Health promotion in emergency care settings: investigating staff views and experiences.

Background: Emergency departments (EDs) afford 'teachable moments' for health behaviour change, but staff may not see themselves as public health practitioners and it can be challenging to undertake health promotion activities in emergency care settings. Furthermore, the evidence on health promotion in these settings is limited.

Aim: To investigate the views and experiences of emergency nurses and ambulance service paramedics regarding health promotion in emergency care settings.

The impact of hegemonic masculine ideals on self-esteem in prostate cancer patients undergoing androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) compared to ADT-naïve patients.

Purpose: Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for Prostate Cancer (PCa) is associated with side effects that could lead to negative body image and low masculine self-esteem of survivors. We compared a group of PCa survivors following ADT with ADT-naïve patients, expecting the ADT group to show lower masculine self-esteem. We also expected patients with hegemonic masculinity ideals to show poorer masculine self-esteem and we hypothesized that ADT would moderate this relationship, expecting PCa patients on ADT with stronger hegemonic ideals to show the worst masculine self-esteem scores among study participants.

'Somebody stuck me in a bag of sand': Lived experiences of the altered and uncomfortable body after stroke.

Objective: This study explored stroke survivors' experiences of altered body perception, whether these perceptions cause discomfort, and the need for clinical interventions to improve comfort.

Design: A qualitative phenomenological study.

Setting: Participants' homes.

'Differences between the earth and the sky': migrant parents' experiences of child health services for pre-school children in the UK.

Aim: To explore parents' experiences of using child health services for their pre-school children post-migration.

Background: Migrating between countries necessitates movement and adjustment between systems of healthcare. Children of migrants are known to have poorer health than local children on some measures and are less likely to access primary care.

Body image issues and attitudes towards exercise amongst men undergoing androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) following diagnosis of prostate cancer.

Background: Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is an established treatment for prostate cancer (PCa), but its side-effects can affect body appearance and functioning. However, research into the impact of ADT on body image is limited. Exercise can help patients to counterbalance some side-effects, potentially improving body image too.

Is Team Sport the Key to Getting Everybody Active, Every Day? A Systematic Review of Physical Activity Interventions Aimed at Increasing Girls' Participation in Team Sport.

Background: It is estimated that 21% of boys and 16% of girls in England meet recommended physical activity guidelines. Team sport has the potential to increase physical activity levels; however, studies show that gender-based factors can influence girls' participation in team sport. Furthermore, evidence for the effectiveness of interventions promoting team sport among girls is limited.

What is the perceived impact of Alexander technique lessons on health status, costs and pain management in the real life setting of an English hospital? The results of a mixed methods evaluation of an Alexander technique service for those with chronic back pain.

Background: Randomised controlled trial evidence indicates that Alexander Technique is clinically and cost effective for chronic back pain. The aim of this mixed methods evaluation was to explore the role and perceived impact of Alexander Technique lessons in the naturalistic setting of an acute hospital Pain Management Clinic in England.

Methods: To capture changes in health status and resource use amongst service users, 43 service users were administered three widely used questionnaires (Brief Pain Inventory, MYMOP and Client Service Resource Inventory) at three time points: baseline, six weeks and three months after baseline.

The role of performance in enhancing the effectiveness of crystal and spiritual healing.

In the arena of biomedical sciences, technical skills and expert judgment are at a premium, and the standardization and repeatability of an intervention is crucial to help determine, for example, the effectiveness of a new drug in a clinical trial. Crystal and spiritual healers are less rule-bound, and their playfulness with the systematized conventions and rituals of healing practice is more evident. In this article, based on in-depth ethnographic research, I highlight some of these themes in the context of contemporary crystal and spiritual healing practice at a center in northeast England.

The healing and spiritual properties of music therapy at a cancer care center.

Background: This article explores the theme of spirituality, health, and well-being, in relation to an emerging body of research on the impact of music therapy in cancer care. The focus of this article is a music therapy service established as part of a residential 5-day retreat program at a cancer care center.

Aims: The aim of the study was to explore the experiences of patients with cancer with one-off group music therapy at a cancer care center.

Creativity, identity and healing: participants' accounts of music therapy in cancer care.

This article reports on findings from a study of the accounts of people participating in music therapy as part of a programme of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in supportive cancer care. The article outlines the perceived effects of music therapy, which shares many characteristics with CAM therapies as well as offering a distinct contribution as a creative therapy. Hence in this article we draw on theories and writings from the sociology of CAM as well as those relating to music, healing and aesthetics in order to explore participants' accounts.

'The illness is part of the person': discourses of blame, individual responsibility and individuation at a centre for spiritual healing in the North of England.

While the growth in usage and practice of varying forms of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) continues apace, social science has increasingly turned to CAM's often individualistic approach to health and illness. CAM has been perceived as both partly a cause of and a response to the well-documented ideology in modern healthcare of 'individual responsibility for health'. This occasionally manifests in a 'victim-blaming' ideology amongst both orthodox and CAM practitioners alike.

From schism to continuum? The problematic relationship between expert and lay knowledge--an exploratory conceptual synthesis of two qualitative studies.

Ideas about lay and expert knowledge increasingly underscore debates within qualitative health research. In this article, the authors develop an exploratory synthesis of two qualitative studies in which they critique the lay-expert divide, suggesting instead a spectrum of knowledge(s) about health and scientific issues. In the original studies, the researchers examined food risks and alternative medicine, and they shared an interest in the lay-expert knowledge relationship.