The Experts below are selected from a list of 165 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Antony Morgan - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Optimism as a Candidate Health Asset: Exploring Its Links With Adolescent Quality of Life in Sweden
Child development, 2017Co-Authors: Katrin Häggström Westberg, Marie Wilhsson, Petra Svedberg, Jens M. Nygren, Antony Morgan, Maria NyholmAbstract:This study aims to understand the role that optimism could play in the context of a Health Asset approach to promote adolescent Health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Adolescents (n = 948), between 11 and 16 years old from a medium-sized rural town in Sweden, answered questionnaires measuring optimism, pessimism, and HRQOL. The findings indicate a significant decrease in optimism and a significant increase in pessimism between early and midadolescence. The study has allowed us to present associational evidence of the links between optimism and HRQOL. This infers the potential of an optimistic orientation about the future to function as a Health Asset during adolescence and by implication may provide additional intervention tool in the planning of Health promotion strategies.
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Improving the evidence base on public Health Assets—the way ahead: a proposed research agenda
Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2015Co-Authors: Carlos Álvarez-dardet, Antony Morgan, María Teresa Ruiz Cantero, Mariano HernánAbstract:public Health action. That said, there are signs in some countries that this is now changing and that ‘public Health Assets’ are being taken seriously by a public Health workforce that goes beyond those working at grassroots level. 2 Effective public Health action requires clarity from the outset about the ideas, concepts or theories being used to inform its development. While some definitions do exist (see Morgan and Ziglio 3 ), the extant literature does not seem to offer an agreed notion of what a ‘public Health Asset’ is. While there may be a need for a range of characterisations for the idea(s), we propose a working definition, specifically to support the work of a research project ongoing in the city of Alicante (Spain): In this context, a public Health Asset (including the word public to distinguish it from the wider literature) has been defined as: “the heritage expression of fair, equitable and democratic communities, resulting from their organized efforts; this is achieved by facilitating community empowerment and capacities which improves, promotes and restores the Health of populations and can help to reduce Health inequalities.”
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Subjective well-being in adolescence and teacher connectedness: A Health Asset analysis
Health Education Journal, 2014Co-Authors: Irene García-moya, Antony Morgan, Fiona Brooks, Carmen MorenoAbstract:Objectives:Teacher connectedness is an important factor for young people’s well-being. The aim of this paper was to examine teacher connectedness in detail and its potential association with emotio...
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Health Assets for adolescents: opinions from a neighbourhood in Spain
Health promotion international, 2013Co-Authors: Patricia Pérez-wilson, Antony Morgan, Mariano Hernán, Ángel Luis MenaAbstract:SUMMARY This study uses a Health Asset (HA) framework to explore current perspectives on Health, wellbeing and their determinants amongst a group of 15–18-year-old adolescents living in the neighbourhood of Zaidin (Granada, Spain). The study was carried out in Summer 2011 using a qualitative approach. It included 20 semi-structured interviews, 2 focus groups with adolescents and 4 semi-structured interviews with key informants (adults who work with adolescents). Narrative data were analysed by means of content analysis methodology, considering the concept of Health, HAs and how they are prioritized as dimensions for the analysis. The concept of Health defined by adolescents involves physical, psychological and social dimensions. According to them, Health is associated with happiness and quality of life. A range of HAs were identified and classified as internal (belonging to the adolescents) and external or contextual. Internal Assets are classified into three types: personal traits (Assets of ‘being’), behaviour (Assets of ‘doing’) and social resources which contribute to their feeling of Health and well-being (Assets of ‘having’). The latter connects internal and external Assets. The classification of HAs (‘being’, ‘doing’ and ‘having’) proposed in this study provides a useful starting framework of thinking about how these Assets could be organized to support the development of Health promotion programmes. The study highlights the opportunity for public policy to contribute to the improvement of the conditions and local scenarios that improve the possibilities for positive connections at the community level.
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Health Assets for Young People's Health Wellbeing Abstract
2013Co-Authors: Antony MorganAbstract:Investing in the Health and wellbeing of children and young people is essential for the success and sustainability of future generations. We already have much knowledge about the many factors that can impact on their ability to deal with the different pressures that they face from very early years to mid-adolescence. These factors relate to their own genetic susceptibilities to achieving Health, to their family, to their environment (particularly school) and life events. Early to mid adolescence marks a particularly difficult period when young people have to deal with considerable change in their lives such as growing academic expectations; changing social relationships with family and peers and physical and emotional changes associated with maturation. The question is therefore how do we provide them with the optimum conditions to be able to understand, make sense and deal with these situations as they arise. The idea of ‘Health Assets’ and Asset based approaches to Health and wellbeing has emerged recently as one way of focussing the minds of researchers, policy makers and practitioners on the best ways of doing this. Essentially, a Health Asset can be defined as any factor which enhances the ability of individuals, communities and populations to maintain and sustain Health and wellbeing. The argument then being that the more opportunities young people have in childhood and adolescence to experience and accumulate the positive effects of these Assets that outweigh negative risk factors, the more likely they are to achieve and sustain Health and mental well-being in later life. The principles of Asset based approaches include:
Mariano Hernán - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Improving the evidence base on public Health Assets—the way ahead: a proposed research agenda
Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2015Co-Authors: Carlos Álvarez-dardet, Antony Morgan, María Teresa Ruiz Cantero, Mariano HernánAbstract:public Health action. That said, there are signs in some countries that this is now changing and that ‘public Health Assets’ are being taken seriously by a public Health workforce that goes beyond those working at grassroots level. 2 Effective public Health action requires clarity from the outset about the ideas, concepts or theories being used to inform its development. While some definitions do exist (see Morgan and Ziglio 3 ), the extant literature does not seem to offer an agreed notion of what a ‘public Health Asset’ is. While there may be a need for a range of characterisations for the idea(s), we propose a working definition, specifically to support the work of a research project ongoing in the city of Alicante (Spain): In this context, a public Health Asset (including the word public to distinguish it from the wider literature) has been defined as: “the heritage expression of fair, equitable and democratic communities, resulting from their organized efforts; this is achieved by facilitating community empowerment and capacities which improves, promotes and restores the Health of populations and can help to reduce Health inequalities.”
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Health Assets for adolescents: opinions from a neighbourhood in Spain
Health promotion international, 2013Co-Authors: Patricia Pérez-wilson, Antony Morgan, Mariano Hernán, Ángel Luis MenaAbstract:SUMMARY This study uses a Health Asset (HA) framework to explore current perspectives on Health, wellbeing and their determinants amongst a group of 15–18-year-old adolescents living in the neighbourhood of Zaidin (Granada, Spain). The study was carried out in Summer 2011 using a qualitative approach. It included 20 semi-structured interviews, 2 focus groups with adolescents and 4 semi-structured interviews with key informants (adults who work with adolescents). Narrative data were analysed by means of content analysis methodology, considering the concept of Health, HAs and how they are prioritized as dimensions for the analysis. The concept of Health defined by adolescents involves physical, psychological and social dimensions. According to them, Health is associated with happiness and quality of life. A range of HAs were identified and classified as internal (belonging to the adolescents) and external or contextual. Internal Assets are classified into three types: personal traits (Assets of ‘being’), behaviour (Assets of ‘doing’) and social resources which contribute to their feeling of Health and well-being (Assets of ‘having’). The latter connects internal and external Assets. The classification of HAs (‘being’, ‘doing’ and ‘having’) proposed in this study provides a useful starting framework of thinking about how these Assets could be organized to support the development of Health promotion programmes. The study highlights the opportunity for public policy to contribute to the improvement of the conditions and local scenarios that improve the possibilities for positive connections at the community level.
William Pickett - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Spirituality as a protective Health Asset for young people: an international comparative analysis from three countries
International journal of public health, 2018Co-Authors: Fiona Brooks, Valerie Michaelson, Nathan King, Joanna Inchley, William PickettAbstract:Objectives Spirituality has been proposed as a potential Health Asset a ‘developmental engine’ that works by fostering the search for connectedness, meaning and purpose. The aim is to examine to what extent spiritual Health might be protective of young people’s overall Health and well-being.
Fergus Shanahan - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Therapeutic implications of manipulating and mining the microbiota.
The Journal of physiology, 2009Co-Authors: Fergus ShanahanAbstract:The gut microbiota is increasingly recognized as a Health Asset but occasionally is a contributor to the pathogenesis of both gastrointestinal and certain extra-intestinal disorders. This is driving research interest, the pace of which has been greatly facilitated by new molecular technologies for studying mixed microbial populations, including the non-cultivable sector. In addition, it appears that elements of a modern lifestyle such as diet, domestic hygiene, urbanization, antibiotic usage and family size, may represent proxy markers of environmental influence on the composition of the microbiota colonizing the host in early life. While manipulation of the microbiota has become a therapeutic strategy in certain clinical disorders, the prospect of mining host-microbe-dietary interactions for novel drug discovery may become an even more intriguing reality.
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The gut microbiota and disease – an inner repository for drug discovery
Drug Discovery Today: Therapeutic Strategies, 2007Co-Authors: Fergus Shanahan, Barry KielyAbstract:The gut micobiota is tantamount to a hidden inner organ, with a gene content (microbiome) exceeding that of the human genome, a versatile metabolic capacity rivalling that of the liver and a source of signals required for optimal structural and functional development of the host. Although some disorders, such as Crohn's disease, might result from abnormal host–microbe interactions, and others, such as obesity, might be influenced by bacterial-derived metabolic signalling from the gut, the microbiota is primarily a Health Asset in defence against infectious, inflammatory and probably neoplastic disorders. This inner biomass is a relatively untapped repository for ‘mining’ bioactives for novel drug discovery.
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the gut flora as a forgotten organ
EMBO Reports, 2006Co-Authors: Ann M Ohara, Fergus ShanahanAbstract:The intestinal microflora is a positive Health Asset that crucially influences the normal structural and functional development of the mucosal immune system. Mucosal immune responses to resident intestinal microflora require precise control and an immunosensory capacity for distinguishing commensal from pathogenic bacteria. In genetically susceptible individuals, some components of the flora can become a liability and contribute to the pathogenesis of various intestinal disorders, including inflammatory bowel diseases. It follows that manipulation of the flora to enhance the beneficial components represents a promising therapeutic strategy. The flora has a collective metabolic activity equal to a virtual organ within an organ, and the mechanisms underlying the conditioning influence of the bacteria on mucosal homeostasis and immune responses are beginning to be unravelled. An improved understanding of this hidden organ will reveal secrets that are relevant to human Health and to several infectious, inflammatory and neoplastic disease processes.
Francine Grodstein - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Optimism and Healthy Aging in Women
American journal of preventive medicine, 2019Co-Authors: Peter James, Eric S. Kim, Laura D. Kubzansky, Emily S. Zevon, Claudia Trudel-fitzgerald, Francine GrodsteinAbstract:Introduction Optimism—the expectation that good things will happen—has emerged as a promising Health Asset, as it appears to be related to Healthier behaviors and reduced disease risk. Growing research finds that higher optimism is associated with lower mortality, yet it is critical to understand whether this prolonged longevity is accompanied by good Health. This study tested whether higher optimism was associated with increased likelihood of Healthy aging. Methods Prospective data analyzed in 2018 from the Nurses’ Health Study included 33,326 women with no major chronic diseases at baseline. Poisson regression models evaluated if optimism was associated with Healthy aging 8 years later, considering potential confounders (sociodemographic variables, depression) and intermediate variables (Health behaviors). Optimism was assessed in 2004 by validated self-report using mailed questionnaires and Healthy aging was assessed in 2012, defined as (1) remaining free of major chronic diseases; (2) having no subjective memory impairment; (3) having intact physical function; and (4) surviving through follow-up. Results Overall, 20.5% of women (n=6,823) fulfilled the definition of Healthy aging in 2012. After adjusting for sociodemographic factors and depression, the most (top quartile) versus least (bottom quartile) optimistic women had a 23% greater likelihood of Healthy aging (95% CI=1.16, 1.30). Associations were similar in white and black participants, although the sample of black women was small (n=354). Conclusions Higher optimism was associated with increased likelihood of Healthy aging, suggesting that optimism, a potentially modifiable Health Asset, merits further research for its potential to improve Health in aging.
