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This review aimed to identify and map published studies on self-care practices to manage common acute health conditions in the Philippines.

The authors conducted a scoping review in PubMed, Scopus, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), ProQuest Central, Journal Storage (JSTOR) and the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development – Health Research and Development Information Network (HERDIN). The authors included all studies on self-care practices to manage common acute conditions, namely low back pain, allergic rhinitis, general acute pain, cough, cold, diarrhea, constipation and stress, published up to 2021 in the Philippines. Information on the article type, aim of the study, study design and setting, population characteristics and size, and self-practices employed for the conditions were extracted and synthesized.

The authors identified various self-care practices for acute conditions among the general population and indigenous peoples in the Philippines from 26 studies included in the review: the use of medicines with and without a prescription, appropriate and inappropriate antibiotic use, use of medicinal plants and other traditional and alternative therapies and products, recreational activities and healthy habits and behaviors, and self-management or seeking care from traditional healers (albularyo or manggagamot) or health professionals. A number of considerations influenced their decision on how to manage symptoms, including perceived severity of the condition, availability and perceived effectiveness of treatment, cost, and advice from trusted sources of health information.

The authors searched five major databases and a local research database, but some studies may still have been missed in the review. The review also excluded intervention studies on the outcomes of self-care, which limits the authors' ability to make conclusions on the effectiveness of the different modalities of self-care.

Filipinos engage in a variety of “safe” (or evidence-informed) and “unsafe” (or harmful) self-care practices. While the term “self-care” is not routinely used by the general population and health providers, it is widely enculturated and practiced in the Philippines. Self-care benefits individuals and the health system, but there are also practices that increase risk of adverse outcomes and death including inappropriate antibiotic use, prescription sharing and reuse, and delays in seeking adequate treatment from a health professional. To leverage on self-care in advancing Universal Health Coverage (UHC) goals, the authors recommend a national strategy that provides guidance on how to practice responsible self-care, further research on the effectiveness and safety of alternative medicine and other priority areas, and better integration of self-care in the formal education and health systems. The authors also propose that the research agenda on self-care include acute health conditions, given their impact and burden on health and the economy.

This is the first published review of self-care practices for managing common acute health conditions, which captured practices of various groups and populations including indigenous peoples.

Sitting around the kitchen table one late-winter morning, Lisa and Rick Agee were discussing which direction to take their small, home-based business located in rural New Milford, Connecticut, over the next three to five years. The couple was making and selling “Goatboy” brand bathroom soap using goatʼs milk as the key ingredient, and they were now trying to reconcile very different points of view on how to grow the business in early March 2006.

Adolescence is a period in which autonomy grows and where children develop into independent and active consumers and a period in which their food choices are also becoming more autonomous. Snacking is known to increase during the period of adolescence and the snack choice of adolescents is often unhealthy. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to know when adolescents perceive a snack as healthy. As healthiness perception could be linked to the perception of naturalness and sustainability of a snack, these are interesting product characteristics to study as well.

Semi-structured interviews with 20 adolescents were conducted to characterize their perception of healthiness, naturalness and sustainability. Chocolate snack bars were used as a stimulus product.

All participants mentioned consuming snacks because they like them. Healthiness was seen as important but was not always a priority in adolescents' snack choices. Naturalness and sustainability were concepts which the adolescents were not aware of or did not perceive as important during snack choice. The adolescents mentioned experiencing natural products to be healthier compared to not natural products. The consequences of the discerned dimensions time, impact and effect of choices were rather limited for this target group.

Understanding the healthiness, naturalness and sustainability perception of chocolate snack bars by adolescents may help to better understand drivers for adolescents' snack choices.

Food companies and consumers are increasingly interested in healthy food and beverages. Coffee is one of the most commonly consumed beverages worldwide. There is increasing consensus that coffee consumption can have beneficial effects on human body. This paper aims at exploring Twitter messages' content and sentiment towards health attributes of coffee.

The research adopted a utilitarian and hedonic consumer behaviour perspective to analyse online community messages. A sample of 13,000 tweets, from around 4,800 users, that mentions keywords coffee and health was collected on a daily basis for a month in mid-2017. The tweets were categorized with a term frequency analysis, keyword-in-context analysis and sentiment analysis.

Results showed that the majority of tweets are neutral or slightly positive towards coffee’s effects on health. Media and consumers are dynamic Twitter users. Findings support that coffee consumption brings favourable emotions, wellness, energy, positive state of mind and an enjoyable and trendy lifestyle. Many tweets have a positive perception of coffee health benefits, especially relating to mental and physical well-being.

The high number of users and tweets analysed compensates the limited amount of time of data collection, Twitter messages' restricted number of characters and quantitative software analysis limitations.

The research provides valuable suggestions for food and beverage industry managers.

This work adds value to the literature by expanding scholars' research on food product attributes perception analysis by using social media as a source of information. Moreover, it provides valuable information on marketable coffee attributes.

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to study the process conditions that give best yield and expected compositions of liquid smoke products that result during the pyrolisis process relying on predetermined variables.

Design/Methodology/Approach – Pyrolisis process running times are varied, that is, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, and 6 hourly. Condensing temperature maintained remained 25–30 °C. Products identification was applied by using gas chromotography mass spectroscopy.

Findings – Based on the research output, it was concluded that process conditions which give maximum yield were achieved when using double unit condenser (DUC) and time optional four hours, and it provides maximum volume liquid smoke product, and compositions of pyrolisis products. The process also created seven components, namely nepthalene, propanoic acid, 3,7 nanodiena, 2 metilguaiakol, 2-metoksi 4-methyl phenol, 4 ethyl-2 metoksil phenol, oxybanzene. Applying DUC during condensation phase may increase condensing force thereafter obtaining resulted products between 200% and 300% rather than using single unit condenser (SUC).

Research Limitations/Implications – This research was conducted on a fixed batch reactor made of a metal plate with a thickness of 3.0 mm. It carries 200 kg in capacity. In this phase, the moisture of candlenut shells might be kept in 10–12.5% wt. Process temperature applied ranged within 350–500 °C.

Originality/Value – In addition the study increased the theorical of understanding about pyrolisis process and Improving the production of liquid smoke from candlenut shell by pyrolisis process using the method of vapor condensation (Double unit condensor).