View clinical trials related to Health Status Disparities.
Filter by:Studies show that virtually all increases in children's (5-12yrs) BMI occur during the summer, no matter children's' weight status (i.e., normal weight, overweight, or obese) at summer entry. Recent preliminary studies show that children engage in healthier behaviors on days that they attend summer day camps, and that BMI gain does not accelerate for these children. The proposed randomized dose-response study will identify the dose-response relationship between amount of summer programming and summer BMI gain.
Nearly one in five children are obese, and disparities in overweight and obesity between children from low- and middle-to-high-income households persist despite a multitude of school-based interventions. The structured days hypothesis posits that structure within a school day plays a protective role for children against obesogenic behaviors, and, ultimately, prevents the occurrence of excessive weight gain, thus, past school-based efforts are misplaced. This study will provide access to healthy structured programming via vouchers to afterschool programs and summer day camps during two "windows of vulnerability" (ie afterschool and summer) for low-income children.
Motivations: Socio‐economic and education determinants have a big impact on health outcomes, in terms of worse health status in populations living in more disadvantaged conditions. Social capital, self‐management and health literacy are some of the intermediate determinants, with the potential to mitigate health inequalities through interventions driven by local health agents. These three determinants are intensely interlinked and have, separately, impacts on self‐perceived health. Social capital is defined in this project as an umbrella concept, which includes quantitative aspects of social resources (structural social capital: social networks and contacts, social and civic participation) as well as qualitative or subjective aspects (cognitive social capital: perceived social support, feeling of belonging and trust) and covers relations between subjects at a micro or individual level (family and friends) as well as at a macro or community level. Health literacy is understood as cognitive and social skills which determine the motivation and ability of individuals to gain access to, understand and use information in ways which promote and maintain good health. Both are key aspects for self‐management behaviours. The target of our research project are older people living in urban socioeconomically disadvantaged areas, since ageing is in itself an inequality axis and urban environments concentrate the highest health disparities. Objectives: With the aim to reduce health inequality, an intervention has been designed to promote self‐management, health literacy and social capital among older people who perceived their health as fair or poor and are living in urban socioeconomically disadvantaged areas with the aim of improving their self‐perceived health. Secondarily, the efficacy of the intervention will be analysed in terms of increasing self‐management, health literacy and social capital (social support and social participation), quality of life, mental health and healthy lifestyles. In third place, behavioural health patterns will be identified in relation to health literacy, social capital, gender, socioeconomic and educational level, and they will be linked to the intervention efficacy levels.