Web-based interventions among adults: Relevance to anthropometric indicators

@#<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>PURPOSE:</strong> Web-based interventions offer low cost and practical strategies to promote self-care for adult individuals with various health conditions and status issues around the globe. The purpose of this review was to summarize the current recent literature in  examining  the  effectiveness  of  web-based  interventions  to  promote  healthy lifestyles related to anthropometric measurements in adult individuals with various health conditions and status.<br /><strong>DESIGN:</strong> A systematic review of literature was conducted.   Search of the literature was employed to web-based intervention studies in refereed journals written in the English  language.  The  databases  searched  were  PubMed,  Ovid  MEDLINE, CINAHL,  and  Google  Scholar,  with  a  search  period  of  2004-2014.In addition to these databases, a manual search was also used.  <br /><strong>METHODS:</strong> All studies were examined by three reviewers for eligibility using the Jadad scoring  system.Thirteen randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies (n=13)  met criteria in this review and revealed significant associations between the utilization of web-based health promotion interventions on anthropometric measurements in adult populations with health related conditions.<br /><strong>FINDINGS:</strong> Seven  studies  reported  overall  positive  changes  in  the  participants' anthropometric measurements at the completion of each study. Four out of seven studies reported that adult participants' in the intervention groups had greater weight loss  as  compared  to  the  control  groups.  In  addition,  one  study  out  of  the  seven studies reported a larger reduction in BMI of the participants in the intervention group.Two studies out of 13 studies reported positive changes in BMI, waist circumference,body fat, and waist-hip-ratio in the control groups.  <br /><strong>CONCLUSIONS:</strong>The outcomes from this review may prove useful information of effectiveness of web-based interventions relative to physiological outcomes such as anthropometric measurements. These programs can inform transformative practice and improvement of global health.  </p>

Hapag Kainan: Dietary Consumption of Fat, Sugar, Fruits and Vegetables Among Filipino Americans.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among the variables of the dietary consumption and the anthropometric measurements of Filipino Americans (FAs). The study sample consisted of 128 participants residing in the US who completed two questionnaires and biometric measurements. Strong positive correlations between the consumption of fat and sugar and body mass index (BM) among the participants were found. In contrast, the correlations between the consumption of fruits and vegetables and BMI were strongly negative. This study advances the limited body of knowledge on the dietary practices of FAs in the US.

SERVICE-LEARNING AND INTERPROFESSIONAL EDUCATION IN NURSING: A Critical Need.

Service-learning and interprofessional education can have an effect on nursing students' learning experiences, attitudes, transcultural knowledge, and on patient outcomes. Interprofessional education is a method in which healthcare students learn their different roles and responsibilities, and recognize how patients benefit from the collaborative process. The purpose of this paper is to review professional literature to determine the best practices for implementation of service-learning and interprofessional education into nursing curricula.

Dietary acculturation in Asian Americans.

The purpose of this literature review is to promote a better understanding of the construct of dietary acculturation in recent years and how it affects dietary intake of Asian-American population. Four databases were searched simultaneously using the following key terms: Asian-Americans, dietary practices, eating habits, and dietary acculturation. A total of seven articles were relevant and met the inclusion criteria. The findings from these studies of dietary acculturation in Asian Americans are generally in agreement with other dietary acculturation research conducted in non-Asian population samples. Although the studies presented in this literature review represent the recent researches conducted in Asian populations in the US, the research in dietary acculturation remains sparse.

Filipino older adults' beliefs about exercise activity.

PURPOSE: This study explored how the older traditional Filipino adults 65 years old and above living in Honolulu, Hawaii, describe their beliefs regarding exercise activity. The location of this research setting is unique because a blending of traditional Filipino culture exists within an acculturated social setting. The Filipino older adults who have relocated to this U.S. location may have also stayed close to their own cultural traditions. METHODOLOGIES: A perception of exercise activity was generated through the lens of 47 participants using qualitative methodology. FINDINGS: While focusing on the older adults' beliefs about exercise activity, it became evident that exercise may have been seen as a proxy measure of physical activity. The study revealed four main domains: balancing barriers against benefits; engaging capabilities; intervening factors; and defining exercise. The data suggest that the four themes are juxtaposed among each other, with overarching social obligations to the kin group governing the older adults' engagement in what constitutes structured exercise by Western definition. IMPLICATIONS: Further investigation is needed to conceptualize what types of physical activities traditional Filipino elders perceive as exercise, and whether these activities fall into the Western definition of exercise.

Crohn's disease stable remission after human immunodeficiency virus infection.

We retrospectively assessed the clinical course in four patients with long-standing Crohn's disease who became infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The duration of active Crohn's disease was 21, 10, 4, and 4 years in our four patients. They experienced a stable remission of Crohn's disease symptoms after HIV infection. In three patients Crohn's disease was in stable remission for 5, 8, and 8 years after HIV infection and all three died from acquired immunodeficiency syndrome-related disease. One patient was still alive without recurrence of Crohn's disease symptoms 7 years following HIV detection. Our observations of a spontaneous improvement in the clinical course of Crohn's disease after HIV infection, suggests that the integrity of the immune response, especially that of CD4 T cells, plays a major role in the tissue injury mechanism in Crohn's disease.