As technology becomes an ever-more prevalent part of everyday life, and population-based physical activity programs seek new ways to increase life-long engagement with physical activity, these two ...ideas have become increasingly linked. This Special Issue attempts to offer a thorough and critical examination of emerging technologies in physical activity and health promotion, considering technological interventions in different contexts (communities, clinics, schools, homes, etc.) among various populations, exploring the challenges of integrating technology into physical activity promotion, and offering solutions for its implementation. This Special Issue aims to take a broadly positive stance toward interactive technology initiatives and, while discussing some negative implications of an increased use of technology, offers practical recommendations for promoting physical activity through various emerging technologies, including, but not limited to: Active video games (exergaming); social media; mobile device apps; health wearables; mobile games, augmented reality games, global positioning and geographic information systems; and virtual reality. Offering a logical and clear critique of emerging technologies in physical activity and health promotion, this Special Issue will provide useful suggestions and practical implications for researchers, practitioners, and educators in the fields of public health, kinesiology, physical activity and health, and healthcare.
ABSTRACTThe physiologic mechanisms by which the four activities of sleep, sedentary behavior, light-intensity physical activity, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) affect health are ...related, but these relationships have not been well explored in adults. Research studies have commonly evaluated how time spent in one activity affects health. Because one can only increase time in one activity by decreasing time in another, such studies cannot determine the extent that a health benefit is due to one activity versus due to reallocating time among the other activities. For example, interventions to improve sleep possibly also increase time spent in MVPA. If so, the overall effect of such interventions on risk of premature mortality is due to both more MVPA and better sleep. Further, the potential for interaction between activities to affect health outcomes is largely unexplored. For example, is there a threshold of MVPA minutes per day, above which adverse health effects of sedentary behavior are eliminated? This article considers the 24-h Activity Cycle (24-HAC) model as a paradigm for exploring inter-relatedness of health effects of the four activities. It discusses how to measure time spent in each of the four activities, as well as the analytical and statistical challenges in analyzing data based on the model, including the inevitable challenge of confounding among activities. The potential usefulness of this model is described by reviewing selected research findings that aided in the creation of the model and discussing future applications of the 24-HAC model.
El presente estudio ha sido contextualizado desde la problemática que supone los bajos niveles de actividad física durante la adolescencia, teniendo en cuenta el papel que desempeñan los padres, como ...modelo conductual, para el fomento de la actividad física de los hijos. Por consiguiente, el objetivo de este estudio fue analizar en qué medida inciden los padres para la práctica de la actividad física de los hijos. Participaron un total de 487estudiantes, chicos (n = 262) y chicas (n = 225), con edades comprendidas entre los 14 y 16 años (M = 15.02 DT= 0.87), y se emplearon el cuestionario PAQ-A y tres ítems de elaboración propia, previamente consensuados por los investigadores. Se llevaron a cabo estadísticos descriptivo, correlaciones, pruebas T y regresiones. El análisis de regresión mostró una influencia importante del ánimo que ejercen los padres para la actividad física de los hijos. A modo de conclusión, se demuestra la importancia de los padres en el fomento de la práctica de actividad física en los hijos.
The aim of this study was to examine the associations of fitness and physical activity with academic achievement in children with overweight/obesity. A total of 106 (10.0 ± 1.1y, 61 boys) children ...participated. The fitness components were assessed by field and laboratory-based tests. Physical activity was measured via accelerometry. The academic achievement was assessed by a standardised test and school-grades. Field-based cardiorespiratory fitness was associated with language skills (ß-standardised- ranging from 0.281 to 0.365, p < 0.01). The field-based muscular strength was associated with grade point average, natural and social sciences, and foreign language (ß = 0.280-0.326, all p ≤ 0.01). Speed-agility was associated with some language-related skills (ß = 0.325-0.393, all p ≤ 0.01). The laboratory-based muscular strength also showed an association with mathematics skills (ß = 0.251-0.306, all p ≤ 0.01). Physical activity did not show significant association with academic achievement (p > 0.01). Overall, the significant associations observed for muscular strength and speed/agility were attenuated and disappeared in many cases after additional adjustments for body mass index and cardiorespiratory fitness, indicating that these associations are inter-dependent. Our study contributes by indicating that other fitness components apart from cardiorespiratory fitness, such as muscular strength and speed-agility, are positively associated with academic achievement. However, these associations appear to be dependent on body mass index and cardiorespiratory fitness.
Our research shows that no single metric will reflect an individual's physical activity adequately because multiple biologically important dimensions are independent and unrelated. We propose that ...there is an opportunity to exploit this multidimensional characteristic of physical activity to improve personalized feedback and offer physical activity options and choices that are tailored to an individual's needs and preferences.
Summary
Moderate‐to‐vigorous‐intensity physical activity (MVPA) is important for childhood obesity prevention and treatment, yet declines with age. Timing and magnitude of the decline in MVPA in ...children and adolescents are unclear but important for informing effective obesity intervention development. This systematic review aimed to determine and compare the year‐to‐year changes in MVPA among children and adolescents. Longitudinal studies were identified by searching 10 relevant databases up to December 2018. Studies were eligible for inclusion if they reported accelerometer‐assessed MVPA (min day−1) separately for boys and girls and had follow‐up duration of at least 1 year. After screening 9,232 studies, 52 were included representing 22,091 aged 3 to 18 year olds (boys=8,857; girls=13,234). Pooled‐analysis of the relative change in MVPA per year showed a decline of −3.4% (95% CI, −5.9 to −0.9) in boys and −5.3% (95% CI, −7.6 to −3.1) in girls, across all age groups. There were notable declines in MVPA at age 9 for both boys (−7.8%, 95% CI, −11.2 to −4.4) and girls (−10.2%, 95% CI, −14.2 to −6.3). The relative decline in MVPA affects both sexes from an early age; however, it is greater among girls. Interventions to promote MVPA should start before adolescence.
Abstract
Background
Physical activity occurs across various domains including leisure/recreation, for transportation, or for work or household reasons. Rural and urban active living environments are ...characterized by different opportunities for physical activity within each domain which may translate into different patterns of behavior. The aim of this study was to compare rural–urban differences in physical activity across different domains, and explore interactions between sociodemographic factors, physical activity domains, and rurality.
Methods
We used self-reported data collected across three physical activity domains (active transportation, recreation, occupational/household) and relevant sociodemographic variables from the Canadian Community Health Survey. Adjusting for sociodemographic factors, we did two separate cross-sectional analyses: 1) binary logistic regression to determine the odds of reporting any activity in each domain, and 2) ordinary least squares regression using the sub-samples reporting > 0 min per week of activity to compare how much activity was reported in each domain.
Results
Our final survey weighted sample of Canadian adults (mean age 47.4 years) was
n
= 25,669,018 (unweighted
n
= 47,266). Rural residents were less likely to report any active transportation (OR = 0.59, 95% CI 0.51, 0.67,
p
< .0001). For recreational physical activity, rural males had lower odds (OR = 0.75, 95% CI 0.67, 0.83,
p
< .0001) and rural females had higher odds (OR = 1.19, 95% CI 1.08, 1.30,
p
= .0002) of reporting any participation compared to urban residents. Rural males (OR = 1.90, 95% CI 1.74, 2.07,
p
< .0001) and females (OR = 1.33, 95% CI 1.21, 1.46,
p
< .0001) had higher odds of reporting any occupational or household physical activity.
Conclusions
Urban residents tend to participate in more active transportation, while rural residents participate in more occupational or household physical activity. Location-based differences in physical activity are best understood by examining multiple domains and must include appropriate sociodemographic interactions, such as income and sex/gender.
A clear rationale can be made for promoting long-term regular physical activity (PA), yet despite some attempts to operationalize “maintenance,” no robust definition has been agreed upon, beyond ...arbitrary time frames of regular PA. This has likely impaired the advancement of theory and practice. The purpose of this critical narrative review was to first overview the conception of maintenance and co-requisite theoretical constructs in theories used in PA research. Our subsequent aims were to engage in a critical analysis of this literature to propose a working definition of PA maintenance followed by recommendations for future research. Relevant behavioral theories were parsed for references to maintenance or maintenance-specific constructs and constructs most likely associated with maintenance were overviewed from a recent systematic review. Based on this information, we suggest PA maintenance be operationalized as a process marked by a shift in the mechanisms of action determining behavioral performance, that engender greater perceived behavioral enactment efficiency. We suggest that maintenance should not be considered an absolute state of behavioral performance (e.g., a stage), as some constructs that were critical to behavioral performance during initiation will still be critical during PA continuation. Based on this definition, we propose a method of falsifiability hypothesis testing of theoretical constructs that may determine the maintenance process. Finally, the review concludes with suggestions for future research using this operationalization of maintenance including measure development, tests of latency to reach the peak maintenance process, validating constructs critical to determining maintenance, exploration of the contextual and individual moderators of maintenance formation, and the development of an omnibus dynamic model of initiation, continuation, and maintenance in PA behavior change.
Leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) decreases allostatic load (AL), a measure of burden of chronic stress. However, the role of occupational PA (OPA) is unknown. This study examined associations of ...OPA and LTPA with AL among workers in the United States (US).
This cross-sectional study included 6944 US workers aged 20–64 years from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007–2018). PA was assessed using the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire. AL was calculated using biomarkers of cardiovascular health, metabolic function and immune response. Associations of OPA and LTPA were examined with AL using negative binomial regressions. Analyses were conducted between August 2022 and March 2023.
Vigorous LTPA inversely associated with AL among all workers (count ratio = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.62–0.76) and in each sex- and age- stratified group (i.e., females aged 20–44 years, females aged 45–64 years, males aged 20–44 years, and males aged 45–64 years), as well as in each race/ethnicity- stratified group (i.e., Whites, Blacks, Hispanics). Vigorous OPA positively associated with AL only among females aged 20–44 years 1.38 (1.10–1.73). Inverse associations of vigorous LTPA with AL were similar in young females with high 0.61 (0.50–0.75) or low 0.66 (0.60–0.74) vigorous OPA.
Increasing vigorous LTPA is associated with a lower AL for all workers, while increasing vigorous OPA is associated with a higher AL only in young females. Promoting vigorous LTPA reduces AL among young females with either low or high vigorous OPA.
Primary-school-aged children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are reported to engage in lower levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) compared to typically ...developing (TD) children (Jones et al. in PLoS ONE, 12(2):1–23,
2017
). Levels of MVPA in young children with ASD remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate MVPA in 4-to-7-year-old children with (n = 37) and without (n = 40) ASD, to determine if MVPA is related to ASD diagnosis; and examine correlates to better inform interventions. Results indicated children with ASD engage in the same levels of MVPA as TD children. Future studies need to further explore MVPA in children with ASD over time to uncover when the divergence in MVPA levels occur and what factors may be associated.
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