Publications by authors named "Nicole Damestoy"

Background: An increased interest is observed in broadening community pharmacists' role in public health. To date, little information has been gathered in Canada on community pharmacists' perceptions of their role in health promotion and prevention; however, such data are essential to the development of public-health programs in community pharmacy. A cross-sectional study was therefore conducted to explore the perceptions of community pharmacists in urban and semi-urban areas regarding their ideal and actual levels of involvement in providing health-promotion and prevention services and the barriers to such involvement.

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Objectives: We investigated the effectiveness of a group-based exercise intervention to improve balancing ability among older adults delivered in natural settings by staff in local community organizations.

Methods: The main component of the intervention consisted of biweekly group-based exercise sessions conducted over 12 weeks by a professional, coupled with home-based exercises. In a quasiexperimental design, 10 community organizations working with older adults offered the intervention to groups of 5 to 15 persons concerned about falls, while 7 organizations recruited similar groups to participate in the control arm of the study.

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Objective: The objective of this study was to explore beliefs, attitudes and suggestions concerning effective interventions to promote the use of sun protection, the use of personal flotation devices (PFDs) and the avoidance of contact with water unfit for swimming.

Method: Interviews were conducted with 36 users and 2 river park activity coordinators on a river in the Greater Montreal area.

Results: The respondents recognized the existence of a certain number of negative beliefs and barriers associated with the adoption of safe behaviours, in particular the pointlessness and inconvenience of means of protection against the sun and the wearing of PFDs, the negligible effects of polluted water on health and the thrill of defying bans.

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Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the habits and perceptions of participants in water and other outdoor activities in terms of health risk behaviours.

Method: A survey was undertaken of 1,200 users of a river in the Greater Montreal area.

Results: Only about 30% of respondents used some form of protection against the sun during every outing.

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