54 research outputs found
Lifestyle and psychological factors of women with pregnancy intentions who become pregnant: analysis of a longitudinal cohort of Australian women
No full textPreconception lifestyle and psychological factors are associated with maternal and offspring outcomes. Both are important considerations for women planning pregnancy. The aim of this study was to explore associations between lifestyle/psychological factors and long-term pregnancy intentions in women who go on to become pregnant. Data from the cohort born 1973-1978 from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health were utilised. Women were included if they had a new pregnancy occurring between Waves 3 and 5, resulting in 2203 women for analysis. Long-term pregnancy intentions (aspirations for children in 5-10 years), demographic, anthropometric, lifestyle (sedentary behaviour, physical activity, diet quality, smoking, alcohol use), and psychological factors (depression, anxiety, stress) were assessed at Wave 3. Multivariable logistic regression was employed to evaluate the associations between pregnancy intentions and lifestyle/psychological factors, adjusting for other explanatory variables. Younger age and being married were associated positively with pregnancy intentions, while living with obesity was associated negatively with pregnancy intentions. No lifestyle or psychological factors were significantly associated with pregnancy intentions. Our findings highlight potential opportunities to identify women who have longer-term pregnancy intentions during clinical care, offering a pivotal moment for preconception care relating to lifestyle health, psychological wellbeing, and family planning.Briony Hill, Mamaru A. Awoke, Heidi Bergmeier, Lisa J. Moran, Gita D. Mishra and Helen Skouteri
Vegetation classification and its application are relevant globally
No full textThe annual editorial of Phytocoenologia 2019 brings bittersweet news about plot-based vegetation classification. On the one hand, the editorial of our Special Issue “Classification Approaches” (issue 48(2)) reported noticeable gaps in several regions of the world. On the other hand, articles in recent Phytocoenologia reach more and more of these underrepresented regions and extend to previously rarely classified plant formations. Our last issues 48(1–4) included several papers applying vegetation classification to address a number of ecological and socio-economical questions. We highlight the classification of steppe vegetation in Pamir Alai and Tian-Shan Mountains in Middle Asia and acknowledge the author with the Editor’s Award 2018. Our Ecoinformatics Section attracts many submissions, but we regret that in 2018 we did not publish any paper in the Phytosociological Nomenclature Section
The Role of Innate APOBEC3G and Adaptive AID Immune Responses in HLA-HIV/SIV Immunized SHIV Infected Macaques
No full textThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Social and emotional development in early childhood
No full textChapter 8 discusses evidence about children’s social and emotional development from health and psychology research in relation to early childhood practice. The authors maintain that early childhood is a critical window for children’s social and emotional development and a time where children learn about social cues and use prosocial behaviours to develop positive relationships with peers and adults. Risk and protective factors for children’s social and emotional development are presented along with an argument about the importance of the educator’s role.https://research.acer.edu.au/strong-foundations/1007/thumbnail.jp
Systematic research review of observational approaches used to evaluate mother-child mealtime interactions during preschool years
No full textBackground: The family meal and social interactions during the meal are important events in a child's life. Specifically, mealtime interactions have been linked to child weight status, the development of children's eating patterns, and socialization. Mealtime interactions may be observed and evaluated to provide insights into this important event beyond self-reported measurements. Objective: We aimed to identify, review, and examine studies in which mother-child mealtime behaviors were measured through observation. Design: MEDLINE Complete, PsycINFO, and PsycARTICLES were systematically searched by using sensitive search strategies. We included observational studies of mother-child eating and mealtimes and associations between mother-child interactions and preschool child eating or weight status published to March 2014. Results: Thirteen articles were included in our review. All studies but one were cross-sectional, and none of the studies evaluated how mutual dimensions (e.g., parent responsiveness to the child and child responsiveness to the parent) of dyadic interactions between mothers and children influence maternal feeding practices, children's eating, and weight. The parenting style was associated with maternal feeding practices but not directly with children's eating. Parental discouragements to eat and negative statements about food were associated with higher child weight status. Parental encouragement to eat was associated with higher child weight status as well as maternal body mass index. No associations were shown between maternal reports of feeding practices and observed maternal feeding practices. Conclusions: Parents’ overarching attitudes and approaches to parenting appear to be associated with their feeding practices or styles. Future studies should implement longitudinal observational methods with the capacity to measure levels of dimensions within bidirectional parent-child interactions and the extent to which these factors influence maternal practices, children's eating, and weight status
How are health, nutrition, and physical activity discussed in international guidelines and standards for children in care? A narrative review
No full textBackground
Children in care (CiC) have often experienced trauma and, as a result, are at high risk for poor health outcomes. It is imperative that human-service stakeholders provide trauma-informed health services and interventions. However, little is known about how health promotion is addressed in the standards and guidelines for CiC. For this scoping review, the aim was to examine and compare how nutrition and physical activity are discussed in: 1) federal standards for CiC across the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia; and 2) state and territory guidance in Australia.
Method
The grey literature was searched for documents outlining key child-welfare standards, guidelines, or policies for the provision of care across foster, kinship, or residential care. Documents were examined for the inclusion of recommendations and/or strategies focused on primary health and the promotion of nutrition and/or physical activity.
Results
A total of 52 documents were included in this review: 28 outlining international federal guidance and 24 Australian documents. In the United States, New Zealand, and Australia, references to physical activity were often broad, with minimal direction, and nutrition was often neglected; the United Kingdom provided more detailed guidance to promote nutrition and physical activity among CiC.
Conclusion
There is a lack of consistency and specificity in guidelines supporting healthy lifestyle interventions for CiC both internationally and within Australia. It is recommended that 1) specific trauma-informed health promotion guidelines are developed for CiC; and 2) trauma-informed health promotion training is provided to carers. Doing so will ensure that care is provided in a manner in which stakeholders recognize the signs and consequences of trauma in order to determine the most appropriate health interventions to improve outcomes and prevent ongoing trauma for this population
The ongoing impact of colonisation on childhood obesity prevention : a First Nations’ perspective
No full textAs researchers (HS, HB, AC) whose work focuses on ensuring that the voices of those most affected by the research are central to co-designed solutions, we are in the privileged position of capturing the stories of lived experience behind the data. In this perspective, a story of lived experience illustrates the need to reframe the childhood obesity prevention narrative towards a more equitable approach that ensures strategies reach the most socially disadvantaged populations. Here we come together to share Louisa Whettam's story, which captures common themes depicting drivers of disparities in obesity prevalence among First Peoples of Australia. We thank Louisa for sharing her personal story in this perspective piece as part of highlighting First Nations’ perspective in relation to the ongoing impact of colonisation on childhood obesity prevention
Early childhood educators’ perceptions of parent-child relationships:A qualitative study
No full textPARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS are the most critical for children’s social and emotional development and wellbeing. While parent-child relationship support programs are well documented, there are none designed for educators' use within early education and care settings. To inform development of an educator program, an understanding of educators’ everyday practices, their role in supporting parent-child relationships and children’s social and emotional development was sought. Educators reported the importance of parent-child relationships, yet were hesitant to engage with parents. Educators’ knowledge was primarily implicit—drawing on observations and practical experiences to build their knowledge of relationships and social and emotional development—which contributed to reluctance in sharing their knowledge with parents. Educators requested theoretical, evidence-based approaches to build further knowledge and inform everyday practices in supporting parent-child relationships. These findings are critical to the development of an educator-led parent-child relationship program for use within education and care settings.</p
Maternal obesity prevention: The health in preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum early- and mid-career researcher collective
No full textThere is a clear impetus for researchers to facilitate cross-sector and interdisciplinary collaboration to achieve collective action for maternal obesity prevention. Building early- and mid-career researchers' capacity to sustainably develop collective action into the future is key. Therefore, the national Health in Preconception, Pregnancy, and Postpartum Early- and Mid-career Researcher Collective (HiPPP EMR-C) was formed. Here, we describe the aim, key goals and future directions of the HiPPP EMR-C. Guided by the Simplified Framework for Understanding Collective Action, we aim to build our capacity as researchers, form policy stakeholder relationships and focus on generating impact to optimise maternal and child health and well-being.</p
Content Analysis of #Postpartumbody Images Posted to Instagram
No full textUnderstanding the imagery on social media targeting postpartum women is an important step in determining the utility of Instagram as a potential avenue for targeting public health messages to this group. This study (1) describes the content of images on Instagram tagged with #postpartumbody and; (2) compares images from ‘Top’ posts (‘trending’ or ‘popular’) with ‘Recent’ posts. 600 images tagged with #postpartumbody (300 ‘Top’ and 300 ‘Recent’) were systematically captured from Instagram and coded using a predefined framework. Images of women were coded for adiposity, muscularity, pose and attire. Chi-square tests were used to compare ‘Top’ and ‘Recent’ posts. Most (n = 409) images were of a woman who generally had low/average adiposity (91%) and little-to-none/some visible muscle definition (93%). Most women (52%) were posing in a non-specific manner, 5% were posing to accentuate a postpartum body feature and 40% were wearing fitness attire. Compared with ‘Recent’, ‘Top’ posts were less likely to be text-focused (p < 0.001), photos of food (p < 0.001) or linked to a product/program (p < 0.001). Women of lower adiposity are more likely to post images of themselves on Instagram tagged with #postpartumbody than women of higher adiposity, which may reflect increased body pride in this group, but could reduce body satisfaction for some viewers. Conveying health information on Instagram may be necessary to interrupt potentially harmful content
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