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Exercise prescription, intervention, dissemination, and implementation following transient ischemic attack or stroke: advancing the field through interdisciplinary science
No full textResearch has demonstrated that both exercise, and a reduction in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors (i.e., high blood sugar, blood lipids, and blood pressure), following a stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) are beneficial for reducing risk of recurrent stroke or TIA and for improving overall quality of life. Despite this evidence, many stroke and TIA survivors remain inactive and sedentary and present with multiple CVD risk factors. The purpose of this commentary is to highlight gaps in the current literature in regard to exercise and behavior interventions for the stroke and TIA populations, present ideas for intervention design, and discuss the dissemination and implementation of research findings. The future research ideas presented in this commentary are based on current research findings, as well as the professional experience of the article authors. Professional experience spans occupational therapy in neurorehabilitation, clinical exercise physiology in rehabilitation, creation and implementation of stroke rehabilitation clinics, stroke and TIA research, and behavioral and implementation science
Blue Apple Measures of Wellbeing Report
Get PDFThis Blue Apple report aimed to:Provide information regarding the ways in which Blue Apple could effectively demonstrate their impact on the wellbeing of their participants.Research Objectives were:Investigate the ways in which stakeholders felt wellbeing should be measured by Blue Apple.Investigate current literature regarding measures of wellbeing.Synthesise and report findings.Findings:Overall, Blue Apple delivered vibrant, attractive experiences to a diverse range of people. A range of activities were offered, the content of which were found to positively impact wellbeing. More than this, the ethos of Blue Apple was found to influence delivery of activities in ways which increased wellbeing. Stakeholders identified aspects of wellbeing which they felt should be measured. Suggestions are made regarding ways in which Blue Apple could achieve this.<br/
Touch and the Socially Dead
No full textThe premise of this short chapter revolves around St. Francis (Francesco di Pietro di Bernardone c.1181/82 – 1226) touching a leper: that is to put it simply, St. Francis briefly and physically engaged with someone who had Hansen’s Disease. The story’s central meaning is often taken to be that Francis treated the leper as a human being at a time when such individuals were generally deemed to be socially-dead (not part of normative society). Although Hansen’s Disease requires prolonged close physical contact to be contagious, it had long rendered the afflicted an effective outcast from everyday normative society due to fear of contagion by even the slightest contact. This was certainly the case in St. Francis’s time when sufferers were typically incarcerated in leprosaria and/or avoided. Today, people who culturally could be deemed socially-dead would generally not include those suffering from Hansen’s Disease, but can include individuals confined to a residential or nursing home due to old-age and/or infirmity, people incarcerated in prisons for crimes they have been found guilty of, enslaved people, long-term hospital patients, and even severely disabled people and/or children in orphanages in parts of the world when these individuals are virtually abandoned. The socially-dead are individuals who are not physically dead but dead to wider society, unable to participate in everyday life in culturally-normative ways. There is of course socio-cultural and religious variability to whom can be classed socially-dead, especially in regard to specific diseases. One highly contextual disease is the HIV/AIDS virus which at one time in England (largely the geographical context for this chapter), as elsewhere in the world, was not only a death sentence physically, but a sentence of social-death if the infected person was socially-outed. Thankfully, in the UK and much of the industrial world, this is no longer the case with medical advances meaning those with HIV/AIDS, now have, on the whole, a life-long illness rather than a life-limiting one. HIV/Aids is important to this paper; a paper which explores the significance of touch in connection with the socially-dead in two English contexts. Firstly, it explores Princess Diana (d.1997), who on April 19th 1987 was photographed shaking hands with a HIV/AIDS patient in a hospital, without her wearing protective gloves, at a time of “rampant” prejudice against HIV/AIDS sufferers. Secondly, it unpacks various issues surrounding the recent government mandated prohibition on touch in England for the socially-dead in hospitals and care-homes during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic (circa March 2020-February 2022). <br/
The effect of uninterrupted and interrupted sitting on vascular health and cognitive function in people with Long COVID.
No full textLong COVID-19 is defined as signs, symptoms and conditions that develop after initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. Two million people in the UK in private households are currently experiencing self-reported long COVID, of which 61% of these people have been living with symptoms for more than a year. (Office for National Statistics, 2023).There have been over fifty different symptoms attributed to long COVID. The most commonly presented symptom is fatigue (Aiyegbusi et al., 2021). Fatigue can cause behavioural changes, resulting in increased sedentary time. This can have an adverse effect on vascular function, and increased risk of cardiovascular disease (Natelson, Brunjes and Mancini, 2021). Sitting for periods as little as an hour can worsen vascular function (Taylor et al., 2022). Interrupting this period with short bouts of movement has been shown to mitigate the negative effect on vascular health (Paterson et al., 2020). The mechanisms which cause Long COVID are still mainly undetermined, however, it is evident that physical exertion, cognitive effort, and stress can lead to relapses which result in worsened symptoms for hours up to months in Long COVID populations. This study used questionnaires (DePaul Symptom Questionnaire Post-Exertional Malaise) and telephone conversations to ensure that participants felt they were able to undertake the activity outlined and to ensure they were not suffering from irregular post-exertional malaise (PEM) following involvement. Ethical approval was obtained by Health and Care Research Wales (IRAS: 309606 22/SC/0120).This study aimed to investigate whether interrupting continuous sitting in people with Long COVID with movement could prevent the decline in vascular health. Inclusion criteria required a clinical diagnosis of Long COVID. Activities chosen represent movements that would occur during daily living. Interruption includes three bouts of five sit-to-stands, five calf raises, and three minutes of self-paced walking. Measures of central and peripheral blood pressure, arterial stiffness (SphygmCor XCEL), executive function (TrailMaking Tasks), and cerebral oxygenation (Near Infrared Spectroscopy) were recorded at baseline, during, and following two hours of interrupted or uninterrupted sitting.This study is currently still collecting data. To date, one participant with Long COVID has fully completed the testing procedure. Six additional participants have begun testing (59.25 ± 13.84 years, symptoms lasting >12 months), and three are scheduled to be familiarised and completed in the coming month, with more than 14 others expressing interest, with initial contact made. Preliminary results demonstrate an observed, yet insignificant increase in seated pulse wave velocity from baseline, 0.4 ± 0.14m/s (uninterrupted) and 0.6 ± 0.24m/s (interrupted).This research could provide rationale for future policies at a government level and advice from a GP surgery to be centred towards reducing the length people with Long COVID are sitting for continuously, to mitigate any detrimental impact on their vascular health. Additionally, results with respect to cognition and cerebral oxygenation may provide a rationale for people with Long COVID, including those still having to work while symptomatic, engaging in cognitively stimulating tasks following light physical activity i.e. making a cup of tea
Are you a 'Green Guide'?:Conservation, environmentalism and citizenship in the British Girl Guides Association, 1986-1992
Get PDFThis article explores the meaning and significance of environmental education within the British Girl Guides Association (GGA) in the period 1986–92. It considers how the youth organization reconceptualized meanings of citizenship in the wake of increased public and political concern surrounding the world environment. In doing so, it builds upon our understanding of the organization, by exploring changing understandings of citizenship within the movement in the context of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Britain. It argues that a growing awareness of environmentalism in the latter half of the twentieth century saw a move towards an ideal of planetary citizenship, with members being encouraged to become agents of environmental change through their engagement with environmental issues and humanitarianism. This marked a shift in an organization that had long emphasized nationalistic ideas of duty and service, as organizational periodicals played a significant role in establishing in popular discourse an idea of green citizenship, which crossed geographical boundaries. Yet the organizational focus on world conservation also reinforced traditional models of citizenship, with an emphasis on civic duty and individual responsibility, which were reinforced in the social and political climate of the 1980s. Indeed, the construction of green citizenship within the organization was forged within, and reinforced, Thatcherite discourses of active citizenship and consumer duty, which had underpinned Thatcher’s ‘green turn’. Moreover, reflecting the emphasis on traditional gender roles in the 1980s, the green citizen was a gendered concept with girls encouraged to prepare for their roles as both young green consumers and future green homemakers. Therefore, green citizenship, as it was mobilized in the GGA, was a nebulous entity that was underpinned by a variety of contemporary socio-political discourses and played out on a variety of spatial registers, from the global to the individual.</p
The Political Salience of Animal Protection in the Netherlands (2012–2021) and Belgium (2010–2019):What do Dutch and Belgian Political Parties Pledge on Animal Welfare and Wildlife Conservation?
No full textThe Netherlands and Belgium are European Union (EU) states with a shared border and cultural similarities. Article 13 of the EU Treaty of Lisbon recognises animals as sentient beings. EU laws protect animal welfare and conservation, and member states can implement more stringent legislation. Political salience refers to the extent to which citizens are concerned about political issues. Issue salience can be measured by assessing references to animal protection in party political manifestos. This research analyses the political salience of animal protection in the Netherlands and Belgium. It analyses over 2600 statements on animal protection in Dutch (2012–2021) and Belgian (2010–2019) party manifestos across three consecutive national elections. Quantitative analysis reveals that in both the Netherlands and Belgium, animal protection became more salient during successive elections, with the total number of positive statements increasing and the total number of negative statements decreasing. Farmed animal welfare and wildlife/biodiversity were the most salient issues, although the focus in countries and regions differed. Dutch parties and those in the Walloon region of Belgium focused on farmed animal health and unnecessary suffering; Flemish parties stressed intensive agriculture and animal welfare. In Belgium, wildlife/biodiversity statements stressed the protection of local species; Dutch statements were strongly linked to agriculture. In both the Netherlands and Belgium, left-wing parties had more progressive policy statements, whilst right-wing parties prioritised economic prosperity over animal protection. This research provides the first academic analysis of animal protection policies in political manifestos in the Netherlands and Belgium