Paper on validity of ENERGY parent questionnaire now also published

I have reported on the ENERGY (EuropeaN Energy balance Research to prevent excessive weight Gain among Youth) study here before. This cross-European study looked at overweight and obesity, risk behaviors for overweight and obesity, determinants of these risk behaviors, and interventions to contribute to prevention among 10-12 year old school children in seven countries in Europe. The general purpose and framework of the study, and the methods have been published before, as well as a range of original research and review studies; the latter are mostly available via the project website. Please click here for the paper describing the main results regarding differences in overweight and risk behaviors between the different countries. The study also included research among parents of these children, and this week the study testing the reliability and validity of the parent questionnaire was published in BMC Research Notes. The paper describing these psychometrics of the child questionnaire were already published some time ago.

Neighbourhood social capital and sports participation

In a paper just published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity -with Dr. Rick Prins as first author - we aimed to explore whether adolescents are more likley to participate in sports when they live in neighbourhoods where there are more sport facilities and parks, and with more so-called 'neighbourhood social capital'. The study was conducted among adolsecents in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Crucial to social capital at the community level is having common norms, behavioural

reciprocity and mutual trust. Neighbourhood social capital may influence health behaviors such as sports participation, via various pathways. For instance, neighbours that trust each other are more likely to help and support each other and do things together. In addition, in neighbourhoods with more social capital people may talk more with each other and this may enable faster and better transfer of information on healthy behaviours and better social support.  So basically, beter social capital may help to improve social norms, social support and positive role models for health behaviours such as sports participation.

We used data of the YouRAction study from 852 adolescents in the city of Rotterdam. Neighbourhood social capital was assessed with questionnaires; availability of sports facilities and parks was objectively obtained from geographic information systems.

Our analyses showed that neighbourhood social capital was significantly associated with sports participation; in neighbourhoods with higher social capital the liklehood that adolescents engaged in sports was more than three time that of their peers in lower social capital neighbourhoods. We did not find a significant association of availability of sports facilities or parks with sports participation, but a combination of high social capital and availability of parks did appear to make a difference.

The results thus indicate that leisure time sports participation is more likely in neighbourhoods that have positive social and physical environmental features.

Parental education and parents' physical activity is associated with physical activity of their children

Today a new paper from the ENERGY study was published in a preliminary version in the journal Preventive Medicine. The Spanish partner in the ENERGY study, i.e. the group of Prof. Luis Moreno from Zaragoza University, took the lead in this paper and David Jimenez Pavon is first author. In the analyses for this paper we sought to examine the independent associations of the level of education of the parents and the levels of physical activity (PA) of parents with PA levels of the children in the ENERGY study across Europe.

As we reported before, a total of 7214 children (10-12years) were recruited from a school-based cross sectional survey during 2010 in seven European countries. Weight and height were measured. Parental educational level and parents' and children´s PA were assessed using questionnaires. We found that parents education level and parents PA levels are both indeed associated with the children´s PA: children of lower educated and less active parents have lower levels of PA. However, the relationships were gender and country-specific; in some countries the association was more apparent than in others and in some countries associations ere stronger for boys than girls or vice versa. In promoting PA among school-aged children, level of education of the parents and their PA levels should be taken into account.

What do adolescents think about active gaming?

Lack of physical activity and too much sedentary time are important risk factors for obesity and metabolic disease as well as a range of other health issues. Young people spend a lot of time in sedentary activities such as watching TV, computer and electronic gaming activities. Our recent cross-European study showed that in some countries 10-12 year olds spend up to more than three hours per day on 'screen activities', and in that study and a second paper we reported that children from lower educated parents and of foreign ethnicity have higher screen times. 'Active gaming' may be a good alternative to passive screen activities. Active video and electronic games require whole-body movement and may be an innovative tool to substitute sedentary pastime with more active time and may therefore contribute to adolescents' health. We are conducting a series of studies to test the potential mertits of active gaming for adolsecent health promotion. As a first step to inform strategies aimed at reducing sedentary behavior by replacing non-active with active gaming, perceptions and context of active and non-active gaming were explored in qualitative research using focus group interviews. The results were recently published in a scientific paper with Monique Simons as first author in the journal Games for Health.

The focus groups showed that adolescents had positive attitudes toward active gaming, especially the social interactive aspect, which was greatly appreciated. However, it appeared that many adolescents enjoyed non-active games more than active ones, mainly because of better game controls and more diversity in non-active games. Active games were primarily played when there was a social gathering. Few game-related rules and restrictions at home were reported.

Given the positive attitudes of adolescents and the limited restrictions for gaming at home, active videogames may potentially be used in a home setting as a tool to reduce sedentary behavior. However, to make active games as appealing as non-active games, attention should be paid to the quality, diversity, and sustainability of active games, as these aspects are currently inferior to those of traditional non-active games.

An updated systematic review on the effects of computer-tailored nutrition and physical activity education

In 2006 we published a review of the scientific evidence regarding computer-tailored health education to promote healthful nutrition an physical activity. A review update was necessary to document the more recent evidence from scientific research regarding the effectiveness of computer-tailored physical activity and nutrition education. The purpose of a new review study just published in Annals of Behavioral Medicine was to summarize the latest evidence on the effectiveness of computer-tailored physical activity and nutrition education, and to compare the results to the 2006 review.

Databases were searched for randomized controlled trials evaluating computer-tailored physical activity and nutrition education published from September 2004 through June 2011. Compared to the findings in 2006, a larger proportion of studies found positive effects for computer-tailored programs compared to generic or no health education, for nutrition as well as physical activity promotion. Effect sizes were, however, small and effects were generally only found at short- or medium-term follow-up, and evidence for effect were still mostly based on self-report measures of effects.

In conclusion, the results of the 2006 review were generally confirmed and reinforced; computer-tailored health education appears to be superior to generic or no health education.

A symposium on behavior change at the European College of Sport Sciences annual meeting

The last couple of days the European College of SportS Science met in Bruges for its annual meeting. Most of the program is indeed dedicated to science on sport and exercise, but there is also interest in physical activity and health. Related to the latter, Prof. Stuart Biddle of Loughborough University organised a symposium at the meeting on behavior change regarding physical activity and sedentary behaviors. I provided a talk on the determinants of physical activity behavior first. Then Prof Ilse de Bourdeaudhuij presented her research on the Ghent 10,000 steps program - an intervention to promote daily physical activities, promoting accumulation of the equivalent of at least 10,000 steps per day, and then Prof. Biddle presented his work on the Sedentary Time ANd Diabetes (STAND) project. The 10,000 steps Ghent studies are very impressive. Prof de Boudeaudhuij and her colleagues have studied the effects, the reach, implementation and adoption and have explored the cost effectiveness of this intervention, all with quite impressive outcomes. The program has been widely adopted and is a positive example of evidence-based promotion of physical activity.

Fatigue mediates the relationship between physical fitness and quality of life in cancer survivors.

In a study just published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sports, with Dr. Laurien Buffart as first author, we aimed to investigate whether fatigue mediates the association between physical fitness and quality of life in cancer survivors, i.e. to explore if cancer patients who are physically more fit have higher quality of life because of reduced fatigue .
We used data from an intervention study. The intervention was an 18-week exercise program for cancer patients consisting of high-intensity resistance and interval training. We assessed physical fitness - peak oxygen uptake and peak power output - self-reported fatigue and quality of life. 
We found significant associations between changes in physical fitness and global quality of life, between physical fitness and fatigue, and between fatigue and global quality of life. General fatigue strongly mediated the positive association between physical fitness and quality of life; our analyses further indicated that physical aspects of fatigue were stronger mediators than mental aspects.