BACKGROUND In countries such as Cyprus the financial crisis and the recession have severely affected the funding and priority setting of the health care system. There is evidence highlighting the importance of population' preferences in designing priorities for health care settings. Although public preferences have been thorough analysed in many countries, there is a research gap in terms of si...

In the twenty-first century, Japan will become an extremely aged society, where about one-quarter of the population is elderly [1]. To enable older people to achieve better health and fulfilling lives, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has introduced National Health Promotion (Active 80 Health Plan), which encourages a healthy life style and a sense that life is worth living (ikigai). Ikigai s...

Recent research indicates environmental factors and personal behaviors are related to breast cancer risk, but adopting a healthy lifestyle as early as adolescence can serve a protective function. To investigate perceptions of breast cancer risk and the environment, 10 focus groups (N = 91) were conducted with adolescent females (n = 55) and mothers (n = 36) across four counties in the Midwest, ...

Health promotion has a key role to play in preventing disease and promoting healthy lifestyles. Health promotion work is part science and part art. The science emerges from research and theory and the art emerges from our professional intuition and experience. The goal is to apply the science to achieve the best health promotion outcomes. However, an application of the theory, models and even t...

INTRODUCTION According to the health-promoting approach, people should be empowered such that they take responsibility for their health and follow a healthy lifestyle. Empowerment is a process in which people confront problems and tasks in their lives in order to better control them. This study was conducted to specify the relationship between individual empowerment and health-promoting lifesty...

In recent years, the growing interest for well-being and healthy lifestyle together with an increasing awareness of the close relationship between food and health have boosted the production of an increasing number of novel goods to be placed in both gluten-containing and gluten-free products market. The objective of this study was to provide a realistic and detailed overview of the current bre...

In keeping with our theme, Health and Hope, we began on Tuesday to examine the concept of whole person healing which affirms that we can live out the reality of being created in God’s image. As God’s image becomes restored in this process, the God-given mental, social and spiritual capacities of our patients become liberated and their physical health renewed. In this way, we can counteract the ...

Cardiovascular diseases are major contributors to death, disability, disparities, and reduced quality of life in the United States. Successful prevention and control of these diseases requires a comprehensive approach applied across multiple public health settings and in all life stages. Individual lifestyle and behavior change, as well as the broader social, environmental, and policy changes t...

This paper examines why the social gradient of life expectancy does not apply in Japan when Okinawa is considered. The social gradient thesis links differences in longevity to social rank, with people and populations in higher status hierarchical positions having lower mortality and longer life expectancies than those beneath them in the social scale. Japan has been cited as a major example of ...

Elevated blood pressure (BP) in children and adolescents is determined on normative distribution of BP in healthy children. The aim of this study was to determine prevalence of high normal and elevated BP among school children and to assess associated risk factors. The study comprised 965 children (48.7% girls) in 8th grade of primary school. Data were obtained from questionnaire and anthropome...