over who were selected by random cluster sampling. SETTING Two urban (high-class and low-class suburbs) and a rural community in Accra, Ghana. SUBJECTS AND METHODS In total, 4731 (1857 males, 2874 females) subj...

The Health Curve, used by nurses in community-based health care, is an educational tool for conducting goal-directed dialogues concerning lifestyle and health. The aim of this study was to investigate how child health nurses experienced the Health Curve as a tool for conducting dialogues with parents. Fourteen nurses were interviewed. The data were analysed according to qualitative analysis. Th...

The pervasive sensing technologies found in smart environments offer unprecedented opportunities for monitoring and assisting the individuals who live and work in these spaces. As aspect of daily life that is often overlooked in maintaining a healthy lifestyle is the air quality of the environment. In this paper we investigate the use of machine learning technologies to predict CO(2) levels as ...

P hysical activity is regarded as an important component of a healthy lifestyle. Several social and environmental factors have systematically emerged as barriers to low leisure time physical activity (LTPA), for example, lack of money, low social support due to lack of supportive family or friends, and living in high crime rate areas. Low LTPA has been found to be strongly associated with low s...

OBJECTIVES In this exploratory study we examined the associations between several social network characteristics and lifestyle behaviours in adults at increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, we explored whether similarities in lifestyle between individuals and their network members, or the level of social support perceived by these individuals, could explain these a...