View clinical trials related to Health Behavior.
Filter by:The evidence shows that adherence to air quality advice to adopt protective behaviours during pollution episodes is suboptimal, and that the traditional strategy of simply informing people about high pollution episodes is not effective. The aim of the present study was to investigate how to improve the behavioural impact of existing air quality alert messages through a systematic manipulation of key communication variables, including perceived susceptibility, self-efficacy, response efficacy, planning, message specificity, etc. Users of an existing air quality alert smartphone application in London, who agreed to take part in the study, were randomly allocated to a control group (i.e. receiving usual health advice associated with the official UK Air Quality Index) or an intervention group receiving health advice associated with air quality alerts in an alternative format (i.e. targeting key variables). Both intended and actual adherence behaviours were investigated. Qualitative data were also collected to understand the reasons for not adopting protective behaviours in response to receiving a real air pollution alert. Implications of this study include the potential to increase protective behaviours in the general population during air pollution episodes through the development of more effective communication strategies provided via existent air quality alert systems.
The Skill Acquisition Methods underpinning Pedagogy for LEarning in Physical Education (SAMPLE-PE) project aims to investigate the influence of different pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning in physical education (PE) on 5-6 year old children's health and development. Schools from deprived areas are invited to take part in the project and will be randomly assigned to either: (1) linear pedagogy PE curriculum programme, (2) nonlinear pedagogy PE curriculum programme or (3) carry on as normal. The linear and nonlinear pedagogy PE programmes will be underpinned by different and contrasting theories of skill acquisition and are delivered by trained coaches over 15 weeks. Children will be measured to assess their physical, psychological, cognitive, and emotional health and development, and their physical activity levels at the start of the study, immediately after the 15 week PE programme, and again after 12 months. It is expected that children taking part in the linear and nonlinear PE programmes will demonstrate greater physical development than children attending schools that carry on as normal. Furthermore, it is also anticipated that children taking part in the nonlinear PE programme will show greater gains in psychological, cognitive and emotional outcomes than the linear and usual practice programmes.
A school based Physical Activity intervention for pupils (8-9 years old) to promote fitness and wellbeing
With funding from the Candian Cancer Society, the Men's Healthy Eating Active Living (MHEAL) project began the development, evaluation, and optimization of a program called POWERPLAY to promote men's health at work.
The investigators have created an anonymous online survey that queries current topics in precision medicine.
Involuntary stress reactions including hyper-reactivity and dissociation are key diagnostic features of many psychiatric disorders, are difficult to treat, and predict poor outcomes in conventional and neurobehavioral interventions. Here, we evaluate the extent to which a novel intervention, Tuned Vibroacoustic Stimulation (TVS), capitalizing on a preserved neurocircuitry for sympathetic and parasympathetic system activity can be used to modify arousal responses, overriding otherwise prepotent negative stress reactions. PTSD has been characterized by dysregulated responses to stress as a result of severe acute or chronic trauma resulting in significantly impaired functioning, quality of life, and morbidity/mortality. Physiologically, PTSD severity has been associated with elevated sympathetic tone and low heart rate variability suggesting that parasympathetic tone is suppressed. Lower heart rate variability specifically, as a measure of parasympathetic tone, is closely associated with impaired performance and resilience. In our first study (in review), we showed that in some individuals, TVS is associated with increased heart rate variability and performance under stress along with reduced subjective stress. These results suggest that TVS could provide some therapeutic benefit in PTSD. N=100 individuals with mild-moderate PTSD (as assessed by PCL-5/CAP5), at least half of which are military Veterans, will be assessed physiologically during active interventions. Mechanisms of attentional focus on cognitive and emotional stimuli will be assessed. Participants will also have a real-world intervention to determine if TVS helps alleviate stress, symptoms, and medication burden in the real world when stress has been identified. Success will suggest a new intervention pathway for a traditionally treatment-resistant dimension of psychopathology.
The Emory University Spiritual Health department will incorporate Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT) into their training curriculum beginning in Fall 2017, which provides the opportunity to compare students receiving the CBCT addendum with those receiving traditional chaplaincy training. This is a naturalistic study that examines the impact of incorporating CBCT into Emory's spiritual caregiver training program. The researchers will examine the effect of CBCT on empathic accuracy and resilience by comparing the first group of students who receive CBCT-informed training with chaplains who receive standard training in spiritual caregiving and receive CBCT later in the residency year. Comprehensive assessments will be conducted in order to examine whether outcomes for patients are improved for those receiving chaplain spiritual care augmented by CBCT compared to those receiving spiritual care from chaplains who receive CBCT later in their residency.
This cohort study investigates how implementation of Biological Age technology in worksite health promotion, affects health behavior in the general Danish working population.
This three year study explores the feasibility and acceptability of conducting a full randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a promising coaching intervention for improving and sustaining physical activity (PA) and healthy dietary habits in children with physical disabilities (CWPD). Thirty children (ages 10 - 18) will spend 12 months in the study. All will receive usual care and basic printed information about healthy lifestyles. In addition, 15 will receive a coaching intervention for the first six months. Pre-defined success criteria will assess the feasibility of trial processes. Acceptability of trial participation and impact of coaching will be explored qualitatively. Health indicators and psychosocial outcomes will be assessed four times, at the start of the trial, immediately post-intervention and at three and six months post-intervention.
Caffeine containing energy drinks (CCED) are beverages that typically contain mixtures of simple sugars, caffeine and may contain vitamin, mineral and/or herbal preparations. In Canada, the consumption of CCEDs among adolescents is a regular occurrence and a common part of the everyday diet. Contributing to the obesity epidemic in youth is the consumption of energy drinks; yet no data on the metabolic responses to CCEDs exists. This study will examine the metabolic implications of CCED consumption in adolescents, aged 13-19 years. The investigators hypothesize that CCEDs will impair glucose tolerance by ~30% in lean adolescents and the primary cause of the insulin resistance will be caffeine. Obese individuals will experience a similar level of glucose impairment, but a greater rise in blood glucose compared to their lean counterparts (i.e. higher starting glucose level). For many, this additional, caffeine-induced rise will expose them to hyperglycemia, putting some individuals in the glucose intolerant or transient diabetic range. It is hypothesized that continued metabolic insult resulting from CCEDs may predispose susceptible individuals to chronic metabolic diseases later in life. The investigators will also examine the genetic basis of caffeine-induced glucose intolerance. This gene-diet interaction could explain why caffeine may be much more metabolically harmful for some individuals compared to others. The study of 'metabolomics' will also be utilized to analyze caffeine and caffeine metabolites such as theobromine, theophylline, and xanthine. This will be accomplished using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Results from this study will have the potential to alter current perceptions that CCED are 'harmless' and will have far reaching implications for both medical professionals and legislators alike.