Sustaining psychosocial well-being is important in promoting coping with life challenges among vulnerable in-school children. There is lack of evidence on intervention that could best help to address ...psychosocial distress among vulnerable in-school children in Nigeria. The effectiveness of resilience-based training and peer-support activities were compared in 339 vulnerable children selected from public high schools. A comparative prospective design was used. Children were assigned into resilience group and peer-support group randomly using their schools. Analysis of data was done in SPSS version 20 at p < .05 level of significance. Effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated on four psychosocial outcomes (anxiety, depression, self-esteem and social connection). The study concluded that resilience training is better in enhancing self-esteem and reducing anxiety symptoms than peer-support activities. Both interventions have similar effects on depression and social connection. In the face of limited resources to support school health programmes in the study setting, resilience training could be more useful for alleviating psychosocial distress among vulnerable in-school children than peer support activities.
Health support activities for residents were held three times during a period from June, 2016 to November, 2017. The residents registered in order to participate through 11 community pharmacies. ...Participant’s blood pressure values were measured at the venue of health support activities by pharmacists. The blood pressure values in 66 of the 106 participants were analyzed, excluding 40 participants receiving medical treatment. The rate of participants with hypertension, systolic blood pressure (SBP)≧140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure (DBP)≧90 mmHg, was 32% (21／66). Of those with hypertension, 43% (9／21) had hypertension of a high risk level, SBP≧160 mmHg or DBP≧100 mmHg. Pharmacists provided lifestyle counseling and encouraged them to make changes in order to achieve tighter blood pressure control. The data of their blood pressure values were provided to community pharmacies for continuing support of their blood pressure control. With the pharmacist’s support, the median value of blood pressure of participants who had hypertension decreased in the second event. In addition, 50% (3／6) of participants who attended the second event with hypertension of high risk level, visited the hospital for a consultation with a doctor after getting pharmacist’s advice. These results indicate that greater access to community pharmacists improved blood pressure control of residents with hypertension. However, there were many residents who consider it difficult to use pharmacies without a prescription. Hence, friendly relationship to residents on their utilizing pharmacies is needed for providing them lifestyle counseling such as preventing hypertension by pharmacists.
The aim of this book is to disseminate the results of research, and to inform, inspire and create a platform for debate between practitioners, academics, researchers, trainers and facilitators ...interested in addressing community needs in terms of HIV/AIDS and support.
A questionnaire survey was conducted on 600 elderly members of “senior clubs” or “senior salons,” which are resident-operated gathering places, to clarify signs of frailty, involvement in community ...living support activities, and satisfaction with their lives. The number of respondents was 515 (85.8% response rate), including 159 out of 200 senior club members and 356 out of 400 senior salon members. The frequency of participation was higher among senior salon members. All members were less likely to exercise or go out in their daily lives. Regarding diet, there was no difference in signs of frailty between the senior club members and senior salon members. In other abilities and activities, more senior salon members showed signs of frailty. As for the support provided, less than 50% of the whole subjects provided “safety checks” and “talking to others,” while “helping with evacuation at the time of a disaster” was common among senior club members and “providing meals” among senior salon members. On the other hand, “safety confirmation” and “someone to talk to” were relatively common among those who received the support, although the percentages were lower than those for the support provided. Life satisfaction was relatively high on a 10-point scale, 7.05 ± 1.72 points for men and 7.08 ± 1.98 points for women. Compared to those with signs of frailty, those without signs of frailty had a significantly higher level of life satisfaction.
Support processes play an important role to facilitate researchers (users) to accomplish their research activities with the help of cyber-infrastructure(s). However, the current user-support process ...in cyber-infrastructure needs a feasible tool to support users. This tool must enable the users of a cyber-infrastructure to communicate efficiently with the staffs of a cyber-infrastructure in order to get technical and scientific assistance, whilst saving resources at the same time. This research paper narrates the real story of employing various forms of tools to support the user and staff communication. In addition this paper projects the lessons learned from an exploration of the help-desk tools in the current state of user support process in Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) from support staffs’ perspective. ESGF is a climate cyber-infrastructure that facilitates Earth System Modeling (ESM) and is taken as a case study in this paper. Finally, this study proposes a need for a tool, a framework or a platform that not only improves the user support process to address support servicing needs of end-users of e-Science infrastructures but also eases the life of staffs in providing assistance to the users. With the help of such a tool; the collaboration between users and the staffs of cyber-infrastructures is made easier. Consequently, the research activities of the users of e-Science infrastructure will thrive as the scientific and technical support will be available to users. Finally, this results into painless and productive e-Research.
This study examined the influence of child‐care support by elderly persons on mothers' child care‐related stress in Japan. A cross‐sectional study was conducted from February to April 2007 by using ...an anonymous questionnaire. This study focused on the “child‐care salon” (hereafter referred to as “salon”) as a type of parenting support activity by elderly persons in the community. For the analysis, 119 salon participants and a control group of 107 mothers who had not participated in a salon were recruited. As a result of a multiple regression analysis, participation or non‐participation in the salon had no influence on the ‘threat of loss of personal identity’ stress, which was similar to a sense of social isolation because of child care. However, as a result of investigating the influence of the participation frequency on stress score for participants alone, mothers with less participation had a higher stress score than mothers with greater participation. That suggested the importance of intervention for a decrease of social isolation in mothers, especially in the initial stage of salon participation.
Elderly women who live alone are considered at greater risk for loneliness, depression, and decreased mobility. This paper examines the influences of late-life friendships and senior center ...activities on the health and well-being of aging women living alone. Based on the findings from 274 women living alone it was found that the senior center is an excellent environment where new supportive friendships can easily be formed. These friendships and other center activities have positive mental and physical outcomes. Using a comparison group of 171 elderly women living with their spouses, it was discovered that women who lived alone participated in center activities more frequently and, as a result, also created a social network that extended outside of the center environment.
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