Effects Of A Residential Lifestyle Intervention Program On Selected Lipid Measures And Nutritional Choices

Abstract Objective: Cardiovascular disease has been the leading cause of death since the early 1920s. As with other chronic diseases, cardiovascular disease is primarily influenced by behaviors and the environment, with poor nutrition being a major contributing factor. Despite knowing the importance of lifestyle modification to manage cardiovascular disease effectively, many individuals have difficulty adhering to lifestyle modification principles. Residential lifestyle modification centers provide the education and support necessary to assist individuals with implementing behavioral changes. This DNP project aimed to demonstrate the value of diet modification implemented at a residential lifestyle center to decrease specific cardiovascular risk factors. Method: Using data collected between November 2021 through December 2022 from adults at least 18 years of age at a residential lifestyle modification center, this retrospective quantitative project considered two clinical questions: 1) What is the relationship between nutritional patterns and selected cholesterol values? and 2) Does the modification of participants’ diet in a residential lifestyle modification program reduce certain cardiovascular risk factors? Intervention: Participants completed surveys that included nutritional information and had lipid levels assessed at the beginning and end of their program and three to four months later. Results: Data were collected from 104 participants enrolled in the lifestyle intervention program. Because this DNP project required complete data for evaluation and comparison, the subsequent sample size was 21 participants. The results indicated that nutrition, as part of a comprehensive lifestyle modification program, was effective in lowering the non-HDL cholesterol and total/HDL cholesterol ratio, 12.6% and 7.5% respectively, at the end of the program. Overall nutrition status, eating patterns, and lipid improvements were not maintained at the three to four-month follow-up. Conclusion: This DNP project contributed to the understanding of the relationship between nutrition and lipid management. Key Words: Lifestyle modification, residential lifestyle center, cardiovascular disease, lipids, nutritio

Risk Factors for Substance Use in the American Indian/Alaska Native Community

Research has indicated that substance use is a significant problem in the American Indian/Alaska Native adolescent community. What is less understood are the risk and protective factors specific to this community. Using data available from the Communities That Care Youth Survey, we analyzed risk and protective factors for current (30-day) and lifetime use of smokeless tobacco, cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, and alcohol in a sample of 5,912 AI/AN adolescents. Logistic regression analyses were used and our findings indicated that peer and family influences, as well as ease of access to alcohol and other drugs had the greatest overall impact on AI/AN substance use. We also found that religious service attendance was a risk factor for inhalant use, but a protective factor against marijuana use. Overall, our findings highlighted several gaps in the current literature regarding AI/AN cultural attitudes towards substance use and how that might affect teen substance use. It also became clear that the AI/AN community is unique in many ways and would likely benefit from interventions implemented by culturally competent clinicians with the skillset to effectively work with and for the AI/AN community

New challenges in diagnosis of haemoglobinopathies: Migration of populations

The current influx of economic migrants and asylum seekers from countries with a high prevalence of haemoglobinopathies creates new challenges for health care systems and diagnostic laboratories. The migration of carriers introduces new and novel haemoglobinopathy mutations to the diagnostic repertoire of a laboratory, often creating new pressures to improve and update the carrier screening technology and diagnostic scope. For antenatal screening programmes, the marriage of partners from different ethnic groups can lead to the risk of compound heterozygote children being born novel mutation combinations, creating problems in the provision of accurate advice regarding the expected phenotype of the thalassaemia or haemoglobinopathy disorder. In the UK, the impact of immigration required the National Haemoglobinopathy Reference laboratory to change the strategy and techniques used for the molecular diagnosis of thalassaemia and the haemoglobinopathies. In 2005, due to the increasingly large range of β-thalassaemia mutations that needed to be diagnosed, the laboratory switched from a three-step screening procedure using ARMS-PCR to a simpler but more expensive one-step strategy of DNA sequencing of the beta and alpha globin genes for all referrals. After ten years of employing this strategy, a further 57 novel thalassaemia and haemoglobionpopthy alleles were discovered (11 new β-chain variants, 15 α-chain variants, 19 β-thalassaemia mutations and 12 α+-thalassaemia mutations), increasing further the extremely heterogeneous spectrum of globin gene mutations in the UK population

Occupational stress in the ED: A systematic literature review

Introduction Occupational stress is a major modern health and safety challenges. While the ED is known to be a high-pressure environment, the specific organisational stressors which affect ED staff have not been established. Methods We conducted a systematic review of literature examining the sources of organisational stress in the ED, their link to adverse health outcomes and interventions designed to address them. A narrative review of contextual factors that may contribute to occupational stress was also performed. All articles written in English, French or Spanish were eligible for conclusion. Study quality was graded using a modified version of the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Results Twenty-five full-text articles were eligible for inclusion in our systematic review. Most were of moderate quality, with two low-quality and two highquality studies, respectively. While high demand and low job control were commonly featured, other studies demonstrated the role of insufficient support at work, effort-reward imbalance and organisational injustice in the development of adverse health and occupational outcomes. We found only one intervention in a peerreviewed journal evaluating a stress reduction programme in ED staff. Conclusions Our review provides a guide to developing interventions that target the origins of stress in the ED. It suggests that those which reduce demand and increase workers' control over their job, improve managerial support, establish better working relationships and make workers' feel more valued for their efforts could be beneficial. We have detailed examples of successful interventions from other fields which may be applicable to this setting

St. Patrick\u27s Rock

St. Patrick\u27s Rock, Cashelhttps://repository.belmont.edu/sa_photos_2019/1062/thumbnail.jp

Spirit of Our Teachers and Life in Belfast

It captures the spirit of our teachers and life in Belfast.https://repository.belmont.edu/sa_photos_2019/1245/thumbnail.jp

NA

http://archive.org/details/studyofadvantage00ruglNAN

Touring Dublin

Touring Dublinhttps://repository.belmont.edu/sa_photos_2019/1063/thumbnail.jp

Keynote Address

Research Assistant Professor, University of Memphis Director of Research, Church Healt