Evaluation of the implementation of a national workplace sport and physical activity intervention [Abstract]

Evaluation of the implementation of a national workplace sport and physical activity intervention [Abstract

Evaluation of Living Streets' Walking Works Pathfinder Employers Scheme

Evaluation of Living Streets' Walking Works Pathfinder Employers Schem

Using CRISPR to Generate Integrated Ssa4-GFP Reporter Strains

Using CRISPR to Generate Integrated Ssa4-GFP Reporter Strains Emma Norman, Rebecca Adams, PhD Proteins play critical roles in numerous cellular processes. In order to synthesize these important molecules in eukaryotes, DNA is first transcribed into an intermediate molecule, mRNA, in the nucleus. The export of mRNA from its origin in the nucleus to the site of protein production, the cytoplasm, is an integral step in protein synthesis. When a cell is subjected to stress, such as heat shock, most mRNA export is halted, as export proteins are inactivated, and cellular machinery is redirected towards recovery. However, particular transcripts, including the Ssa4 transcript, are selectively exported for induced expression of the Ssa4 protein. The mechanism by which Ssa4 is exported is largely unknown. Therefore, the goal of this semester has been to insert GFP sequence into the endogenous genetic locus encoding for Ssa4 to make a series of strains that report on the selective export of the Ssa4 transcript. Using a plasmid that I previously generated that contains gRNA sequences for Ssa4 and PCR to generate GFP templates for HR-directed repair, I was able to successfully generate several reporter strains. These were initially phenotyped by fluorescent microscopy and have been confirmed by PCR. Future experimentation will aim to investigate the conditions that allow for selective Ssa4 export using the Ssa4-GFP fusions generated this semester

Understanding and promoting walking for transport in adults

BACKGROUND. The benefits of physical activity for physical and mental health and well-being are well evidenced. Despite this, a substantial proportion of the adult population in England do not meet current recommended guidelines for physical activity leading to a significant burden on individuals, health services and the economy. Strategies are needed which lead to sustainable increases in physical activity at the population level. Walking is a free and accessible behaviour which is acceptable to most people and can be incorporated into everyday activities. Walking for transport is a type of walking which is undertaken specifically to travel from one point to another to reach a destination. Gaining an understanding of behavioural and contextual influences on walking for transport is important to facilitate specificity in designing effective interventions. Evaluating both the implementation and effectiveness of interventions to promote walking for transport in real-world settings may help to improve interventions and determine how they can be implemented at scale to impact population levels of physical activity. The research in this thesis aimed to contribute to the evidence base relating to understanding the factors influencing and the promotion of walking for transport in adults to address the problem of how to increase population levels of physical activity to improve health and well-being. Eight research articles are presented which used data collected as part of three research projects: Impact of Constructing Non-motorised Networks and Evaluating Changes in Travel (iConnect), Walking Works and Fitter for Walking. RESULTS. The Transport and Physical Activity Questionnaire (TPAQ) was developed and its measurement properties for assessing different domains of physical activity were tested. It was found to be suitable for use in comprehensively assessing transport and physical activity behaviour with comparable reliability and validity to other similar measures. A new 13-item scale was developed to assess adults perceptions of the environment in the neighbourhood (PENS) in the UK context. This was found to have comparable reliability to other similar scales. Using PENS and TPAQ, walking for transport was found to be positively associated with perceptions of supportive infrastructure, availability of local amenities, and general environment quality in the residential neighbourhood. Walking to and from work was found to be positively associated with the perceived presence of convenient walking routes, suitable pavements, maintained pavements or convenient public transport in the workplace neighbourhood. Walking to and from work was also positively associated with employees who were aged <30 years, did not have a car, had no free car parking at work, were confident of including some walking or intended to walk to or from work on a regular basis, and had support from colleagues for walking. It was negatively associated with employees perceptions that they lived too far away from work to walk, walking was less convenient than using a car for commuting, they did not have time to walk, they needed a car for work, or they had always travelled the same way. In a community-based intervention to promote walking for transport, a wide variety of small-scale environmental changes were made which were led by local authorities (e.g. removal of encroaching vegetation, new/improved pedestrian signage, new dropped kerbs/kerb improvements, and new, repaired or improved footpaths) or by communities (e.g. planting bulbs, shrubs or bedding plants, clean-up days and litter pick-ups). Additional activities were undertaken to help increase awareness of the benefits of walking and promote the newly improved routes (e.g. led walks, themed walks, development of maps/resources and community events). After 12 months, there was a decrease in pedestrian route use overall and in four out of the five case studies where data collection took place. However, after 14-20 months there was an increase in pedestrian route use overall and in all case studies. Participants in the intervention perceived the main impacts to be improved physical and social environments. Implementing the intervention was found to be complex and required considerable resource and time. Processes required for implementation of the intervention were identified which included planning, preparation and delivery phases. Adaptability of the intervention to fit the local context was highlighted as being critical for successful programme delivery. In a whole-workplace walking to work intervention, no changes in walking behaviour were observed which may have resulted from barriers in using volunteer employee walking champions to deliver activities, the programme components not being delivered as originally intended, the types of activities which were delivered, and lack of awareness and participation by employees. CONCLUSIONS. A range of factors operating at different levels which influence walking for transport behaviour in adults were identified, confirming the need for specificity in studying both the behaviour and the contexts in which the behaviour is undertaken. Evidence is provided of the barriers and facilitators for implementing community-based and workplace interventions which aim to promote the behaviour. These should be addressed to maximise the effectiveness of interventions. Researchers, practitioners and policy-makers should take these research findings into consideration in the future design, planning and implementation of co-produced, multi-level interventions which aim to promote walking for transport. Future research should identify causal factors influencing walking for transport, improve intervention content and optimise intervention implementation. Researchers should address methodological limitations of work in this area, including the application of more rigorous study designs and the use of more reliable and valid measures of walking for transport and overall physical activity. Together this will maximise the potential impact of walking for transport interventions for promoting physical activity and improving health and well-being at the population level

Dilemmas of alienation in arts-based education research methods

We discuss the use of arts-based practices from our recent investigations into research methodologies, comparing the approaches of educators and doctoral students whose work has derived predominantly from their previous experience of arts-based practices with those who had no previous experience of such practices, but who nonetheless engaged with it for at least part of their research. All of our participants are professionals engaged with education backgrounds, such as doctoral students, teachers and gallery educators, and we explore some of the tensions arising between professional and arts-based practices, and discuss questions of the legitimacy and validity of these practices as perceived by our participants, with a critical focus on the feelings of scepticism and alienation that arts-based methods may generate for the inexperienced

Reconceptualizing imaginary friends: interdisciplinary approaches for understanding invisible companions

Imaginary friends or invisible companions are common features of cross-cultural childhoods. Research is primarily located in developmental psychology, where invisible companions are considered part of imaginary play. We argue for a reconceptualization of the core phenomenon, to one of regularly interacting with a person who is not normally perceptible to others, instead of uncritically adopting the dominant Euro-Western ontology of imagination. Analyzing the central experience through other branches of psychology, anthropology, religion, and spirituality shows that different fields are potentially discussing the same phenomenon, albeit obscured by disciplinary boundaries. We outline some implications of this new approach for the development of childhood studies

Engaging communities in changing the environment to promote transport-related walking: evaluation of route use in the ‘Fitter for Walking’ project

Promoting walking for transport may help to increase physical activity levels. Associations between the built environment and walking for transport have been well reported. Engaging communities in making small-scale changes to local routes is one potential low-cost strategy to improve neighbourhood environments. The purpose of this study was to evaluate changes in pedestrian use of local routes following environmental changes made by communities and local authorities (LAs) in the ‘Fitter for Walking’ (FFW) project, to assess route users’ awareness of the environmental improvements which were implemented and to make recommendations for future evaluation. FFW targeted deprived communities in twelve LA areas in England. Coordinators worked with communities and LA partners to improve local route environments based on identified barriers to walking. Route user counts and intercept surveys were conducted in five FFW case studies at baseline, 12 months and 14-20 months after the project activities had commenced. A wide range of environmental improvements were undertaken. After 12 months, there was a decrease in pedestrian route use overall (-19.4%) and in four case studies (range -42.1% to -10.4%). However, after 14-20 months, an increase in pedestrian route user overall (14.9%) and in all case studies (range 5.4% to 58.9%) was observed compared to baseline. Route users’ awareness of environmental improvements made to routes varied across case studies and was very low for some of the improvements which had been made. Engaging communities in making small-scale environmental improvements to key routes in local neighbourhoods may be an effective, low-cost strategy for increasing walking for transport. Increasing the number of people walking on newly improved routes may take a long time and require additional promotional initiatives. Evaluating these types of initiatives is challenging. These factors should be considered by health and transport professionals developing initiatives and by researchers interested in measuring behaviour change

Capturing Public Opinion on Public Health Topics: A Comparison of Experiences from a Systematic Review, Focus Group Study, and Analysis of Online, User-Generated Content.

BACKGROUND: Capturing public opinion toward public health topics is important to ensure that services, policy, and research are aligned with the beliefs and priorities of the general public. A number of approaches can be used to capture public opinion. METHODS: We are conducting a program of work on the effectiveness and acceptability of health promoting financial incentive interventions. We have captured public opinion on financial incentive interventions using three methods: a systematic review, focus group study, and analysis of online user-generated comments to news media reports. In this short editorial-style piece, we compare and contrast our experiences with these three methods. RESULTS: Each of these methods had their advantages and disadvantages. Advantages include tailoring of the research question for systematic reviews, probing of answers during focus groups, and the ability to aggregate a large data set using online user-generated content. However, disadvantages include needing to update systematic reviews, participants conforming to a dominant perspective in focus groups, and being unable to collect respondent characteristics during analysis of user-generated online content. That said, analysis of user-generated online content offers additional time and resource advantages, and we found it elicited similar findings to those obtained via more traditional methods, such as systematic reviews and focus groups. CONCLUSION: A number of methods for capturing public opinions on public health topics are available. Public health researchers, policy makers, and practitioners should choose methods appropriate to their aims. Analysis of user-generated online content, especially in the context of news media reports, may be a quicker and cheaper alternative to more traditional methods, without compromising on the breadth of opinions captured.This work is produced under the terms of a Career Development Fellowship research training fellowship issued by the NIHR to JA, grant number: CDF-2011-04-001. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, The National Institute for Health Research or the Department of Health. ELG is funded in part, and FFS is funded in full by Fuse: the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health and JA is funded in part by The Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR). Fuse and CEDAR are UKCRC Public Health Research Centres of Excellence. Funding for Fuse and CEDAR from the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, is gratefully acknowledged. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Frontiers via http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2015.0020

Mixed Methods Process Evaluation of a National Peer-Led Training Program to Increase Brief Advice on Physical Activity Given By Health Care Professionals

Introduction: Health care professionals are well-positioned to encourage physical activity. The Clinical Champions Physical Activity Training Program (CCTP) aimed to increase population-level physical activity across England. This study aimed to (1) evaluate CCTP uptake and utilization; (2) explore CCTP fidelity, barriers, facilitators, and satisfaction; and (3) provide recommendations for program improvement. Methods: Physical Activity Clinical Champions were recruited and trained to deliver training to other health care professionals about physical activity. The Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework was used to conduct a process evaluation using data collected from CCTP training sessions delivered (often at hospitals and General Practitioner surgeries) between February and December 2018. Results: About 509 training sessions were delivered, with 89% of sessions delivered by doctor/physician and nurse Clinical Champions; 8917 health care professionals attended a training session. Sessions lasted on average 1 hour 28 minutes and core slide sets were used in 65% of sessions. Barriers related to arranging the sessions and time available to deliver sessions. Conclusion: The process evaluation demonstrated a national peer-led training program can reach all geographical regions of England; however, barriers need to be addressed. Recommendations include providing more administrative support to the Clinical Champions, improving communication and advertising to raise awareness of the CCTP, and standardizing training session duration and content