INTRODUCTION

The Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program spans four years and includes general education and professional courses. Student nurses attend lecture hours, clinical duties, and related learning experiences that might be affecting their time in attending to a healthy lifestyle. Health-promoting lifestyle is a multi-dimensional pattern of activities and perceptions that begins with self-motivation and assists in promoting self-improvement and health. The domains of health-promoting lifestyle are essential factors to further improve their way of dealing with daily challenges. Multiple factors can also influence student nurses’ lifestyles, including their separation from family, busy schedules, and dietary choices. A study highlights various factors affecting student nurses' lifestyles, underscoring the need for tailored health promotion strategies and curriculum enhancements. Research into these domains can better equip future healthcare leaders. Gender, year level, and living arrangements influence student nurses' lifestyles, prompting researchers to investigate the extent of health-promoting lifestyles among them and differences based on these factors. By addressing these domains and conducting further research, nursing education and practice can better prepare future healthcare leaders to promote health and lifestyle effectively within their communities.

To determine the extent of health-promoting lifestyle among student nurses and identify the significant differences according to gender, year level, and living arrangement. 

A quantitative, descriptive research design was used with 360 respondents, employing Yamane’s formula and quota sampling. The study adopted the Health-Promoting Lifestyle II questionnaire with a validity of 0.962.

Student nurses often engage in health promoting behaviors (mean=2.56). Male student nurses reported higher scores in health responsibility, physical activity, spiritual growth, and stress management compared to female students (p=0.40). Level IV students engaged in health-promoting activities more frequently than Level I students (p=0.74). Living arrangements did not significantly impact health-promoting lifestyles (p=0.99).

No significant difference in health-promoting lifestyles among student nurses. Respondents demonstrated the least health-promoting lifestyle behaviors in the domains of health responsibility, nutrition, and physical activity. In contrast, spiritual growth, interpersonal relations, and stress management attained the highest mean scores.

INTRODUCTION

COVID-19 is a pandemic that shut down businesses and industries worldwide. The spread of the disease changed social behavior as residents around the world were obliged to endure lockdown and quarantine measures, reducing their physical activity.

To determine the level of physical activity before and during the pandemic among physicians.

A cross-sectional study was carried out on 422 qualified physicians of the Philippine General Hospital, University of the Philippines Manila. The data was obtained from a self-administered questionnaire.

Results of the study revealed a shift of lifestyle from physically active to sedentary in 42.4-57.11% of the respondents during the pandemic. There was no change between the activity levels at work before and during COVID while there was a change in the travel and recreational activities. The results also showed that significant factors including lack of energy, fear of injury, lack of skill, resources, social influences, support seeking activities, and positive alternatives affected their activity levels.

During the pandemic, overall physical activity level decreased. Similarly, factors that motivate health workers to be physically active or sedentary during the COVID-19 pandemic can affect their physical activity levels. Based on this study, the hospital can create guidelines to ensure physical activity among its doctors, especially during a pandemic.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Physical activity (PA) and fitness level are considered key factors in public health promotion, and as such, healthcare workers (HCW) need to be physically well because they are not only responsible for themselves, but of their clients as well. Therefore, we aim to determine the PA and health-related fitness (HRF) level of HCW in a tertiary hospital, disaggregated to age, sex, work assignments, and job tenure.

A cross-sectional research design was utilized to assess HCW from the administrative, medical, nursing, and paramedical cohorts. ALPHA-FIT Test Battery was used to assess cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, lower extremity power and strength, upper body muscle endurance, balance, and body composition.

Our study concurred with the results of previous studies on HCW yielding lower PA levels compared with the general population. We tested 282 participants (administrative: 97; medical: 36; nursing: 55; paramedical: 94), mean age 37.4 years, 64.54% females, 52.13% perceived average health status. Ninety percent of the HCW had PA levels below the World Health Organization’s recommended levels. The ALPHA-FIT mean score per category revealed: one-legged stance, 2.67/3; figure-of-8 run, 2.45/3; shoulder-neck mobility, 4.58/5; modified push-up, 2.05/4; hand-grip strength, 2.5/5; jump and reach, 4/4; dynamic sit-up, 2.62/3; six-minute walk test, 475.38 meters covered. There were no significant differences in PA and HRF levels across cohorts except for modified sit-ups (p < 0.001) and figure-of-8 run (p = 0.012). The results showed significant inverse correlation between balance and shoulder-neck mobility and age (p < 0.001), and modified push ups (p = 0.004). Males had significantly higher sit-up scores (p < 0.001), one-legged stance scores (p = 0.001), and faster figure-of-8 run (p = 0.011), while females had better jump and reach scores (p < 0.001).

Physical activity levels of HCW did not meet the World Health Organization’s recommended PA levels. Healthcare professionals who are expected to be aware of the benefits of PA and HRF have shown low to midfit levels of grip strength, upper extremity endurance, core strength, and cardiorespiratory endurance. Information on PA and HRF may aid in policy making on employee wellness that could highly impact health service delivery.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The built environment or physical environment consists of surroundings and conditions constructed by human activity. It includes urban design, neighborhoods, transportation, and smaller scale structures like the design and layout of rooms within buildings. The built environment can affect the physical, social, and functional wellbeing of older adults, both within their own homes and in the neighborhoods in which they live, and additionally plays a part in promoting healthy aging. This narrative review of the literature aims to present the ways in which the built environment can influence the functional ability of community-dwelling older adults, and affect their ability to live independently and age in place.

Narrative literature review and inductive thematic analysis.

Forty-five full-text, English language publications from peer-reviewed sources were selected for this review, with the majority (35) presenting quantitative research findings and originating from North America (28). Older adults in rural and developing countries were underrepresented in the literature, despite acknowledgement that health of the aging population is a worldwide problem. Three major themes emerged. First, the built environment affects older adults in the most fundamental way at home through design considerations, modifications, and technological advances promoting aging in place and accessibility. Secondly, built environments outside the home can affect older adults’ physical activity and overall function with regard to mobility, transportation, and activities of daily living. The majority (22 of 45 publications) focused on this theme. Finally, the built environment in neighborhoods can affect older adults’ perception of social support, their social participation, and quality of life.

As the built environment is created by humans and can be substantially modified, it possesses considerable potential for enhancing functional ability, social participation, and overall quality of life in community-dwelling older adults. It is possible to design a better person-environment fit, promoting safety, independence, optimal health, and quality of life. In order to support healthy aging, improvements in the built environment need to be accompanied by appropriate health and social policies, systems, and services. These changes require political will, as well as material resources that may not be readily available especially in the global South. A socioecological approach with adequate resources directed to older adults’ health and healthcare is necessary in order to achieve the ultimate goal of healthy aging in this population.

Objective: Physical exercise can provide many health benefits in humans. Exercise-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation and its downstream signaling cascades are reported to induce mitochondrial biogenesis in exercising tissues. Selenoprotein P (SELENOP) is the antioxidant hepatokine whose hypersecretion is associated with various metabolic diseases. It was reported to impair exercise-induced reactive oxygen species signaling and inhibit subsequent mitochondrial biogenesis in mice. However, the relationship between selenoprotein P and mitochondrial dynamics in humans has not yet been reported. While reduction of plasma selenoprotein P becomes an attractive therapeutic target for metabolic diseases, the role of regular exercise in this regard is still unknown. This study aimed to analyze the influence of regular habitual exercise on plasma selenoprotein P levels and its association with leucocyte mitochondrial DNA copy number in healthy young adults. Methodology: Plasma selenoprotein P levels and leucocyte mitochondrial DNA copy numbers were compared in 44 regularly exercising subjects and 44 non-exercising controls, and the correlation between the two parameters was analyzed. Plasma selenoprotein P levels were measured by Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay, and leucocyte mitochondrial DNA copy numbers were measured using the qPCR method. Results: The regular-exercise group had lower plasma selenoprotein P levels with higher leucocyte mitochondrial DNA copy numbers than the non-exercise group. There was a tendency of negative correlation between the two variables in our studied population. Conclusion Regular habitual exercise has a beneficial effect on reducing plasma selenoprotein P levels while raising mitochondrial DNA copy numbers.
mitochondria ; physical exercise ; reactive oxygen species ; selenoprotein P

The present study aims to establish comprehensive evaluation models of physical fitness of the elderly based on machine learning, and provide an important basis to monitor the elderly's physique. Through stratified sampling, the elderly aged 60 years and above were selected from 10 communities in Nanchang City. The physical fitness of the elderly was measured by the comprehensive physical assessment scale based on our previous study. Fuzzy neural network (FNN), support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF) models for comprehensive physical evaluation of the elderly people in communities were constructed respectively. The accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of the comprehensive physical fitness evaluation models constructed by FNN, SVM and RF were above 0.85, 0.75 and 0.89, respectively, with the FNN model possessing the best prediction performance. FNN, RF and SVM models are valuable in the comprehensive evaluation and prediction of physical fitness, which can be used as tools to carry out physical evaluation of the elderly.
Aged ; Humans ; Physical Fitness ; Neural Networks, Computer ; Exercise ; Machine Learning

STUDY DESIGN: Randomized controlled single-blinded clinical trial. PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy of Schroth therapy on thoracic curve angle, pain, and self-perceived body image (SPBI) of the back in Scheuermann's patients in comparison with the efficacy of classic anti-gravitation exercises. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: Scheuermann disease is the most common cause of hyperkyphosis of the thoracic and thoracolumbar spine during adolescence. However, very few studies evaluated the effect of exercises on the progression of kyphosis in Scheuermann patients. Schroth three-dimensional exercise therapy was found in several studies to be effective in the treatment of adolescent scoliosis; however, we found no randomized controlled trials that evaluated the efficacy of this method in Scheuermann patients. METHODS: A total of 50 young adults (males and females) with Scheuermann's disease were randomly divided into either the experimental group (Schroth therapy treatment, n=25) or the control group (classic anti-gravitation exercises, n=25). Participants in both the groups were provided a course of individual treatment sessions during few weeks, with one appointment per week. They were required to perform the exercises daily throughout the study period (12 months) and fill their performance in a research log. We evaluated the thoracic Cobb angle (main outcome measure), pain, SPBI, flexion of the shoulder (supine), flexion of the shoulder (standing), kyphotic deformity measured using inclinometer, and L5 kyphosis apex line (L5-KAL) as well as administered the Scoliosis Research Society-22 Questionnaire for the participants before the treatment, after 6 months, and 1 year postoperatively. These results were then compared. RESULTS: In the mixed analysis of variance, the main effect of time was significant in the thoracic kyphosis (F [1]=5.72, p=0.02), and in the L5-KAL (F [1]=5.76, p=0.02). The main effect of time on the kyphotic deformity, measured using an inclinometer, did not reach the significance level; however, it showed the tendency (F [1]=2.80, p=0.07). In the group-by-time interaction, a significant difference was found in the thoracic kyphosis (F [1]=4.91, p=0.03) and in the kyphotic deformity, measured using an inclinometer (F [1]=4.05, p=0.02). Thus, the Schroth therapy group showed significantly greater improvement than the classic anti-gravitation exercises group. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings indicate that back exercises in general, and Schroth therapy in particular, is an effective treatment for preventing and significantly improving the thoracic Cobb angle and symptomatic representation in Scheuermann's patients.
Adolescent ; Body Image ; Congenital Abnormalities ; Exercise ; Exercise Therapy ; Humans ; Kyphosis ; Methods ; Physical Therapy Modalities ; Posture ; Quality of Life ; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic ; Scheuermann Disease ; Scoliosis ; Shoulder ; Spine ; Young Adult

STUDY DESIGN: A quasi-experimental single-blinded study. PURPOSE: To investigate the effects of ‘graded exercise integrated with education’ on physical fitness, exercise self-efficacy (ESE), and physical activity (PA) levels among subacute and chronic wheelchair-dependent paraplegia patients. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE: Most of the chronic spinal cord injury (SCI) patients had low physical fitness due to a sedentary lifestyle and lack of ESE after discharge from a rehabilitation program. Education may encourage them to engage with exercise to regain and maintain their physical fitness. However, there is a lack of research to support the effects of exercise integrated with education after an SCI. METHODS: A total of 44 participants will be assigned to either the experimental group (graded exercise integrated with education) or active control (conventional physical therapy). The experimental group will receive graded strength and aerobic exercise training according to their progression criteria. They will attend an education program during and after the rehabilitation program. The control group will only receive conventional physical therapy during their in-rehabilitation program. This study will be conducted during a period of 16 weeks, consisting of 8 weeks of in-rehabilitation and 8 weeks post-rehabilitation. Statistical analysis will be performed using the IBM SPSS ver. 21.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) at a significance level of p≤0.05. RESULTS: The primary outcome measures will be upper-limb isokinetic strength, isometric grip strength, and cardiorespiratory fitness. The secondary outcomes will be ESE and PA levels. CONCLUSIONS: An intervention that combines exercise training and education may be warranted to enhance the physical fitness, ESE, and PA levels in SCI patients. This trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03420170).
Education ; Exercise ; Hand Strength ; Health Education ; Humans ; Motor Activity ; Non-Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic ; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) ; Paraplegia ; Physical Fitness ; Rehabilitation ; Sedentary Lifestyle ; Self Efficacy ; Spinal Cord Injuries ; Spinal Cord ; Spine

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 12 weeks of combined exercise on vascular function-related inflammation, carotid intima-media thickness and fitness factors in obese middle-aged women with metabolic syndrome.METHODS: The subjects of this study were 40 middle-aged women in their 40s with metabolic syndrome but no specific disease. The exercise group performed aerobic exercise and resistance exercise five times a week for 12 weeks, and then measured body composition, blood pressure, vascular function-related inflammation factors, metabolic syndrome factors, carotid intima-media thickness, and physical factors.RESULTS: The exercise group showed a significant (p<0.05) reduction after exercise in all items related to body composition, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and intima-media thickness of the right carotid and left carotid arteries. Exercise group showed a significant decrease (p<0.05) after exercise in interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, leptin, and all items of glucose metabolism-related variables. The exercise group showed a significant (p<0.05) increase after exercise physical efficiency index, grip strength, sit-ups, and sit & reach. After 12 weeks of exercise training, the reduction of intima-media thickness of the carotid artery was significantly (p<0.05) correlated with the improvement of body weight, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, grip and sit & reach, blood HbA1c, and triglyceride concentration.CONCLUSION: In conclusion, metabolic syndrome improved the body composition, blood glucose metabolism and lipid variables after 12 weeks of combined exercise program for obese middle-aged women. Significant improvement in blood pressure and carotid endometrial thickness, which is a function-related indicator, was confirmed.
Blood Glucose ; Blood Pressure ; Body Composition ; Body Weight ; Carotid Arteries ; Carotid Intima-Media Thickness ; Exercise ; Female ; Glucose ; Hand Strength ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Interleukin-6 ; Leptin ; Metabolism ; Necrosis ; Physical Fitness ; Triglycerides

Bronchial provocation tests are of value in the evaluation of airway hyperresponsiveness. Nonspecific bronchial challenge (methacholine, mannitol, exercise, etc.) is used when the symptoms, physical examination, and measurements of pulmonary function are unremarkable in the diagnosis of asthma, when a patient is suspected of having occupational asthma or exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB), and when a screening test for asthma or EIB is required for some occupational groups in whom bronchospasm would pose an unacceptable hazard. Methacholine inhalation challenge is most widely used pharmacologic challenge and highly sensitive. For appropriate interpretation of the results of methacholine provocation, it is important to perform the test with the standardized protocol and to recognize that inhalation methods significantly influence the sensitivity of the procedure. Indirect challenges (e.g., mannitol and exercise) correlate with airway inflammation and are more specific but less sensitive for asthma. Indirect provocation tests are used to confirm asthma, to differentiate asthma from other airway diseases, and to evaluate EIB.
Asthma ; Asthma, Occupational ; Bronchial Provocation Tests ; Bronchial Spasm ; Bronchoconstriction ; Diagnosis ; Exercise Test ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Inhalation ; Mannitol ; Mass Screening ; Methacholine Chloride ; Occupational Groups ; Physical Examination