PURPOSE: A dance exercise program was performed to investigate the effects of exercise on exercise intention and exercise-related affect as these are important determinants of exercise behavior. METHOD: The subjects were overweight (23or=25) postmenopausal women (n=14), who participated in an exercise program from May, 2003 through November, 2003 at one public health center located in Kyong-gi Province. Data was analyzed with an SAS PC program. RESULT: Exercise intention was significantly increased after the exercise program (t=-2.24, P=0.04). Exercise-related affect was also increased, but there was no statistically significant change (t=1.81, P=0.09). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that exercise participation can increase the level of future exercise behavior by increasing exercise intention and exercise-related affect.
*Affect ; *Dancing ; *Exercise ; Female ; Humans ; Intention ; Middle Aged ; Postmenopause/*psychology

The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of the safety system and safety education in institutional foodservices in the Changwon and Masan areas. The survey was conducted from February 1 to March 31, 2009 via questionnaires that were sent to 300 dietitians, and 142 dietitians responded. It was determined that most of the safety managers were 'dietitians (87.1%)', whereas facilities/equipment managers consisted of 'dietitians (45.7%)', 'department of facilities management in the organization (36.4%)' and 'outsourced company of facilities management (17.9%)'. Out of the 11 safety practices, seven safety practices showed less than 50% of total implementation ratio, which meant that the safety systems were not functioning properly. Except for 'non-skid shoes (85.9%)', other safety equipment was seldom used. The survey respondents recognized that safety education was very necessary (4.47 points); however, they responded so-so (3.46 points) to the question of whether or not the actual frequency and time spent on safety education were enough. The average time spent on safety education was 28 minutes 11 seconds. Regarding the difficulties in performing safety education, 'not many safety education materials and media (3.44 points)', 'not many varieties in the subjects and contents for safety education (3.40 points)', and 'not much organizational support on safety education (3.33 points)' showed higher scores than 'lack of education time due to workload (3.20 points)'. The following were cited as education materials that should be developed as it is currently difficult to obtain relevant information and data: 'root causes of musculoskeletal injury and preventive measures (15.8%)', 'healthcare and disease preventive exercises for employees who do simple and repetitive works (14.9%)', and 'instruction on safe handling of chemicals (12.7%)'.
Surveys and Questionnaires ; Exercise ; Handling (Psychology) ; Nitroimidazoles ; Organization and Administration ; Shoes ; Sulfonamides

BACKGROUND: The physical environment can facilitate or hinder physical activity. A challenge in promoting physical activity is ensuring that the physical environment is supportive and that these supports are appropriately tailored to the individual or group in question. Ideally, aspects of the environment that impact physical activity would be enhanced, but environmental changes take time, and identifying ways to provide more precision to physical activity recommendations might be helpful for specific individuals or groups. Therefore, moving beyond a "one size fits all" to a precision-based approach is critical. MAIN BODY: To this end, we considered 4 critical aspects of the physical environment that influence physical activity (walkability, green space, traffic-related air pollution, and heat) and how these aspects could enhance our ability to precisely guide physical activity. Strategies to increase physical activity could include optimizing design of the built environment or mitigating of some of the environmental impediments to activity through personalized or population-wide interventions. CONCLUSIONS Although at present non-personalized approaches may be more widespread than those tailored to one person's physical environment, targeting intrinsic personal elements (e.g., medical conditions, sex, age, socioeconomic status) has interesting potential to enhance the likelihood and ability of individuals to participate in physical activity.
Air Pollution ; Built Environment ; Environment ; Exercise/psychology* ; Hot Temperature ; Humans ; Precision Medicine/psychology* ; Residence Characteristics

BACKGROUND: Physical activity levels are low among adolescents in Morocco; however, the influences on physical activity behavior of adolescents have not yet been explored in a qualitative study. Here, we explored potential social-ecological barriers and facilitators of physical activity in Moroccan adolescents with the goal of developing a successful intervention program aimed at improving their physical activity level. METHODS: For this study, we conducted 17 focus group discussions (100 participants, composed of 56 adolescents, 26 parents, and 18 teachers from two middle schools in Taza city, Morocco). Discussions during focus groups were facilitated by a semi-structured interview guide. Guide questions were underpinned by the social-ecological model as a theoretical framework. Data analysis was carried out by two coders using thematic analysis. RESULTS: We found that barriers and facilitators of physical activity in adolescents are organized into six themes that belong to different levels of the social-ecological model. Three themes belonged to the intrapersonal level (perceived motivating and limiting factors, physical activity awareness, and time constraints), two themes were classified into the interpersonal/cultural level (social support and gender and cultural norms), and one theme belonged to the environmental level (access to opportunities). Most of the themes were at the individual level, with each theme including both barriers and facilitators. CONCLUSIONS Adolescent participation in physical activity can be facilitated or hampered by many factors. Results from the focus group discussions showed that these factors belonged to different levels of the social-ecological model, but most were at the individual level. Our findings have several implications. First, they may offer suggestions for a tailored intervention program aimed at improving adolescent physical activity. Second, they can improve quantitative research by enriching the battery of questions of physical activity instruments (e.g., a question related to physical disability). Third, the proposed thematic map can contribute to understanding interactions and causal pathways in the social-ecological model.
Adolescent ; Adolescent Behavior ; psychology ; Exercise ; psychology ; Female ; Focus Groups ; Humans ; Male ; Morocco ; Parents ; psychology ; Qualitative Research ; Risk Factors ; School Teachers ; psychology ; Social Environment ; Students ; psychology

PURPOSE: This study aimed to examine the most prominent health-related behaviors impacting the academic performance of Korean adolescents. METHODS: The 2012 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey data were analyzed using an ordinal regression analysis after adjusting for general and other health behaviors. RESULTS: Before adjustment, all health behaviors were significantly associated with academic performance. After adjustment for other health behaviors and confounding factors, only smoking [odds ratio (OR) = 2.07, 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.98, 2.16), p < .001], alcohol consumption [OR = 1.22, 95% CI (1.18, 1.27), p < .001], and physical activity [OR = 1.09, 95% CI (1.06, 1.13), p < .001] were associated with lower academic performance, and engaging in a regular diet [OR = 0.65, 95% CI (0.65, 0.62), p < .001] was associated with higher academic performance. CONCLUSIONS: Regular diet, reducing smoking and alcohol drinking, and physical activity should be the target when designing health interventions for improving academic performance in Korean adolescents.
*Achievement ; Adolescent ; Alcohol Drinking/psychology ; Diet/psychology ; Educational Status ; Exercise/psychology ; Female ; *Health Behavior ; Health Status ; Humans ; Male ; Republic of Korea ; Smoking/psychology ; Social Class

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of Self-help program for Young adults with hemophilia. METHOD: A quasi-experimental design was used. The subjects were 40 young adults with hemophilia, 21 in the experimental group and 19 in the control group. The subjects of the experimental group participated in a self-help group program for five sessions for 5 weeks. The program consisted of health education abouthemophilia, exercise, and therapeutic recreation. Its outcomes were evaluated on self-efficacy, ADL, depression, and quality of life. The obtained data was analyzedusing the Mann-Whitney U test of SPSS. RESULT: 1) The scores of self-efficacy, ADL and quality of life increased significantly in the experimental group as compared to the control group. 2) The score of depression decreased significantly in the experimental group as compared to the control group. CONCLUSION: Considering these research results, the program is effective in improving self-management ability and quality of life. Therefore this program could be implemented as a self-help group program for hemophilia clients.
Social Support ; *Self-Help Groups ; Patient Education ; Humans ; Hemophilia A/*psychology ; Exercise ; Depression/psychology ; Adult ; Activities of Daily Living

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a mentoring program to improve the exercise and dietary habits of adolescents. METHODS: A non-equivalent control group, pretest-posttest design was used. The independent variable was a mentoring program for improvement of exercise and dietary habits of adolescents, in which the mentors were nursing students and the mentees were female middle school students. The dependent variables were weekly exercise frequency, weekly exercise time, perception of exercise benefit, frequency of vegetable intake, and dietary habits. The intervention was conducted by various methods such as group education, individual approach through the mentor-mentee relationship, and multimedia approaches. RESULTS: At follow-up, the perception of the exercise benefit was significantly greater in the intervention group than in the control group. The weekly exercise frequency and frequency of vegetable intake in the intervention group were significantly greater after the intervention than those before the intervention. CONCLUSION: This mentoring program is potentially of an effective health promotion program for adolescents and will enable nursing students who participate in the program as mentors to gain confidence in their professional capability.
Adolescent ; *Adolescent Psychology ; Data Interpretation, Statistical ; *Exercise ; Female ; *Food Habits ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; *Mentors ; Program Development ; Students/psychology

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to differentiate the change in exercise behavior into different stages and to investigate differences in the process of change, self efficacy, decisional balances and depression according to the stages of exercise behavior change among middle aged women in Korea by using the transtheoretical Model. METHODS: A convenience sample of 434 middle aged women (40-64 years) completed measures of all transtheoretical model constructs involved in exercise behaviors (stages and processes of exercise behaviors change, self efficacy and decisional balance) and depression. The data were analyzed by using the SPSS 10.0 program including descriptive statistics, and one-way ANOVA. RESULTS: The subjects were distributed in each stage of change in exercise behaviors: pre-contemplation (n=106; 24.4%), contemplation (n=126; 29%), preparation (n=88; 20.3%), action (n=51; 11.8%), and maintenance (n=63; 14.5%). The processes of change, pros(advantages of behaviors), self-efficacy and depression were significantly differentiated across the stages of exercise behavior change. Cons(disadvantage of behaviors) was not significantly differentiated across the stages of exercise behavior change. CONCLUSIONS: Results of this study suggested that discriminating of processes of change, self-efficacy, decisional balance, and depression could provide positive information to people about the stages of change in exercise behavior. Therefore, in designing interventions, the stage of a client's exercise behaviors change needs to be assessed prior to application of intervention programs in order to increase and maintain exercise behavior in middle aged women.
Adult ; Analysis of Variance ; *Decision Making ; Depression/*psychology ; Exercise/*psychology ; Female ; *Health Behavior ; Humans ; Korea ; Middle Aged ; Models, Psychological ; *Self Efficacy

PURPOSE: The study was performed to identify the process of change, decisional balance and self-efficacy corresponding to the stage of exercise behavior change based on a Transtheoretical Model in middle aged women. METHOD: The subjects consisted of 317 women by convenience sampling residing in city B. The collected data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA, Scheffe test, and Discriminant analysis by SPSS/WIN program. RESULT: The subjects were distributed in each stage of change of exercise behaviors: 53 subjects (16.7%) in the precontemplation stage, 86 subjects (27.1%) in the contemplation stage, 88 subjects (27.8%) in the preparation stage, 51 subjects (16.1%) in the action stage and 39 subjects(12.3%) in the maintenance stage. Analysis of variance showed that consciousness raising (F=24.96, p=.00), environmental reevaluation (F=7.13, p=.00), self reevaluation (F=19.47, p=.00), dramatic relief (F=15.22, p=.00), social liberation (F=4.26, p=.00), counter conditioning (F=26.44, p=.00), a helping relationship (F=13.17, p=.00), reinforcement management (F=21.25, p=.00), self liberation (F=27.70, p=.00), stimulus control (F=13.49, p=.00), pros (F=14.40, p=.00) and self-efficacy (F=39.91, p=.00) were significantly associated with the stages of change of exercise behaviors. Through discriminant analysis, it was found that 'stimulus control' was the most influential variable in discriminating the five stages of change. CONCLUSION: This study can provide the basis of a staged matching exercise program using TTM for more effective and useful intervention.
Adult ; *Decision Making ; Exercise/*psychology ; Female ; *Health Behavior ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; *Self Efficacy

OBJECTIVES: This study seeks to review some of the approaches employed to address health and well-being issues in the elderly population. METHODS: This article reviews and analyses a range of projects and approaches designed for the elderly population and aimed at preserving and/or enhancing physical and cognitive capabilities in later life. RESULTS: Various intervention measures have been developed across the globe to preserve and/or enhance physical and cognitive capabilities of the elderly population. A selection of these measures is described in this article. CONCLUSIONS: Approaches which combine games psychology and mechanics with enabling technologies designed to engage, influence and motivate elderly people can encourage healthy active aging lifestyles. Healthy active aging helps to realise a double dividend of reduced healthcare costs and an improved quality of life for the elder citizen.
Aged ; Aging* ; Cognitive Therapy ; Exercise Therapy ; Health Care Costs ; Humans ; Life Style ; Mechanics ; Psychology ; Quality of Life