Health behaviors in youth can predict the same behaviors later in life, but the role of sport participation in predicting healthy lifestyle habits is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the ...association between participation in organized youth sport and adult healthy lifestyle habits. Data from the longitudinal Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (YFS) with a 28‐year follow‐up were used. The participation in sport‐club training sessions was self‐reported by 9‐18‐year‐olds in 1983 and 1986 (n = 1285). During 2011, participants (aged 37‐43‐year old) reported their smoking status, alcohol consumption, fruit and vegetable consumption, and physical activity. Odd ratios (OR) were calculated using logistic regression, to examine how participation in organized youth sport was associated with having three or four versus fewer (0‐2) healthy habits in adulthood. Participants who were active in youth sport in both 1983 and 1986 had almost two times greater odds of having three or four healthy habits in adulthood than those who were not active at both time points (OR: 1.75, 95%CI: 1.11‐2.76). When the analyses were stratified by sex, the findings were statistically significant among women (OR: 2.13, 95%Cl: 1.13‐3.99) but not men (OR: 1.27, 95%CI: 0.63‐2.58). The results suggest that participation in organized youth sport could promote healthy lifestyle choices.
As an analog to the Riemann hypothesis, we prove that the real parts of all complex zeros of the Krawtchouk polynomials, as well as of the discrete Chebyshev polynomials, of order N = −1 are equal to
...−
1
2
. For these polynomials, we also derive a functional equation analogous to that for the Riemann zeta function.
We give a closed form for the generating function of the discrete Chebyshev polynomials. It is the MacWilliams transform of Jacobi polynomials together with a binomial multiplicative factor. It turns ...out that the desired closed form is a solution to a special case of the Heun differential equation, and that it implies combinatorial identities that appear quite challenging to prove directly.
The national Finnish Schools on the Move programme support schools with their individual plans to promote school-based physical activity (PA). We examined the changes in adolescents' recess and ...overall PA in four lower secondary schools and described the school actions to promote students' PA and the local contact persons' perceptions of the effects. Recess and overall PA were assessed four times by anonymous questionnaires from students in grades 7-9 (n = 789) in 2010-12, and local contact persons (n = 7) provided information on school actions with diaries, interviews and surveys. Student data were analysed with descriptive statistics and chi-square tests, and school actions data were analysed with quantitative content analysis. The proportion of students who participated in physical activities at recess at least sometimes increased from 30% to 49% in physically active play and from 33% to 42% in ball games, mostly due to improvements in males' participation. Females' participation in recess activities increased in two schools with gender-specific physical activities or facilities. Overall PA levels declined slightly. Organized recess activities, student recess activators and equipment provision and sports facilities development were considered to have affected students' PA positively. Solutions for getting females more physically active in the school setting are needed.
Determining lifelong physical activity (PA) trajectories and their determinants is essential to promote a physically active lifestyle throughout the life-course. We aimed to identify PA trajectories ...from childhood to midlife and their determinants in a longitudinal population-based cohort. This study is a part of the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study. From 1980, a population-based cohort (N = 3596; 1764 boys/1832 girls, age 3-18 years) has been followed up for 31 years. PA indices were formed based on self-reported data (between age 9-49 years) on frequency, duration, and intensity of leisure (during childhood) or high-intensity (at later age) PA and on sports club participation/competitions. PA trajectories were analyzed using group-based trajectory modeling. Childhood (age 12 years), young adulthood (age 24 years), and early midlife (age 37 years) determinants were analyzed. Five PA trajectories were identified: persistently active (6.6%), decreasingly active (13.9%), increasingly active (13.5%), persistently low active (51.4%, reference group), persistently inactive (14.6%). In childhood, rural residential area (OR 0.45, 95% CI 0.21-0.96) and high academic performance (OR 2.18; 95% CI 1.58-3.00) associated with persistently active group. In early midlife, smoking (OR 1.66; 95% CI 1.07-2.58) associated with persistently inactive group, regular alcohol drinking (OR 2.91; 95% CI 1.12-7.55) with persistently active group and having children (OR 2.07; 95% CI 1.27-3.38) with decreasingly active group. High adulthood education associated with both decreasingly (OR 1.87; 95% CI 1.05-3.35) and increasingly (OR 2.09; 95% CI 1.19-3.68) active groups. We identified five PA trajectories from childhood into midlife. Most prominent determinants were academic achievement, education, having children and health habits (i.e. smoking/alcohol use). (Autor).
This study investigated the differences in physical activity (PA) at recess and school-related social factors, and described school PA promotion processes and staff experiences at four lower ...secondary schools from the Finnish Schools on the Move programme. Recess PA, peer relationships at school, relatedness to school, and school climate were assessed via surveys with eighth-grade students in spring 2011 (n = 385) and spring 2013 (n = 373). Local contact people in the school projects (n = 6), school staff (n = 83) and principals (n = 3) provided information on the PA promotion process via telephone interviews and surveys. Differences in student-level data in years 2011 and 2013 were analysed by gender using two-way ANOVA. Data on school processes were analysed using a combination of classification, narrative approach and content analysis.
In two of the four schools, male students reported higher levels of recess PA in 2013 compared to 2011. In three schools, school-related social factors did not differ between 2011 and 2013. School cultures and routes towards a more physically active school day differed; the project was highly visible in all schools, but staff participation varied. More research is needed to determine the effective physically active strategies to promote positive social wellbeing and to enhance staff engagement.
Objective Sedentary behaviour may contribute to the development of obesity. We investigated the relations between different types of sedentary behaviour and adiposity markers in a well-characterised ...adult population after controlling for a wide range of potential confounders. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Multicenter Study. Participants Sedentary time (TV viewing, computer time, reading, music/radio listening and other relaxation) was assessed with a questionnaire for 1084 women and 909 men aged 30–45 years. Other study variables included occupational and leisure-time physical activity, sleep duration, socioeconomic status, smoking, alcohol consumption, energy intake, adherence to the recommended diet, multiple individual food items, age and genetic variants associated with body mass index (BMI). Primary outcome measures BMI in kg/m2 and waist circumference (WC in cm). Results Of the different sedentary behaviour types, TV viewing was most consistently related to higher BMI and WC, both in men and women. One additional daily TV hour was associated with a 1.81±0.44 cm larger WC in women and 2 cm±0.44 cm in men (both p<0.0001). The association with TV was diluted, but remained highly significant after adjustments with all measured covariates, including several potentially obesogenic food items associated with TV viewing. The intakes of food items such as sausage, beer and soft drinks were directly associated with TV viewing, while the intakes of oat and barley, fish, and fruits and berries were associated indirectly. After these adjustments, non-TV sedentary behaviour remained associated with adiposity indices only in women. Conclusions Out of the different types of sedentary behaviour, TV viewing was most consistently associated with adiposity markers in adults. Partial dilution of these associations after adjustments for covariates suggests that the obesogenic effects of TV viewing are partly mediated by other lifestyle factors.
to explore the effect of organized youth sport on metabolic syndrome (MetS) in adulthood.
Longitudinal study data from the cardiovascular risk in young Finns study.
A total of 1493 males (n=704) and ...females (n=789) aged 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 years were randomly selected from five university towns and their rural surroundings in 1980. They were followed up for 21 years. In 2001 they were 24, 27, 30, 33, 36 and 39 years old.
Youth sports participation data (participation in sport-club training and competitions) were assessed in 1980 and 1983 using a self-report questionnaire completed in connection with a medical examination. Participants were divided into athletes and non-athletes at each measurement point, and then classified into four groups: Persistent athlete, Starter, Leaver and Non-athlete. A mean score of youth sport was assessed by calculating the average of four consecutive measurements (1980-1989). MetS risk in 2001 was defined as a categorical variable based on the guidelines of the European Group for the Study of Insulin Resistance (EGIR) and as a continuous MetS-score variable by summing the z-scores of individual metabolic variables.
In males and females, intense participation in youth sports over 3 years was inversely and significantly associated with clustered MetS score and prevalence of MetS defined by EGIR in adulthood (P<0.05). The association remained significant after adjustment for age, baseline clustered MetS score, smoking and total caloric intake and after additional adjustments for adult leisure-time physical activity. Starters during 3 years were less likely to have MetS than non-athletes. Leavers were at a higher risk for MetS than persistent athletes. These associations were attenuated in males by adjustment for all potential confounders. Similar associations were found using EGIR MetS as an outcome.
Sustained participation in organized sport lasting at least 3 years in youth is associated with reduced risk for developing MetS in adulthood.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between depressive symptoms and physical inactivity, and whether motives for and barriers to exercise explain the potential association ...between depressive symptoms and physical inactivity in older people. The design of the study was cross‐sectional. The study population comprised 645 people born between 1922 and 1928 who were residents in a city‐center area of Jyväskylä in central Finland. Depressive symptoms were assessed using Center for the Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, physical activity using Grimby's (1986) validated scale, and motives for and barriers to exercise using a questionnaire and mobility limitation with a test of walking time over 10 m. The results demonstrated that the risk of physical inactivity was more than twofold among persons with depressive symptoms compared with non‐depressed people. A higher prevalence of perceived barriers to physical activity, such as poor health, fear and negative experiences, together with lack of knowledge, explained part of the increased risk of physical inactivity among those with depressive symptoms while differences in motives for physical activity did not have a material effect. Adjustment for walking time over 10 m attenuated the increased risk of inactivity further. When planning exercise promotion programs, finding ways to overcome fear and negative experiences and providing information may help to increase physical activity among people with depressive symptoms. Additionally, difficulties caused by poor mobility should not be ignored.
This study investigated the continuity of life‐span physical activity by examining the predictors of the maintenance of a high level of physical activity over 8 years among subjects aged 65–84 years ...at the baseline, in 1988, in Jyväskylä, Finland. Age, education, marital status and chronic conditions and past physical activity were studied at the baseline. In men and women, self‐reported competitive sport participation from as early as 10–19 years of age was a significant predictor for maintaining activity in old age. Also women’s participation in recreational sports at the age of 40–64 years predicted activity. We concluded that past physical activity is strongly connected to maintaining a high level of physical activity in old age regardless of chronic conditions that may develop.
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