Media Release

Mangaluru, Sep 16: Shycil Matthew, associate professor, Father Muller College of Nursing, department of community health nursing, defended her PhD thesis on ‘Parent-Involved Multi-Component Intervention Programme on Lifestyle Practices and Body Mass Index of Overweight and Obese Adolescents’.

The thesis is related to the improvement of lifestyle practices and the reduction of overweight and obesity among growing youth. Adolescent obesity cannot be prevented without parental help. In her study, she included parents, physical educators of the school, and health professionals to see the impact. Her motto is to reduce the health burden due to NCDs (Non-Communicable Diseases). Her research depicts that involving parents and physical educators for a better outcome with continuous reinforcement is a way to prevent overweight and obesity because behavioural changes can only be achieved through intermittent motivation and supervision, indirectly preventing adult-onset chronic illness.

Mathew was supervised by Dr Prakash R. M. Saldanha, vice principal/professor, department of pediatrics, Yenepoya Medical College, YU, and Dr Jenifer D’Souza, professor/HOD of the department of community health nursing, Laxmi Memorial College of Nursing. AJ Medical College. She served as a faculty member at the City College of Nursing and Yenepoya Nursing College for more than five years each. She completed her graduation and post-graduation in community health nursing from the City College of Nursing, Mangaluru, under RGUHS. She is the wife of Mathew Subin and the mother of David Mathai Subin.