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.

Immigrant families suffer high risk of child obesity

Children in families with non-native ethnicity are more likely to become overweight and obese, according to the results of a survey in seven European countries published in a scientific paper today in the journal Pediatric Obesity. This study was part of the ENERGY project on which I have reported here before.  While obesity levels are quite high to ver high among children across Europe, we found the levels are generally higher among children who have a non-native mother tongue, or whose parents who were born in another country.
We have found several possible causes of the difference between native and non-native families.The consumption of soft drinks tends to be higher in children from non-native families, and regular meals such as breakfast may get skipped more often. The children also watch more television and participate in less sporting activity. However, they do walk or cycle to school more often.
Cultural and lifestyle differences need to be set in the context of family resources, including skills and education but also financial resources and access to support and health information, we believe. Lower educational status is a risk factor for obesity in all communities, and is a contributory factor for these families.We should also recognise that the differences between native and non-native families is smaller than the differences between families in southern and northern Europe as we showed in an earlier publication. National factors matter more than immigration status.
Please click the following links for some press coverage in the Netherlands and Belgium of our study. http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2672/Wetenschap-Gezondheid/article/detail/3275023/2012/06/22/Immigrantenkind-kampt-vaker-met-overgewicht.dhtml http://www.rsscockpit.com/article.do?action=show&id=2162618889 http://www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/4492/Nederland/article/detail/3275023/2012/06/22/Immigrantenkind-kampt-vaker-met-overgewicht.dhtml?utm_source=RSSReader&utm_medium=RSS http://www.ad.nl/ad/nl/1012/Nederland/article/detail/3275071/2012/06/22/Kwart-allochtone-kinderen-is-te-dik.dhtml?utm_source=RSSReader&utm_medium=RSS http://drimble.nl/binnenlands-nieuws/9699342/immigrantenkind-kampt-vaker-met-overgewicht.html http://www.nu.nl/gezondheid/2841495/kinderen-van-immigranten-vaker-dik.html http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=DMF20120620_129 http://www.nieuwsbank.nl/inp/2012/06/22/T137.htm http://www.skynet.be/nieuws-sport/nieuws/belgie/artikel/889171/kinderen-uit-immigrantengezinnen-hebben-vaker-overgewicht?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign

Individual factors appear to be more important than environmental factors in predicting fruit consumption in adults

In a study just published in Public Health Nutrition, we explored individual determinants of fruit intakes, such as attitudes, intentions and habit strength, and neighbourhood environment (such as availability of fruit points of purchase in the neighbourhood) and home environment (such as home availability of fruit and modeling by family members) determinants of fruit intakes. We more precisely explored if individual factors mediated the possible influence of environments, i.e. that neighbourhood and home environments have an impact on fruit intake via attitudes and intentions as predicted by recent socio-ecological models for predicting health behaviors. We used the GLOBE study (led by Dr. Frank van Lenthe) data for our analyses. Our study showed that individual factors were more strongly related to fruit intake in this population of adults than neighbourhood or home environment factors; modeling by family members, i.e. family member providing a good example by eating ample amounts of fruit themselves, was a significant home environment factor. The influence of family members appeared to be mediated by habit strength and perceived behavior control. This means that adults with fruit eating family members had stronger habits and experienced more control regarding fruit intake.

A joint programming initiative for research to endorse a healthy diet for a healthy life

Today an international meeting was held in The Hague to communicate and discuss the strategic research agenda for a European joint programming initiative (JPI) 'A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life'. This JPI aims to realize joint programming of research across different countries in Europe to provide a road map for harmonized research efforts in the field of food, nutrition, health and physical activity. The strategic research agenda for this JPI comprises three main research areas:

1. Determinants of diet and physical activity
2. Diet and food production
3. Diet-related chronic disease

The next steps will be that the European Member states not only endorse this joint programming in theory, but also in practice by dedicating research funding to realize research into the prioritized areas. 

At the meeting in The Hague I had the honor to get the opportunity to address and reflect upon the first research area that aims at gaining better insights into the interplay between motivation, abilities and environmental opportunities in determining diet and physical activity behavior change.