Se ha demostrado que el medio ambiente es definitivo en el desarrollo de los niños y niñas en edad escolar, y que este debe ser considerado para promover su salud. El presente estudio analizó la literatura mundial sobre promoción de la salud escolar en relación con el medio ambiente, mediante una búsqueda integradora que incluyó artículos indexados bajo los descriptores salud escolar, promoción de la salud y medio ambiente, entre 2014 y 2017, sin límites idiomáticos ni geográficos. De las 106 referencias reportadas, 40 que cumplieron criterios de selección se reportan con un análisis bibliométrico, la clasificación de ambiente, el nivel de evidencia y las categorías según su contenido. Aunque la evidencia reportada es débil, se ratifica que la promoción de la salud escolar se relaciona estrechamente con el medio ambiente en niveles que van desde el personal hasta el cultural y social. Los contenidos de esta literatura se agrupan en seis categorías: interacciones y comportamiento ciudadano, ambiente e hidratación, ambiente y actividad física, manejar condiciones especiales de salud, ambiente y nutrición, y políticas que promueven la salud en la escuela.
Chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCD) show an increasing tendency, especially in low- and medium-income countries. It is necessary to develop and evaluate strategies to strengthen healthy habits at an early age in these countries. Objective: To determine the effect of the health promotion strategy “United for Healthier Kids” (U4HK) on health lifestyle habits of a group of Colombian schoolchildren for the 2018-2020 period. Materials and methods: This quasi-experimental study features treatment and control groups and pre- and post-intervention measurements. The study involved 1,011 schoolchildren between six and twelve years old from seven rural and urban schools of the Sabana Centro region of Colombia. We used the Healthy Habits Measurement Tool, previously validated in Colombia. Results: When comparing within and between groups, the UHK strategy showed statistically significant differences in healthy habits (p < 0.05) related to nutrition and physical activity in schoolchildren. Conclusions: The U4HK strategy had a positive effect and impact on the schoolchildren’ healthy habits, especially in the ‘chooses to drink water’ and ‘moves more’ components. There were statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between groups in four out of the five categories: drinks more water, chooses nutritios and varied options, eats and cooks as a family, and moves more. The U4HK strategy responds to current and future health problems in schoolchildren and helps prevent chronic diseases. It could be replicated in similar populations.
Background/Objective: Although the context, personal conditions, and caregivers’ abilities influence the nutrition of older people with dementia, adequate parameters are not always applied to identify these conditions. The aim of this study was to characterize the nutritional care needs of older people with dementia and their caregivers. Method: This descriptive exploratory study was conducted in Colombia. An intentional sample included 73 elderly individuals with dementia and 73 caregivers. This study described the participants’ characteristics with the GCPC-UN-D survey. Their nutritional conditions include medical history, objective tests, and interviews. We used the Edinburgh Scale to evaluate elderly feeding behavior and the QUALID tool to evaluate their quality of life. This study measured caregiver competence using the CUIDAR tool. Results: Adults of 78.8 years on average, with low to middle socio-economic status, low education levels, and multiple comorbidities, have adverse well-being and support conditions, except for the spiritual component. These adults have visible nutritional issues including low muscle mass indices (47.9%), muscle mass levels (arm 61.6%; calf 58.9%), and vitamin D levels (50.7%), with high cholesterol levels (57.9%) and altered hematocrit and red blood cell counts (46.4%). These adults required supervision (41%) or help (23%) for their nutrition. Caregivers were predominantly women with an average age of 32.4 years, with moderate caregiving competences (70.43%), experienced high caregiver burden (83.6%), and had low orientation in nutritional management (30.1%). Conclusions: Elderly individuals with dementia had significant nutritional and feeding problems. Their caregivers lacked adequate conditions to ensure quality care. These dyads need a strategy to improve their healthcare experience.
Nutritional health is essential for older people with dementia. Their feeding is a challenge for which caregivers are not always ready, and an intervention that supports them may have a significant social impact. The aim of this project is to design and evaluate the impact of systematic nursing intervention with formal caregivers to promote nutritional health for older people with dementia. This is a “Nursing Methodology Research” study conducted with formal caregivers of older people with dementia in four Colombian nursing homes. It includes three consecutive phases: (1) systematic intervention design under Whittemore and Grey’s parameters, (2) intervention validation with seven international experts, and (3) measurement of intervention impact, which included a quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test design. The “Nurturing Neurons—Formal Caregivers” intervention met the criteria of systematic health interventions. In response to the work and personal requirements of formal caregivers, the intervention used a tele-support modality. Its content validity ratio (CVR) ranged from 0.88 to 0.92; its content validity index (CVI) was 0.90. The experience was positive for the participant caregivers (94.9%) and professional providers (92.5%). The overall caregivers’ caring competence changed from the medium, 78.1, to the high category, 91.5 (p < 0.001). Their perceived burden of care changed from 70.4 to 63.6 (p < 0.001). In conclusion, “Nurturing Neurons—Formal Caregivers” achieved a positive impact, with changes in the structure, processes, and outputs to promote the nutritional health of older people with dementia. It led to a significant improvement in formal caregivers’ caring competence and decreased their perceived care burden. Its cost–benefit was favorable; it generated health equity for a vulnerable population and achieved unexpected benefits in the context.
1 August 2024 in Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare
Purpose: This work sought to describe the experience of managers and caregivers with feeding and nutrition for older adults with dementia, in Colombian gerontological services. Participants and Methods: This is a qualitative focus group study with fourteen gerontological care centers for people with dementia. Results: The study reveals that care related to food and nutrition for people with dementia is organized based on the comprehensive assessment of the resident. Although there are basic support strategies, each caregiver requires specific knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and institutional support, to generate a context that favors the health and quality of life of those involved. Conclusion: The experience of caring for people with dementia in aspects related to their food and nutrition, seen from the perspective of managers and caregivers of gerontological services in a developing country, strengthens specific strategies and public policies. This, in turn, reduces the burden on caregivers.
Purpose: To measure the preliminary effectiveness of a strategy to promote healthy lifestyle habits in schoolchildren, aged 6 to 12 years, living in the Andean region of Colombia, 2018–2021. Design and Methods: This is a Nursing Methodological Research, developed in phases: (1) Context and schoolchildren characterization; (2) Strategy design guided by the Whittemore and Grey criteria and the Bronfenbrenner ecological conceptual model; (3) Strategy validation with 11 experts; (4) Trial to evaluate preliminary effectiveness. We applied the strategy in seven different schools with the educational community including 955 schoolchildren between 6 and 12 years of age, 551 parents, 130 teachers and 7 members of the food staff. Results: Our health promotion strategy “Prosalud” has five components: citizenship feeding and nutrition, physical activity, and rest; environment protection, and directing one’s own life. It includes all the participants of the educational community. Conclusions: According to experts, the health promotion strategy “Prosalud” is valid to help promoting healthy lifestyle habits among schoolchildren. This strategy demonstrates its preliminary effectiveness in a group of school children from 6 to 12 years of age, their parents, teachers, and school food staff, in the Andean region of Colombia.