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Background: The concept of holism is central in health promotion as well as in nursing. Holism or a holistic view on health was identified as one of the key principles of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion and is linked to social ecology and the determinants of health., Aims: To explore how the term holism was defined and/or described in Nordic articles with a health-promotion approach, and how holism aspects were related to nursing and health promotion, and to the other key principles of the Ottawa Charter., Methods: Abstracts were first identified by the search word 'health promotion' as a keyword. The search was limited to 1986-2008 and abstracts written in English by authors with a Nordic affiliation. Abstracts/articles for this study were subsequently selected from these abstracts using the search words 'holism' and 'holistic' and analysed by quantitative and manifest qualitative content analysis., Findings: The sample included 23 articles: one theoretical, two reviews and 20 empirical studies. Sixteen articles included a hospital setting or nursing perspective. A holistic perspective could be extracted from most articles. No larger but several minor differences were identified in the way holism aspects were related to nursing and health promotion respectively., Conclusion: There is a risk that the individual patient perspective of holism in nursing may result in less chance of reaching larger groups of patients with chronic diseases and mental health problems, not least the most vulnerable ones., (© 2011 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences © 2011 Nordic College of Caring Science.)

Aims: This paper focuses on equity in health, one of the key principles of the Ottawa Charter. It aims at analysing and discussing how the concept was defined, applied, and integrated in health-promotion articles by authors with a Nordic affiliation., Methods: Abstracts were first identified by the search word ''health promotion'' as a key word. The search was limited to 1986-2008 and abstracts written in English by authors with a Nordic affiliation. Abstracts/articles for the present study were subsequently selected from these abstracts using the search word ''equity'' and analysed by quantitative and qualitative content analysis., Findings: A majority of the 18 articles in the study did not include any proper definition of the term ''equity in health''. Most articles dealt with health in general or ''Health for All'' aspects and did not focus on specific strategies for vulnerable individuals or groups. The theoretical papers had a clear focus on equity aspects even though the concept of equity was sometimes included in an implicit way. In contrast, most papers reporting empirical studies did not specifically target equity aspects. Instead, the analysis gave the impression that many authors used the term ''equity'' synonymously with ''equality in health''., Conclusions: The findings may indicate that the concept of ''equity in health'' has been attenuated or even forgotten by Nordic health-promotion researchers and needs to be re-established as a strong concern within health promotion.

The purpose of this paper is to achieve a deeper understanding of the learning processes that occur within a regular health dialogue between pupils and school health nurse from the school health nurse's perspective. The study used a grounded theory approach for the data collection and analysis. Eight experienced school health nurses were interviewed using a semistructured 'interview guide'. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. A detailed analysis presented the processes involved and the core category emerged as creating a communicative room to learn about health. The core category contained factors related to competencies, authenticity, reflective openness and environmental support, which was the basis for learning processes and a successful health dialogue. This paper adds to our understanding of the processes in school health nursing and the learning about health which takes place within a health dialogue.

This study describes how fathers of children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes understand their involvement in their child’s daily life from a health promotion perspective. Sixteen Swedish fathers of children living with type 1 diabetes were interviewed. Manifest and latent content analysis was used to identify two themes: the inner core of the father’s general parental involvement and the additional involvement based on the child’s diabetes. The former was underpinned by the fathers’ prioritization of family life and the fathers being consciously involved in raising the child, and the latter by the fathers promoting and controlling the child’s health and promoting and enabling the child’s autonomy. The results highlight that the quality of the fathers’ involvement is essential in the management of a child’s chronic illness. It is important for pediatric diabetes health care professionals to assess the quality of fathers’ involvement to promote the child’s health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to focus on how family and community in Greenland perceive support- giving during the perinatal period. It explores Greenlanders use of storytelling as a health-promoting tool in the perinatal period. It is research set in Greenland, but analysed in a larger context. Using an ethnographic approach to subject matter, the paper is based on a series of qualitative interviews and focus groups conducted between 2003 and 2011 with mothers and fathers. Ethnographic content analysis, interviews and dialogues with Culture Bearers were used to analyse and set the stories into a cultural perspective. The child was described as the centre of the family and the family as the bedrock of life. The mothers, fathers and Culture Bearers presented three main concepts in their stories: 1) my family @@@ a safe harbour, 2) the child as the centre of the family, and 3) the equal sharing of burden and joy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine if students who re-visit the school nurse use medicines differently than other students when exposed to aches and psychological problems.Methods: The study includes all 11-, 13- and 15-year-old students from a random sample of schools in Denmark, response rate 87 per cent, n = 5,205. The data collection followed the internationally standardized HBSC questionnaire. This study includes an item about students’ re-visits to the school nurse, items about frequency of four complaints (headache, stomach-ache, difficulties in getting to sleep, and nervousness) and medicine use in the past month for these four complaints.Results: In total, 8.6 per cent of the students had re-visited the school nurse. There was a strong and graded association between frequency of complaints and medicine use for the relevant complaint. Students who re-visited the school nurse had higher odds for medicine use than other students. The association between frequency of complaints and medicine use was stronger among students who had not re-visited the school nurse as compared to the students who had re-visited the school nurse. One example is the OR (95 per cent CI) for medicine use for headache among students who experienced headache monthly vs. seldom/never and at least weekly vs. seldom/never. Among students who did not re-visit the school nurse, the OR estimates were 5.32 (4.61–6.14) and 13.6 (10.5–17.6) and among students who did, OR estimates were 3.65 (2.32–5.75) and 7.07 (3.58–14.0).Conclusion: The school nurse may reduce the students’ proneness to use medicine when they experience complaints. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Borup IK, Holstein BE. International Journal of Nursing Practice 2010; 16: 359–365 Overweight children's response to an annual health dialogue with the school nurse The objective of this study was to compare overweight and normal weight pupils' perceived outcome of the health dialogue with the school nurse. A random sample of schools in Denmark, where pupils age 11.6, 13.6 and 15.6 years old, answered a questionnaire (response rate 88%, n = 5205). The independent variable weight group was measured by self-reported height and weight and calculated as body mass index. Perceived outcome of the dialogue was measured as: (i) reflected on the dialogue; (ii) discussed the content with parents; (iii) followed the advice of the nurse; and (iv) visited the nurse again. Overweight boys reflected (odds ratio (OR) = 1.73), discussed the dialogue with at least one parent (OR = 1.38), followed the nurse's advice (OR = 1.42) and visited the nurse again (OR = 2.68). There was a significant statistical link between age group and perceived outcome among the boys, but not girls. The 11-year-old overweight boys perceived more positive effects from the dialogue with the school nurse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: to examine if students who smoke and drink alcohol report more or less benefit from an annual health dialogue with a school nurse than students without this risk behaviour. Method: The study was one of the Danish contributions to the international collaborative Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. A random sample of students in the fifth, seventh, and ninth grade (on average 11.8, 13.8 and 15.8 years of age) in schools in Denmark, answered a questionnaire, (response rate 87%, n=5 205).The independent variables were 'How often do you smoke at present?' and a combined variable of overall frequency of drinking. Perceived outcome of the dialogue was measured as: reflected on the dialogue; discussed the content with parents; followed the advice of the nurse; visited the nurse again. Results: Risk behaviour (smoking, drinking alcohol, and having experience with being drunk) is associated with lower odds for reflecting about the content of the dialogue with the school nurse, discussion of the content with parents, and for following the school nurse's advice. However, risk behaviour is associated with higher odds for visiting the school nurse again but only in relation to smoking behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study that identified how environmental factors are perceived by pupils with health dialogue. Importance of school satisfaction in pupils; Aim of the health dialogue; Material and methods used in the study; Results of the study.