Author: Liu

Patients with epilepsy often experience an unsatisfactory quality of life because of a variety of epilepsy-related psychosocial factors, such as stigma and psychiatric comorbidity. Stigma adversely affects patients with epilepsy, especially those with difficult-to-control seizures, and particularly in developing, resource-poor countries. Perceived and enacted stigma impact on nearly all everyday activities of persons with epilepsy,…

Cancers In 2002, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reviewed more than 50 studies of passive smoking and lung cancer and concluded that the excess risk of lung cancer from exposure to a spouse’s smoking was 20% for women and 30% for men. In Britain, with a population of around 58 million people,…

Several constituents of SHS can be measured in air including nicotine, particulates, carbon monoxide, and other chemicals. The levels of these pollutants in the air of specific venues, when combined with information on frequency and duration of visits to those venues, allows estimation of an individual’s overall exposure to SHS. Concentrations of tobacco-derived pollutants in…

School leadership, and in particular the principal, have a key role in the implementation and sustainability of school health promotion. The principal is central to creating the organizational conditions, capacity, and readiness required for successful implementation of an initiative. The capacity building aspect relates to time and resource allocation, competence development, and administrative structures and…

Successful implementation of a school health promotion program requires systematic planning and full engagement of target groups in order to inspire commitment, focus, and preparation to complete required tasks. Below follows an outline of the core elements of successful development and implementation of a school health promotion program. The Development And Implementation Process According to…

The whole-school approach is difficult to evaluate since a large number of complex components must be considered and all target groups must be included. Some evaluation studies do, however, show promising results indicating that a whole-school approach can positively impact staff development and the social climate of school and in some cases also positively influence…

The reason why a whole-school approach is found to be important is that a supportive school environment may be considered a resource for the development of health-enhancing behaviors, health, and subjective wellbeing, while a nonsupportive school environment may constitute a risk. Within this perspective of resource/ risk, students’ satisfaction with school constitutes a key element,…

Complementary and alternative medicine are widely available, but mostly outside the formal health system. There are no indigenous types of medical treatment, but many types of alternative medicine including acupuncture, Ayurveda, and ‘new age’ healing methods have been introduced. As these services are largely outside the formal health systems, there are few official statistics on…

Governance takes place at the municipality and regional level, but within nationally set rules and guidelines (see Table 1). There are institutionalized forums for negotiation between decentralized authorities and the state. In Denmark this negotiation takes place annually as part of the budget negotiations for the municipalities and regions. The Associations of Municipalities and Regions…

Traditionally, the political culture of the Scandinavian countries has been based on broadly social democratic policies, with health systems built on the principles of universality and equity: all inhabitants have the same access to health services, whatever their social status or geographic location. This strong emphasis on equity has been combined with a tradition of…