Frailty
Shibley Rahman in Living with frailty, 2018
Historically, approaches to the promotion of health have been based on an ‘illness’ model. The focus is mainly on risk factors for disease ‘health deficits’, rather than those associated with improving health status. While the presence of risk factors increases the likelihood of poor health, their absence does not necessarily increase the likelihood of good health (Hornby-Turner et al., 2017). This approach of identifying risk factors for disease is essential for understanding specific needs and priorities; however, it tends to define individuals in negative terms, and may overlook important positive factors which improve public health (Morgan and Ziglio, 2007). Indeed many participants in a recent qualitative study involving focus groups of community-dwelling older adults with diverse age and frailty status revealed that information about how to treat or prevent frailty and the risks associated with being frail can be conveyed without necessarily using the specific term ‘frail’, which they perceived to have a negative connotation (Schoenborn et al., 2018).
Applied exercise physiology and health
Nick Draper, Helen Marshall in Exercise Physiology, 2014
It is clear that CVD is a leading cause of death, and its diagnosis may not be made until following a serious event. What, therefore, can we do to reduce the risk of CVD? There are many risk factors, some of which are outwith our control, such as age, sex and family history. The modifiable risk factors, however, are the ones that we can target in our attempt to lower the alarming prevalence of these diseases worldwide. An unhealthy diet, sedentary lifestyle and smoking can lead to increases in blood pressure (hyper tension), blood glucose concentration, blood lipid level, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and the development of Type II diabetes and obesity, all of which are risk factors for the development of a CVD. An increase in physical activity, consumption of a healthy diet and the cessation of smoking, therefore, are all lifestyle changes that can significantly reduce the risk of CVD. These three factors are discussed below.
Genetic influences on antisocial behaviour, problem substance use and schizophrenia: evidence from quantitative genetic and molecular genetic studies
John C. Gunn, Pamela J. Taylor in Forensic Psychiatry, 2014
Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disease, or perhaps cluster of diseases, characterized by distortions of thinking and perception together with inappropriate or blunted affect in a state of clear consciousness (World Health Organization, 1992) . It often runs a chronic and, not uncommonly, deteriorating course. Cognitive and/or behavioural signs may be present in early childhood, but the more typical features tend to become established in adolescence or early adulthood. There is consensus that schizophrenia is, at least in part, neurodevelopmental (Weinberger, 1995). At the structural level, there are reductions in neuropil and neuronal size that are widespread but not uniform, with temporal lobe structures, notably the hippocampus, particularly affected (Harrison 1999; see also chapter 12). These changes, in turn, probably result from alterations in synaptic, dendritic and axonal organization (Harrison 1999). At the functional level, accumulating evidence also implicates altered glutamate neurotransmission in addition to ‘classical’ hyperdopaminergic explanations (Moghaddam, 2003). A number of risk factors have been identified in epidemiological studies (Murray et al., 2003), but, in many instances, the direction of causation is unclear. Most risk factors do not suggest particular pathological mechanisms, and in all cases the relative risks are small compared with those conferred by close genetic relatedness to a person who has already manifest the disease.
Healthy Lifestyle and Breast Cancer Risk in Palestinian Women: A Case-Control Study
Published in Nutrition and Cancer, 2023
Nuha El Sharif, Imtithal Khatib
There are several recognized BC risk factors that have each been independently linked to an increased risk of developing BC (3). These risk factors, which are typically linked to lifestyle choices including being overweight or obese, being sedentary or inactive, drinking alcohol, and having bad eating habits, have been shown to increase the risk of BC (4–7). Other risk factors include sex, age, genetic traits, such as a family or personal history of BC, ethnicity, and early menarche or menopause, which are non-modifiable risk factors (8–10). The association between behavioral factors and lifestyle factors linked to BC has been investigated in a number of studies (11–13). Therefore, it is necessary to consider these lifestyle factors simultaneously and consider their combined effects.
Hospitalisation time is associated with weight gain in forensic mental health patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder
Published in Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 2023
Anne Louise Winkler Pedersen, Frederik Alkier Gildberg, Peter Hjorth, Mikkel Højlund, Kjeld Andersen
As is the case for non-FMHPs, FMHPs have higher mortality compared to the general population [8]. Given that the cardiometabolic risk factors are affected by lifestyle, it seems likely that they change when the setting of everyday life changes. This is what happens when FMHPs are hospitalised. They are moved from their usual everyday life setting to the mental health hospital setting – a setting which has been found to be obesogenic [9]. FMHPs are often hospitalised for longer periods of time than non-FMHPs (Danske) [10], and the hospitalisation may therefore have a greater effect on cardiometabolic risk factors in FMHPs. Consequently, it is particularly important to investigate the relation between hospitalisation time and change in cardiometabolic risk factors in this patient group.
Risk and protective factors for heavy episodic drinking among college students: Influence of mental health service use
Published in Journal of American College Health, 2022
Rita A. Swartzwelder, Barbara J. Burns, Linda Maultsby, Megan Zhao, John G. Looney, Shawn Acheson
Previous studies have identified risk factors and protective factors for HED. Individual and family-level risk factors include male sex, white racial identity, use of alcohol as a coping mechanism, history of child abuse, and parental history of substance use. Community-level risk factors include poverty, violence, and specific contexts that promote heavy drinking (eg parties, sporting events, drinking games). Each risk factor present makes it more likely for an individual to have additional risk factors and fewer protective factors.5,6 Protective factors include but are not limited to the female sex, nonwhite racial identity, involvement in religion, and drinking in a bar setting where there is more likely to be access to water, food, and bartenders that can choose to stop serving someone who appears intoxicated. However, the impact of such protective factors may be diminished in college drinking contexts that encourage heavy drinking, which is one possible explanation for the higher rate of binge drinking among college students.2 Importantly, both risk and protective factors have cumulative effects on behavioral health. Individuals with more risk factors for high-risk drinking are more likely to develop other health (physical and mental) problems while those with more protective factors are less likely to develop those same adverse health outcomes.2,4,6
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