Sara Kirk
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 3933291 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Sara Kirk |
| NOMBRES | Sara |
| APELLIDO | Kirk |
| FIRMA | KIRK S |
| AFILIACIONES | Dalhousie University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2146-4448 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 57 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 74 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 57 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1999 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 5 |
Increasing opportunities for movement in Nova Scotia, Canada
Introduction: (CoM) is a four-year (2022-2026) community-wide initiative designed to increase opportunities for low-barrier, less-structured movement (e.g., walking, wheeling, cycling, gardening, etc.) through policy, built-and socia-environment actions and cross-sector partnerships. Objectives: To describe the CoM Phase 1 actions across four Nova Scotian communities, detail the participatory evaluation approach, and share early implementation in…
The process of student engagement in Health-Promoting Schools
Purpose Evidence supports meaningful student engagement in Health-Promoting Schools (HPS) approaches as an essential condition for enhancing student well-being, yet little is known about this process. This study sought to interpret the process of student engagement in HPS through the perspectives of Youth Engagement Coordinators (YECs). Design/methodology/approach This qualitative exploratory study took place in Nova Scotia, Canada where HPS has …
Prevalence, value, and food marketing methods of food-related sponsorship and contracts in Canadian recreation and sport facilities
Objective: To examine the prevalence, financial value, and marketing leveraging methods of food sponsorship agreements and food service contracts in Canadian recreation and sport facilities (RSFs). Design: Cross-sectional survey using descriptive analysis. RSF managers and directors reported the number, value, and types of marketing leveraging methods used in food-related sponsorship agreements and food service contracts. Setting: Publicly funded…
Exploring the barriers and facilitators of continuous quality improvement for health promotion within healthcare food environments
Continuous quality improvement (CQI) has become a widely accepted approach to optimize health services while lowering healthcare costs (Quintuple Aim) and has expanded from clinical interventions to health promotion. Retail food environments (e.g. hospital cafeterias, cafes) are of interest given the increased adoption of healthy eating policies and interventions to influence diet (e.g. price, promotion, placement and product). However, there is …
Development and implementation of a municipal outdoor play policy for children and youth in Nova Scotia, Canada
Background: Children and youth benefit from outdoor play; however, environments and policies to support outdoor play are often limited. The purpose of this paper is to describe a case study of the development of a municipal outdoor play policy in Nova Scotia, Canada. The outdoor play policy was developed by the Town of Truro with support from the UpLift Partnership, a School-Community-University Partnership in Nova Scotia, Canada. UpLift supports…
“Losing access to outdoor spaces was the biggest challenge for children to be healthy”
Introduction: Health-focused communities can promote physical activity for children by providing them with safe and supportive environments to move. Across the COVID-19 pandemic many community spaces and services were closed due to public health restrictions. During the pandemic, Atlantic Canada uniquely implemented an agreement between four provinces to restrict travel and reduce the spread of the virus. The "Atlantic bubble" led to fewer cases …
Exploring health equity integration among health service and delivery systems in Nova Scotia
Our findings suggest that health equity integration needs to be prioritized within the health service and delivery system within Nova Scotia and identifies possible strategies for implementation. Appropriate measures, resources and partnerships need to be put in place to support health equity integration following the introduction of the Health Equity Framework, which was viewed as a key driver for action. Greater diversity within health system l…
Impact of an outdoor loose parts play intervention on Nova Scotian preschoolers’ physical literacy
Biomed Central (ISRCTN14058106), 20/10/2017
Peering in
Health Promoting Schools (HPS) is a whole-school approach that shapes the conditions necessary to support student health and well-being. Youth engagement is recognized as key to HPS implementation, yet research related to the involvement of youth voice in school health promotion initiatives is limited. The purpose of this study was to understand youth perspectives on HPS and school youth engagement. Ten youth (grades 9–10, ages 14–16) were traine…
Parents and Children Should Be More Active Together to Address Physical Inactivity and Sedentary Behaviours
Increasing rates of physical inactivity and sedentary behaviours among children and the youth are important determinants of chronic disease. Supporting children's participation in organised physical activities like sports has been promoted as a public health strategy to increase physical activity. Evidence shows that successful interventions are family-focused, although research on how parental eating and physical activity behaviours influence ch…
Exploring parents’ perceptions of preschoolers’ risky outdoor play using a socio-ecological lens
Outdoor play with its risks is necessary for optimal child development. Increasing attention is being paid to factors influencing children's opportunities for risky outdoor play, with parent/guardian (hereafter parent) perceptions being an important, under-researched topic. This research explored parents’ perceptions of preschoolers’ risky outdoor play. Interviews were held with 19 parents of preschoolers in Nova Scotia, Canada. Bronfenbrenner's …
Bodies becoming art
The ways gay men navigate socially constructed body tensions are explored through a post-structural lens. Nine self-identifying gay men in Canada used photovoice to create images that expressed their beliefs, values and practices about their bodies. Participants took part in semi-structured interviews to discuss the meanings of their images. Three discursive considerations were created from the analysis of both interviews and the photographs. Par…
Play-Friendly Communities in Nova Scotia, Canada
All PA and AT strategies included some content reflective of a Play-Friendly City; however, there was great variability in the number of included indicators. This summary provides key information on opportunities, such as increasing meaningful involvement of children in decision making, that can inform future municipal actions and policies to improve a community's playability
Regional differences in movement behaviours of children and youth during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Canada
Towards a common understanding of food literacy
Food literacy is an evolving term fundamental to both health and education. The concept of food literacy typically has been informed by nutrition-focused thinking, with particular emphasis on food skills. Moving beyond this traditional focus is necessary to address the demands of consumers navigating today’s complex food environments. Although the term is increasingly recognized, there is no consensus regarding the definition of food literacy or …
Recreation Facility Food and Beverage Environments in Ontario, Canada
Canadian, municipally funded recreation/sport facilities typically have unhealthy food environments. Ontario, unlike some provinces, lacks a voluntary recreation facility nutrition policy. This study assessed the healthfulness of food environments and vending sales in 16 Ontario recreation/sport facilities and, secondarily, compared data from facilities within municipalities that banned versus permitted plastic bottled-water sales (water-ban, n =…
Fare well to Nova Scotia? Public health investments remain chronically underfunded
Inspired by Fiset-Laniel et al.'s (2020) article entitled "Public health investments: neglect or wilful omission? Historical trends in Quebec and implications for Canada", we assessed public health investments since the establishment of the Nova Scotia provincial health authority in 2015. We analyzed Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness budgets from 2015-2016 to 2019-2020 and observed that less than 1% of funding was budgeted for public …
Gendered bodies and physical education (PE) participation
Participation in physical education is often shaped by the gendered experiences of students. This study explored how the experiences of gendered bodies shaped participation in physical education (PE) among students in Nova Scotia, Canada. The study consisted of two phases: 1) focus groups with a total of 18 Grade 8 students (7 girls and 11 boys) attending public school in Nova Scotia, and 2) in-depth semi-structured interviews with six teachers (…
Exploring the foundation for Collaborative Governance to support early childhood in Nova Scotia
Providing the best start for our youngest generation is a growing priority internationally. Integrated Service Delivery (ISD) offers an approach to address complex system challenges and improve access to early childhood public services for young children and their families. The purpose of this paper is to use the Integrative Framework for Collaborative Governance to reflect on the elements of collaboration that may have influenced the establishme…
Baseline results from the Eat, Play, Live trial
Mothering at the Intersection of Marginality
Breastfeeding is represented to support healthy body weight and food security. However, breastfeeding may be negatively impacted by high maternal body weight and income-related food insecurity. Guided by feminist poststructural methodology, this study explored breastfeeding beliefs and practices among women from Nova Scotia, Canada, identifying as income-related food insecure and overweight. Participants who were pregnant for the first time and i…
The Association between Perceived Adequacy and Capacity for School Food Policy Implementation with Food Availability and Policy Adherence in Nova Scotia, Canada
Supporting the implementation of school food and nutrition policies is an international priority to encourage healthier eating among children and youth. Schools are an important intervention setting to promote childhood nutrition, and many jurisdictions have adopted policies, guidelines, and programs to modify the school nutrition environment and promote healthier eating. The purpose of this study was to explore the association between perceived …
Understanding System-Level Intervention Points to Support School Food and Nutrition Policy Implementation in Nova Scotia, Canada
Supporting the implementation of school food and nutrition policies (SFNPs) is an international priority to encourage healthier eating among children and youth. Such policies can improve equitable access, resources, and supports for healthy eating. However, despite the potential impact of SFNPs, several implementation barriers have been reported. This study sought to examine the system-level intervention points within a school food system using a…
The relationship between bullying behaviours in childhood and physician-diagnosed internalizing disorders
A translational approach to characterization and measurement of health-promoting school ethos
A health promoting schools (HPS) approach is hypothesized to influence student health and wellbeing by promoting a 'school ethos' that reflects the physical environment, social relations, organisational structure, policies and practices within schools. This complex set of factors makes health promoting school ethos (HPSE) challenging to define and measure. This work sought to theorise, develop and pilot a measure of HPSE as the context for implem…
Measuring food availability and accessibility among adolescents
Why do women use dietary supplements? The use of the theory of planned behaviour to explore beliefs about their use
Blame, Shame, and Lack of Support
In this research, we examined the experiences of individuals living with obesity, the perceptions of health care providers, and the role of social, institutional, and political structures in the management of obesity. We used feminist poststructuralism as the guiding methodology because it questions everyday practices that many of us take for granted. We identified three key themes across the three participant groups: blame as a devastating relat…
The Health at Every Size Paradigm and Obesity
A Health at Every Size (HAES) approach has been proposed to address weight bias and stigma in individuals living with obesity, and more recently articulated as a promising public health approach beyond the prevailing focus on weight status as a health outcome. The purpose of this article is to examine our understanding of HAES within the context of public health approaches to obesity, and to present strengths and limitations of the available evid…
Walkable for Whom? Examining the Role of the Built Environment on the Neighbourhood-based Physical Activity of Children
Lifestyle factors affecting fruit and vegetable consumption in the UK Women's Cohort Study
Public perception of a range of potential food risks in the United Kingdom
Regional differences in movement behaviours of children and youth during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Canada
Physical Activity and Nutrition Among Youth in Rural, Suburban and Urban Neighbourhood Types
Are sleep duration and sleep quality associated with diet quality, physical activity, and body weight status? A population-based study of Canadian children
Obesity, lifestyle and socio-economic determinants of vitamin D intake
Fare well to Nova Scotia? Public health investments remain chronically underfunded
Inspired by Fiset-Laniel et al.'s (2020) article entitled "Public health investments: neglect or wilful omission? Historical trends in Quebec and implications for Canada", we assessed public health investments since the establishment of the Nova Scotia provincial health authority in 2015. We analyzed Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness budgets from 2015-2016 to 2019-2020 and observed that less than 1% of funding was budgeted for public …
The relationship between bullying behaviours in childhood and physician-diagnosed internalizing disorders
The impact of school policies and practices on students’ diets, physical activity levels and body weights
Diet and lifestyle characteristics associated with dietary supplement use in women
Objectives: To describe the characteristics of dietary supplement users in a large cohort of women and test the hypothesis that supplement users would be more likely to have a healthier lifestyle than non-users. Design: Comparison of nutrient intakes from food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) data for 8409 supplement users and 5413 non-users. Use of logistic regression modelling to determine predictors of supplement use in this cohort. Subjects: 13,…
Lifestyle factors affecting fruit and vegetable consumption in the UK Women's Cohort Study
Why do women use dietary supplements? The use of the theory of planned behaviour to explore beliefs about their use
Factors affecting food choice in relation to fruit and vegetable intake
The present review provides an investigation into the food choice decisions made by individuals in relation to fruit and vegetable consumption. A comprehensive body of evidence now exists concerning the protective effect of fruit and vegetables against a number of diseases, particularly cardiovascular disease and certain forms of cancer. Current UK recommendations are to increase intakes of fruit and vegetables to 400 g/person per d. In the main …
Motivations for fruit and vegetable consumption in the UK Women's Cohort Study
Background: Despite recommendations to increase fruit and vegetable consumption within the UK population, intakes are still too low. In order to stimulate dietary behaviour change the determinants of food choice need to be explored. Objectives: To investigate how the priorities of high consumers of fruit and vegetables differ from those of low consumers, with respect to food choice motivations, and to identify what value high and low consumers pl…
Public perception of a range of potential food risks in the United Kingdom
The prevalences of overweight and obesity in children aged 4 to 12 years in Gibraltar
Objective: To determine the prevalences of overweight and obesity in children aged 4 to 12 years, using the standard definitions proposed by the International Obesity Taskforce. Design: Population prevalence cross-sectional survey involving measurement of height and weight. Data collection took place in 1998. Setting: Schools in Gibraltar. Subjects: In total 2994 children, aged 4–12 years, attending these schools (1540 boys, 1454 girls). Results:…
The State of Obesity Management for Women Giving Birth in Atlantic Canada
Characterizing the obesogenic environment
Despite the explosion of obesogenic environment research within the last decade, consensus on what constitutes the very environment we are trying to measure has not yet been reached. This presents a major challenge towards our understanding of environmental research for obesity, and the development of a desperately needed contextualized evidence base to support action and policies for curbing this epidemic. Specifically, we lack the application o…
Running away with the facts on food and fatness
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Moving Canadian governmental policies beyond a focus on individual lifestyle
This paper explores why Canadian government policies, particularly those related to obesity, are 'stuck' at promoting individual lifestyle change. Key concepts within complexity and critical theories are considered a basis for understanding the continued emphasis on lifestyle factors in spite of strong evidence indicating that a change in the environment and conditions of poverty isare needed to tackle obesity. Opportunities to get 'unstuck' from…
Lessons Learned from the Implementation of a Provincial Breastfeeding Policy in Nova Scotia, Canada and the Implications for Childhood Obesity Prevention
Healthy public policy plays a central role in creating environments that are supportive of health. Breastfeeding, widely supported as the optimal mode for infant feeding, is a critical factor in promoting infant health. In 2005, the Canadian province of Nova Scotia introduced a provincial breastfeeding policy. This paper describes the process and outcomes of an evaluation into the implementation of the policy. This evaluation comprised focus grou…
Does Nausea and Vomiting of Pregnancy Play a Role in the Association Found Between Maternal Caffeine Intake and Fetal Growth Restriction
Diet quality and mental health in subsequent years among Canadian youth
Objective To examine the association between diet quality and the diagnosis of an internalizing disorder in children and adolescents. Design A prospective study examining the relationship between diet quality and mental health. FFQ responses of 3757 children were used to calculate a composite score for diet quality and its four components: variety, adequacy, moderation and balance. Physicians’ diagnoses on internalizing disorders were obtained by…
Walkable for Whom? Examining the Role of the Built Environment on the Neighbourhood-based Physical Activity of Children
Physical Activity and Nutrition Among Youth in Rural, Suburban and Urban Neighbourhood Types
Insights from the evaluation of a provincial healthy eating strategy in Nova Scotia, Canada
Objective Healthy Eating Nova Scotia represents the first provincial comprehensive healthy eating strategy in Canada and a strategy that is framed within a population-health model. Five years after strategy launch, our objective was to evaluate Healthy Eating Nova Scotia to determine perceptions of strategy implementation and strategy outputs. The focus of the current paper is on the findings of this evaluation. Design We conducted an evaluation …
Health behaviours and health-care utilization in Canadian schoolchildren
Objective Poor nutritional habits and physical inactivity are two health behaviours believed to be linked with increasing rates of overweight and obesity in children. The objective of the present study was to determine whether children who reported healthier behaviours, specifically in relation to nutrition and physical activity, also had lower health-care utilization. Design Population-based cross-sectional study, linking survey data from the 20…
Obesity, lifestyle and socio-economic determinants of vitamin D intake
Blame, Shame, and Lack of Support
In this research, we examined the experiences of individuals living with obesity, the perceptions of health care providers, and the role of social, institutional, and political structures in the management of obesity. We used feminist poststructuralism as the guiding methodology because it questions everyday practices that many of us take for granted. We identified three key themes across the three participant groups: blame as a devastating relat…
Privileging physical activity over healthy eating
Physical activity and healthy eating have long been promoted as key strategies in tackling the 'wicked problem' of obesity. Both practices are assumed to go hand-in-hand, but whether one dominates the other has largely remained unexamined. Moreover, time, a dimension beyond the socio-ecological model, is a critical factor of families' busy lives, but related challenges are rarely articulated. We conducted 47 family interviews as part of a mixed m…
The Association between Health Behaviours and Academic Performance in Canadian Elementary School Students
Our findings suggest that support for healthy behaviours may help to improve academic outcomes of students
Breast, Formula and Combination Feeding in Relation to Childhood Obesity in Nova Scotia, Canada
Policy outcomes of applying different nutrient profiling systems in recreational sports settings
Objective To assess agreement among three nutrient profiling systems used to evaluate the healthfulness of vending machine products in recreation and sport settings in three Canadian provinces. We also assessed whether the nutritional profile of vending machine items in recreation and sport facilities that were adhering to nutrition guidelines (implementers) was superior to that of facilities that were not (non-implementers). Design Trained resea…
Food security status among grade 5 students in Nova Scotia, Canada and its association with health outcomes
Objective Food security (FS) exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their needs. The present research sought to determine whether students from households experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity (FI) had poorer diet quality, higher body weights and poorer psychosocial outcomes than students from households classed as having high FS or marginal FI status. Desi…
Medicine (44 obras) · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet (31 obras) · Psychology (31 obras) · Environmental health (30 obras) · Nova scotia (22 obras) · Sociology (19 obras) · Political science (18 obras) · Geography (17 obras) · Population (17 obras) · Business (13 obras)