scholarly journals Reasons for smoking among English-speaking adults in Leicester - a pilot study

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
K Shama R Joshi ◽  
Ruta Furmonaviciene
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Cigarette Smoking ◽  
Sleep Disturbances ◽  
Premature Death ◽  
Poor Appetite ◽  
Stop Smoking ◽  
Adult Participants ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Weight Excess

Cigarette smoke contains around 7000 chemicals that are harmful to health and cause premature death. Most smokers acknowledge the harm they are doing to them yet continue to smoke. This pilot study was designed to understand the impact of cigarette smoking, the addictive effect of nicotine, and also hypothesize a recommendation for smoking cessation.  Methods: This study recruited English speaking adult participants who were either current, occasional, and ex-smokers from NHS stop smoking clinics in Leicester, United Kingdom, using a self-completed questionnaire. Results: Out of 32 participants, White British were thirteen & Asian were nine with majority of males. Stress, boredom, nervousness, and just like it, were the main reasons quoted for cigarette smoking.  Irritation & mood swings were the top reasons for craving. The visual stimuli and smell of smoking were reported as the top two strong cues. Majority of the participants reported having several effects due to cigarette smoking such as respiratory cough, feel like tightening of lungs, asthma, high blood pressure, difficulty in losing weight, excess fat accumulation near the waist, poor appetite, fatigue, sleep disturbances, darkened teeth as well as an inability to differentiate between taste. Conclusion: Our study suggested that cigarette smoking may be more like a habit than an addiction, therefore unable to relieve stress or boredom, but keep smokers hooked to the habit.

Giving up smoking: how doctors can help

1975 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-3 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cigarette Smoking ◽  
Premature Death ◽  
Preventive Health Care ◽  
Western World ◽  
Stop Smoking ◽  
Care Health ◽  
Education Campaigns ◽  
One Year ◽  
Personal Advice ◽  
Do So

Cigarette smoking remains the most important preventable cause of premature death in the western world How best to help adults to give up cigarettes and stop the young from starting is unknown. If all doctors gave up cigarette smoking the example might be their most useful contribution to preventive health care. Health Education campaigns and anti-smoking clinics have had little success. Yet about one out of every four patients can stop after firm unequivocal advice from the doctor to do so.1 Where motivation was increased by a recent myocardial infarction, 62% of patients were persuaded by their doctor to stop for at least one year.2 No method is known to be more effective than this personal advice from doctor to patient, yet many patients have never been told by their doctor to stop smoking, even for chronic bronchitis or ischaemic heart disease.

scholarly journals Assessing the feasibility of applying a combined osteopathy and psychoeducation therapy (OsteoPeCT) and its influence on levels of psychological and physiological stress in adult participants with moderate stress: A pilot study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Rahier ◽  
Victoria J Taylor ◽  
Teena KJB Gamage ◽  
Alastair Treacher ◽  
Simon J O’Carroll ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Perceived Stress ◽  
Physiological Stress ◽  
Immunoglobulin A ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Adult Participants ◽  
Biomarker Analysis ◽  
Mood Scale ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Moderate Stress

Abstract Background: There is mounting evidence suggesting a relationship between stress and adverse health outcomes. Stress is a multidimensional phenomenon requiring a multimodal approach. While there is some evidence indicating a positive effect of massage therapy, there is limited research regarding the impact of related approaches such as general osteopathic techniques (GOTs). Further, research examining the feasibility and effectiveness of combining GOTs with psychoeducation in the management of stress is lacking. The present pilot study aimed to assess the feasibility of applying a therapy package consisting of GOTs and brief psychoeducation and its influence on moderate stress in a convenience sample.Methods: A pilot uncontrolled trial with mixed pragmatic and exploratory design was conducted. The therapy package comprised of ten GOTs and ten minutes of scripted psychoeducation (OsteoPeCT) was applied in two sessions over two consecutive days to 18 adult participants with moderate stress. Feedback from participants and challenges experienced by both participants and researchers were recorded. The effects of OsteoPeCT were assessed by measuring pre-and post- intervention scores of self-reported perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale-10, PSS-10; Profile of Mood Scale, POMS) and salivary levels of physiological stress biomarkers (cortisol; secretory immunoglobulin A, sIgA and interleukin-6, IL-6).Results: All aspects related to the application of OsteoPeCT (participant recruitment, participant retention, therapy application, administration of health screen and self-reported perceived stress questionnaires, and the collection of saliva samples for biomarker analysis) were feasible. A total of 18 participants were enrolled. The timing of sessions on consecutive days was reported to be challenging. While a measurable decrease in perceived stress (PSS-10) and in mood scores (Tense, Fatigue, Depression, Anger) were noted post therapy (OsteoPeCT) application, physiological stress markers were unaffected. Diurnal variations of these biomarkers may need further consideration.Conclusion: The application of OsteoPeCT was feasible, well received with some beneficial influence on perceived stress indicating that an integration of psychoeducation and osteopathic care may confer benefits to patients. Future investigations with adapted protocols and larger sample size is warranted to assess effectiveness.Trial registration: Retrospectively registered in Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (registration number ACTRN12620000763943 ) and ICTRP .

Pilot Study: The Impact of Yoga on Health

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle V. Shelov ◽  
Sonia Suchday ◽  
Jennifer P. Friedberg
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Development of an Early Literacy App in Dhuwaya

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 106
Author(s):  
Gillian Wigglesworth ◽  
Melanie Wilkinson ◽  
Yalmay Yunupingu ◽  
Robyn Beecham ◽  
Jake Stockley
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Early Literacy ◽  
First Language ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Intercultural Development ◽  
Educational Challenges ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Surrounding Areas ◽  
Bilingual School ◽  
The Impact

Phonological awareness is a skill which is crucial in learning to read. In this paper, we report on the challenges encountered while developing a digital application (app) for teaching phonological awareness and early literacy skills in Dhuwaya. Dhuwaya is a Yolŋu language variety spoken in Yirrkala and surrounding areas in East Arnhem Land. Dhuwaya is the first language of the children who attend a bilingual school in which Dhuwaya and English are the languages of instruction. Dhuwaya and English have different phonemic inventories and different alphabets. The Dhuwaya alphabet is based on Roman alphabet symbols and has 31 graphemes (compared to 26 in English). The app was designed to teach children how to segment and blend syllables and phonemes and to identify common words as well as suffixes used in the language. However, the development was not straightforward, and the impact of the linguistic, cultural and educational challenges could not have been predicted. Amongst these was the inherent variation in the language, including glottal stops, the pronunciation of stops, the focus on syllables as a decoding strategy for literacy development and challenges of finding one-syllable words such as those initially used with English-speaking children. Another challenge was identifying culturally appropriate images which the children could relate to and which were not copyrighted. In this paper, we discuss these plus a range of other issues that emerged, identifying how these problems were addressed and resolved by the interdisciplinary and intercultural team.

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