Tiltai

This article presents an analysis of the nicknames of the residents of the eastern part of Šilalė district, mainly Kaltinėnai, Bijotai and Upyna country-side districts. The nicknames are being classified according to some motivational personal features. The motivation groups of the nicknames are reviewed and described in details; moreover, it is established which personal features are mostly paid attention to by people from the Šilalė district. Specific cases of the nicknames’ formal structure are noticed and being discussed as well. After reviewing statistics of the examined districts nicknames motivation, it is compared to other nickname motivation of the whole Lithuania or separate ethnographic regions.

Wherewith actualisation of health promotion as an important aspect in the context of public health maintenance, the questions which are connected to public joint responsibility in their health maintenance and improvement attain even greater importance. Taking into consideration the insufficient health quality of Latvian population which ranks Latvia in one of the last places among the European countries, actualisation and implementation of individual responsibility dimension in the health care financing model, is viewed as a possibility of improvement of the current situation. The research overlooked the approaches of individual responsibility integration in health care models employed by the developed countries, classifying those several parameters, established the insufficient Latvian population involvement level which is characterised by large health influencing harmful habit prevalence and low involvement level in illness prevention measures, as well as marked the main challenges and possibilities, introducing individual responsibility dimension in Latvian health care financing model which are referred to both increasing the payment solidarity and lifestyle and behaviour changes.

The spectrum of the links between the quality of life and health has been expanding due to the phenomenon of health acquiring features of a social phenomenon and growing complexity. The research evidenced that health was considered to be one of the most important, and often the most important, dimension of the quality of life. To more comprehensively identify the health-related factors that affected the quality of life in general, the concept of the health-related quality of life has been developed. In our research 1763 children filled KIDSCREEN52 surveys which evidence tendency as follows: even though two thirds of the children did not indicate they had health disorders, only one third of them assessed their health as excellent and very good. This demonstrates that, in the children’s assessment of health, both the absence of a disease or disability and also psychological and social factors are important.

This paper explores the relationship between paternal religious affiliation, practice, and health behavior, namely consumption of alcohol. This research models alcohol consumption as an aggregate sum of weekly glasses of wine, 50 ml vodka shots, half-liter bottles of beer, and cocktails. The model includes religious confession among other independent variables including self-reported health status. In confessional comparison, the largest fraction, Catholic, is the reference category opposite Orthodox, Protestant, Other non-affiliated believers and Atheist. Significantly, Other believers and Lithuanian Protestants consumed significantly more alcohol than Catholic respondents. A unit increase in prayer or religious reading did not significantly predict a change in alcohol consumption. However a unit increase in weekly work hours significantly decreases alcohol consumption in contrast to a unit increase in time spent with children. Higher consumption is associated with lower self-reported health status.

The article presents a study of the physical activity of older students (15 to 18 years old) during the lockdown period. It analyses whether students’ physical activity changed during the lockdown period after the introduction of certain restrictions in a survey of 150 respondents at the General Education and Vocational Training Centre. Summarising the results of the survey, it can be stated that one third (30%) of the respondents spent three to four hours a week with friends and family during the lockdown. The respondents also actively participated in volunteering: as many as 30% devoted some time to this activity. It also turned out that a third of respondents (30%) spent between three and four hours at a computer. The study found that physical activity did not decrease during lockdown, only the nature of activities and the physical activity changed. It should be noted that those students who were active in sports prior to the announcement of the lockdown restrictions remained physically active.