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Evidence indicates that active school travel (AST) including walking can effectively lower levels of obesity among school-age children. Yet Queensland has been identified as one of the most inactive states in Australia where only 5 per cent of Years 1 and 5 children engaged in AST on a daily basis. The purpose of this paper is to explain walking to school behaviour among Queensland children by investigating the explanatory potential of the ecological and cognitive active commuting (ECAC) model.

An online survey of 537 carers in Queensland, Australia was conducted to collect data about demographics and the variables in the ECAC model. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the ECAC model and the pathways between variables.

The results indicate that the ECAC model explained 53.4 per cent of the variance in walking to school. Social norms are the dominating factor in the model. Distance to school affects how the ECAC model works by moderating the associations among walking to school behaviours, perceived risks, and social norms.

Changing carers’ social norms and lowering the perceived risks they associate with walking to school should increase the incidence of walking to school in Queensland.

Although the ECAC model was proposed as a comprehensive framework to explain walking to school behaviour, to date, it has not been tested empirically. Informed by a modified ECAC framework this study aims to empirically explore the factors that may be preventing or facilitating Queensland children from walking to school.

The increasingly demanding psychosocial working conditions in Swedish public sector workplaces call for implementation of workplace health promotion (WHP) interventions. There is a need to increase first-line public sector managers’ capacities for health-promoting leadership. The purpose of this paper is to investigate first-line managers’ experiences of participating in an intervention aimed at strengthening health-promoting leadership. More precisely, the aim is to study what obstacles and prerequisites the intervention have for their learning processes to become health-promoting managers.

A qualitative study in Northern Sweden at workplaces in the county council and municipalities was conducted. The data were gathered through individual interviews with 18 participating first-line managers. Inductive-content analysis was used to analyse the data.

The results identify time for reflection and collegial discussions about leadership as prerequisites for learning about health-promoting leadership. Managers experienced the intervention as a confirmation of the leadership behaviours already gained. However, the health-promoting leadership intervention was seen as a contradiction, since organisational prerequisites to implement WHP measures were perceived to be lacking. The managers were not involved in the planning of the intervention and questioned why the organisation did not involve them more when the educational activities were created.

When the organisation understands how and when its managers learn, what they need and want to learn about WHP, and what they already know, tailored participatory interventions can be facilitated that consider the unique prerequisites for the particular organisation.

This article focuses on psychosocial barriers to sexual health and their implications on the design and delivery of mass media‐based public health campaigns. A family planning campaign that attempted to address barriers to seeking sexual health information and services by promoting positive attitudes toward couple's communication about sexual health care is presented. Specifically, this article reports how the campaign conducted formative research to develop audience‐centered, culturally sensitive messages, particularly with young adults, aged 18‐24 as well as Hispanic young adults (aged 18‐24); and utilized mixed‐media to effectively reach at‐risk populations.

There are many barriers to effective mental health promotion with mothers living in socially disadvantaged communities. These include failure to take account of local cultural knowledge, community values and identities; feelings arising from experiences of poor health and disadvantage; mistrust of health professionals, and lack of engagement with services. Qualitative methodologies were used to explore maternal mental health and service delivery to people living in poor social conditions. Individual interviews and group discussions were undertaken with nine mothers living in a disadvantaged community. Further data were obtained from fieldwork contacts with seven health professionals working in the community. The research identified four discursive strategies used by participants when they and others encountered difficulties in relation to stigma, mental health and their daily lives as mothers within the community. These strategies were othering, counteracting, blaming, and resisting. The analysis offers a resource to community initiatives seeking to examine how mothers can deal most effectively with a lack of control and power in their lives.

Seeks out whether technical performance indicators may be challenged by perception data thereby forcing a paradigm shift in building assessment. Reports the development of a conceptual framework and thereby justification of methodological approaches for a currently undertaken research project. Employs a subjective approach, based on inhabitants’ perceptions of their own environments. Concludes the measure of productivity used herein may be questionable but the use of productivity as the performance variable (against cost) is recognition of peoples’ importance as occupiers and their views equally so.

This paper aims to investigate doctor‐patient communication in consultations of newly qualified general practitioners (GPs) in a newly reorganised health care system and differences in consultation characteristics and communication patterns between new European Union (EU)‐countries (Estonia, Poland and Romania) and the old West‐European EU‐countries.

Observation of videotaped doctor‐patient consultations by means of Roter's Interactional Analysis System; GP, patient and observer questionnaires. Data were collected from 92 GPs and 1,376 patients in Estonia, Poland and Romania and compared with known data from old EU countries. Main outcome measures were verbal and nonverbal communication of GPs and patients, as well as consultation characteristics.

Differences were found in the communication patterns of the new EU‐countries Estonia, Poland and Romania compared to the old EU‐countries. For instance, the verbal contribution of the GPs in the new EU‐countries was greater than in the old EU‐countries. Differences were also found between the three new EU‐countries. In Romania there was more psychosocial talk than in the two other new EU‐countries, whereas in Poland and Estonia there was more biomedical talk. The Estonian communication was more affective, the Polish and Romanian more instrumental. In general, the differences were not found to be related to a “new‐old” or “east‐west” distinction. Clearly, cultural norms and values play an important role in doctor‐patient communication.

The sampling method differed somewhat from one country to another.

With the integration of Europe in progress, cross‐cultural aspects should be addressed when doctors are being trained in communication skills in their undergraduate and postgraduate education.

This is the first study to investigate doctor‐patient communication in newly reorganised health care systems and differences in doctor‐patient communication between new and old EU‐countries.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the experiences of non-clinical staff working in psychiatric settings, particularly in relation to exposure to context-specific hazards, and perceived safety.

Qualitative interviews with 23 administrative and operational staff were analysed using a framework approach.

Analysis demonstrated extensive exposure to occupational violence, including assault and verbal abuse within and/or beyond the workplace and concern about infectious disease. Impact of exposure was wide ranging, dependent on type and circumstances of violence and personal resources, with several participants experiencing ongoing psychological distress. Participants employed a range of problem- and emotion-focused strategies, typically seeking support from peers, to manage work-related stress but felt neglected by the organisation. They sought inclusion in or access to processes, such as supervision and debrief, routinely available to clinicians and to information about risk associated with patients.

Generalisability is constrained by conduct of this study in a particular setting with non-random sample.

The findings of this paper indicate a pressing need for administrators to ensure efforts to address safety encompass all staff, and the need for further research. Particular attention should be given to enabling non-clinical staff to examine ethical questions, ensuring access to support mechanisms and development of an inclusive culture.

While exposure to, and impact of workplace violence on clinical staff have been extensively studied, this paper is the first to qualitatively examine the safety of a commonly forgotten workforce.

The purpose of this paper aims to examine differences in measures of and relationships between visitation and quality of life (QOL) among older and younger jailed adults. The authors also explored the contribution of visitation to QOL among adults in this setting. The authors anticipated fewer visits and lower QOL among older adults. Framed by psychosocial developmental theory, the authors also anticipated a larger effect in the relationship between visitation and QOL among older rather than younger adults and that visitation would contribute most readily to psychological QOL.

Cross-sectional data from a large US jail were used (n = 264). The authors described the sample regarding visitation and QOL measures among older (≥45) and younger adults (≤44) and examined differences in measures of and relationships between visitation and QOL using independent sample t-tests and bivariate analyses. The authors explored the contribution of visitation to psychological, social relationships, physical and environmental QOL among jailed adults using hierarchical multiple linear regression.

Older adults had fewer family visits and lower physical QOL than younger adults, disparities were moderate in effect (d range = 0.33–0.35). A significant difference also emerged between groups regarding the visitation and environmental QOL relationship (z = 1.66, p <0.05). Visitation contributed to variation in physical and social relationships QOL among jailed adults (Beta range = 0.19–0.24).

Limited research exists among jailed older adults and scholars have yet to examine the relationship between visitation and QOL among persons in these settings.

The main aim of this study is to highlight the significance of fostering social capital and improving the quality of work life (QWL) for the well-being of healthcare workers. The second objective of this research is to address a notable gap in the current knowledge by examining the mediating influence of QWL on the relationship between work-related social capital and life satisfaction within the healthcare profession.

This study used a cross-sectional research methodology to examine the complex relationships among the variables and included a sample of 330 individuals who are employed full-time in the healthcare profession in the North Indian Region.

The study confirms all research hypotheses, showing that social capital improves work life. Thus, work-life quality improves life satisfaction significantly. The mediation analysis in this study used bootstrapping to show that work-life quality mediates the association between social capital and life satisfaction.

Addressing social support issues and using effective human resource management tactics can improve employees’ work life and satisfaction. The findings are essential in collectivistic cultures because strong workplace relationships improve professional welfare.

This study differentiates itself by analysing social capital and QWL as multi-dimensional constructs inside the workplace, ensuring the results’ correctness and validity. This study provides a distinct viewpoint for scholars and practitioners, enhancing comprehension of the correlation between life satisfaction and work-related social capital within the healthcare industry.